6 Nonprofits That Scaled Their Impact With Program Tech (+1 free tool to help you join them)
Nonprofits are expected to spend $4.6 billion on fundraising technology in 2025 – a figure that has been rising steadily in recent years.
What would it look like if, over the next few years, we saw a similar investment in technology that helps us create more scalable programs?
The fundraising tech revolution is booming
When I started in the nonprofit sector in 2009, we had maybe three or four choices for nonprofit fundraising software or CRMs.
Today, companies offer everything from AI-powered donor prediction tools to automated fundraising systems that can customize exactly how to reach out to each supporter.
This technology creates incredible opportunities for raising more money – but are we getting equally better at turning those donor dollars into real, measurable impact?
My experience with program tech at CoachArt
I experienced firsthand how the right technology can transform a nonprofit's impact. At CoachArt, we launched the CoachArt Connect app in 2018, creating a self-driven process for volunteers to match with parents of children affected by chronic illness who wanted to learn art or athletic activities.
The results surprised even us: we cut the staff time needed to match a volunteer with a child from over 7 hours to under 7 minutes. Over the next five years, this led to a 384% increase in our annual lessons while reducing the average cost per lesson by 68%.
Examples of innovative program tech for different missions
Organization: The Last Mile
Category of mission: Prison rehabilitation and education
Why it’s included: A great example of online learning for a highly specific population
Program tech highlights:
Developed a custom-built remote instruction software and Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver educational programming into correctional facilities across the country.
Implemented a cloud-based infrastructure supporting a robust software suite, providing students with industry-standard tools such as VS Code, GitLab, MongoDB, and DevDocs.
Achieved an 85% employment rate for graduates within six months of release, with a recidivism rate of less than 4%
Organization: Team Rubicon
Category of mission: Disaster response and humanitarian aid
Why it’s included: One of the first really innovative, next-generation evolutions of a traditional model
Program tech highlights:
Implemented the "Roll Call" platform to streamline volunteer registration, training, and deployment processes.
Integrated Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service to optimize logistics, manage work orders, and enhance communication among volunteers during disaster response operations.
Launched a revised international volunteer recruitment system, including a new International Training and Selection Course, to better prepare volunteers for global missions.
Organization: Talent Transformation Foundation
Category of mission: Personal and professional development
Why it’s included: An org I didn’t even know about until the founder participated in the feedback process for the Proimpact community!
Program tech highlights:
Developed the "My Talents" app, offering 17 insightful quizzes to help users discover their interests, core values, personality traits, and hidden talents.
The app provides personalized reports with actionable insights, practical tips, and engaging exercises to enhance self-awareness and well-being.
Achieved a user base of over 500,000 individuals benefiting from the Foundation's assessments and resources
Organization: The Trevor Project
Category of mission: Suicide prevention and crisis intervention for LGBTQ+ youth
Why it’s included: An organization with savvy, modern branding and marketing, starting to use tech more and more
Program tech highlights:
Developed TrevorSpace, a free, secure, and affirming online community for LGBTQ+ young people aged 13 to 24, facilitating peer support and connection.
Leveraged AI to enhance crisis intervention services, improving response times and support quality for LGBTQ+ youth in crisis
Revamped digital accessible resources, including educational materials, crisis intervention tools, and a "Quick Exit" feature for user safety.
Organization: The Farmlink Project
Category of mission: Food waste reduction and hunger relief
Why it’s included: Founded by college students, a sign that the next generation really groks this stuff!
Program tech highlights:
Developed an online system to connect farms with surplus produce to food banks and communities in need
Rescued over 130 million pounds of food since its inception in 2020, providing more than 208 million meals to food-insecure families.
Honored with the 2023 Goalkeepers Global Goals Award by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for significant contributions toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Organization: Refugee Friend
Category of mission: Refugee support and integration
Why it’s included: A European example of a 2-sided marketplace app for good
Program tech highlights:
Developed a mobile app that enables local citizens to offer services such as shelter, water, food, sanitation, healthcare, and transportation to refugees in need.
Utilizes geolocation to display available helpers on a map, allowing refugees to identify and access nearby assistance efficiently.
Includes a distress button that sends an alert to all helpers within a 50 km radius, facilitating rapid response in urgent situations.
Introducing Proimpact ED-GPT: Your free program innovation partner
We gathered insights from the innovations above (and many more) to create a free custom GPT in the ChatGPT Store that helps you assess ways technology could make your program model more scalable.
The result is Proimpact ED-GPT: Scalable Program Models (v1).
Try it out by telling it the mission of your organization and it will ask you questions then brainstorm potential innovations for creating a more scalable model.
Together, we can create a future where nonprofits don't just raise more funds – but also turn those funds into impact more effectively than ever before.