“By partnering with us to build a custom Salesforce-based grants management system, ImagineCRM has allowed us to manage our grants accurately and efficiently and focus on our mission to drive lasting impact in the Global South.”

— Gurgen Balasanyan

Introduction

Co-Impact brings together local changemakers and funders from around the world to make health, education, and economic systems stronger and more inclusive—creating lasting impact. Our commitment to advancing gender equality and women’s leadership is central to this goal. We asked Gurgen Balasanyan how working with Salesforce and ImagineCRM has changed their organization.

**The Challenge**

Before implementing Salesforce, Co-Impact faced significant operational challenges:
Reliance on spreadsheets for data management was time-consuming and complicated, as they needed to be constantly updated with new information and checked for accuracy. For a fast-growing organization that received constant new data, this operating model wasn’t sustainable long term.
A fast-growing team focused on impact needed a solution that could be accessed and used globally by anyone at any time.

“Managing data was a significant challenge. Keeping spreadsheets updated and intuitive for the team was incredibly time-consuming. As we grew, the number of grants and contracts we managed also increased, making our spreadsheet-based system untenable.”

— Gurgen, Associate Director of Operations at Co-Impact

**Choosing Salesforce and ImagineCRM**

Co-Impact needed a comprehensive digital transformation to meet its growing needs. After a detailed assessment and analysis of available systems and partners, it chose Salesforce for its integrated solution capabilities and ImagineCRM as its implementation partner for its specialized expertise and alignment with its mission.
**Gurgen explained,** “Salesforce stood out because it could provide an integrated solution for our CRM, funding opportunity management, and grants management needs. ImagineCRM, a women-led organization, aligned with our values of promoting women's leadership, provided the specialized and verifiable expertise we needed to understand our work and build a system that was reflective of our design principles, policies, and procedures.”

The Solution

ImagineCRM tailored Salesforce to meet Co-Impact’s unique requirements:

CRM Build: Integrated contact management with Outlook, Slack, Box, and Mailchimp for seamless data management.
Funding Opportunity Management: Managed the funding opportunity pipeline, tracking prospects and engagement with the funding community.
Grants Management: Manage active grants, generate and sign grant agreements, manage ongoing grants, and ensure compliance with internal policies and external regulations.
Contracts Management: Streamlined process to submit contract requests, capture approvals, and track payments and invoices.
Affiliations and Conflicts of Interest Management: Tracking staff and board affiliations to identify and effectively resolve potential conflicts of interest.

The Impact

The implementation of Salesforce had a transformative impact on Co-Impact's operations:

Time Savings: Automating processes saved countless hours, allowing the team to focus on their mission.
Improved Data Visibility: Centralized data management enabled the visibility and easy access needed to inform the team's work.
Enhanced Decision-Making: Detailed reports and real-time dashboards provided critical insights, informing decisions and tracking progress towards the organization’s strategic objectives.
Scaling Globally: Growing from a team of 6 to over 40, spanning five continents, has enabled the Co-Impact team to use Salesforce to scale their work while they strive to create more inclusive societies and improve millions of lives.
Global Accessibility: We can all use one system, which means that it’s also accessible to everyone on our team who works across time zones and continents. We can now ensure that everyone has equal access to the system to do their best work.

Gurgen noted, “Salesforce has been a game-changer. It has saved us time and improved data visibility and compliance. Having all our data in one place allows for easy access and reporting, which was previously impossible with spreadsheets.”

**Looking Ahead**

Co-Impact continues to leverage Salesforce to scale its impact and drive meaningful change. It is currently working on grant pre-award diligence and will then move to impact tracking, bringing all grantmaking processes into Salesforce.

Gurgen concluded, “Our partnership with ImagineCRM has been transformative, enabling us to have a centralized system for our various processes and inform our work. We look forward to exploring new solutions and continuing our journey together.”

**Accelerating Women’s Leadership and Advancing Gender Equality**

Co-Impact’s success story highlights the team's remarkable journey from managing operations with spreadsheets and multiple systems to leveraging Salesforce to create lasting impact. Their partnership with ImagineCRM has been key to their success with Salesforce, providing the expertise and support needed to build a custom solution that is flexible and grows with them. This transformation streamlines their operations and supports their mission to advance gender equality and women's leadership, which we are so proud to be a part of as a minority-owned, female-owned business!

Let’s Connect!

To find out more about the work of Co-Impact, visit their website, and follow them on LinkedIn.

If you’d like to talk with the ImagineCRM team about your needs, please send us an email. Also, follow us on Instagram for all the latest news and updates. We can’t wait to meet you!