ScholarMatch Saves 100+ Hours of Admin Work Per Year with the Classy and Zapier Integration
Mission
To support underserved first-generation college students from low-income backgrounds to earn a bachelor’s degree within five years
Challenge
Find a solution to automate the data transfer and reduce the hours spent per week manually downloading CSVs
Solution
The Classy and Zapier integration automates the export of all donation information in Classy into Airtable
“What used to take hours of manual work per week downloading CSV files, uploading them to our database, and cross-checking the input fields has been drastically reduced with the Classy and Zapier integration.”
– Francisco Prado, Program Data Analyst and IT Manager
Classy and Zapier Integration Results:
100+ hours
saved per year
1 Zap
to do everything ScholarMatch needs
It takes a village for first-generation college students, and they don’t always have the resources or community support required to get into and graduate from college. That’s where ScholarMatch comes in. Thanks to a community of over 500 volunteers who serve as college and career coaches, ScholarMatch reaches over 1,000 students nationwide per year, providing free virtual individualized advising, targeted financial support, and career mentoring from high school through college graduation.
Zapping Away Manual Data Entry
The ScholarMatch team needed a faster and easier way to export donation records and add them to their project management platform, Airtable. This process allowed the team to keep a historical record of all donations made on a Classy donation page. Previously, the process consisted of downloading the records into CSV files, uploading them to Airtable, and then confirming the information matched the input fields. This was all done manually and was extremely time-consuming for the team.
Having worked with Zapier, a code-free solution that enables end users to integrate with 6,000+ web applications, the team was familiar with the process of creating a “zap” and had 3-4 zaps already set up. However, this initial process wasn’t delivering the results the team needed, as it still required extra time to incorporate the fundraising data.
With the Classy and Zapier integration, ScholarMatch can now automate the export of donor data into Airtable and keep a real-time snapshot of all donations. The team found the integration extremely user-friendly.
The Classy and Zapier integration worked seamlessly. The setup was a breeze, and the data is flowing exactly as expected. Anyone who hasn’t worked with Zapier before would easily be able to set it up.
By streamlining simple processes and time-consuming workflows, the ScholarMatch team recouped 2+ hours per week (over 100 hours per year!), which can now be devoted to mission-critical activities. The integration also allows them to leverage data in the ways best suited to their organization, uniting their operations to personalize supporter experiences and scale fundraising.
What’s Next for ScholarMatch and Classy
Connecting the dots between their two systems allows ScholarMatch to seamlessly transport data from Classy to Airtable. This enables the data team to achieve efficiencies of scale so that they can focus on setting up even more first-generation college students for success.
As a result of the seamless transfer of historical data, ScholarMatch can effectively build workflows around their donor strategy, as well as avoid potentially costly errors. By ensuring that there is no loss of donor data during the data transfer, communication with supporters is both easier and more connected, allowing for a more data-driven approach to donor stewardship.
