California Community Foundation Cuts Reporting Times from Hours to Minutes with Salesforce

Outgrowing Legacy Technology

For years, that work relied on Granted Edge, a legacy grant management platform running on on-premises infrastructure.

Large reports often required overnight processing, and resource-intensive queries could slow the system to a crawl. Month-end reporting had to be carefully scheduled outside business hours, with teams hoping jobs would complete successfully before the next workday.

“Running a query—specific large queries—had to be done after hours because it was going to bog down the system for hours. You could not run those in the morning because if you did, the whole team couldn’t use it for the rest of the day.”

-Dominic Lau, Director of IT

At the same time, CCF’s lean IT team was responsible for maintaining the platform’s infrastructure beyond software maintenance; this meant managing servers, uptime, monitoring, security, backups, and disaster recovery for a mission-critical system.

CCF needed a solution to address immediate performance issues while supporting its long-term technology goals.

Creating a Technology Foundation for the Future

CCF wasn’t simply looking for a replacement, they needed a platform that could support its mission today while providing the flexibility to adapt as technology and organizational needs evolved.

With a small but highly capable IT team, the organization needed to reduce its reliance on legacy infrastructure, improve system performance, and position itself for future growth. CCF also wanted a platform that could integrate with systems across the organization instead of creating another technology silo.

Throughout the engagement, Plative worked closely with CCF’s team to understand existing processes, align technology to organizational goals, and deliver a Salesforce solution that met immediate operational needs while supporting future growth..

“Leverage Plative’s expertise; don’t just use them as the mechanism to get there, but as the partner to help get there.”

-Dominic Lau, Director of IT

Turning Hours of Work Into Minutes

The most immediate benefit was speed. Reports that previously required hours to process can now be generated in minutes, allowing teams to access information when they need it rather than waiting for overnight jobs to complete.

The organization also eliminated concerns that users would slow down the system by running reports or performing routine tasks during business hours.

Teams can now access information when they need it without worrying about system slowdowns or failed overnight jobs.

“The same reports that used to take hours now run in a minute, and the ability to truly multitask in the system and not have to worry about the system being bogged down—that’s a huge win.”

-Dominic Lau, Director of IT

Reducing Risk and Simplifying IT Operations

For CCF, moving away from on-premises infrastructure delivered benefits beyond performance improvements.

Moving to Salesforce allowed CCF to retire on-premises infrastructure and reduce the operational burden on its IT team.

Instead of worrying about server maintenance, uptime, monitoring, hardware failures, or disaster recovery, the team can focus on strategic initiatives that move the organization forward.

For Lau, retiring another on-premises system marked an important step in CCF’s ongoing modernization efforts.

Preparing for What’s Next

While faster reporting and improved reliability delivered immediate value, the biggest impact may still be ahead.

Salesforce now serves as a central platform that can connect systems across the organization.

As CCF evaluates integrations with Workday, payment platforms, event management tools, advocacy solutions, and future technologies, Salesforce makes it easier to connect those systems and share information across departments.

“Now I’m like a kid in a candy store; we’ve got all these different options and things I can play with. The technological freedom it gives us to explore other platforms—that’s the exciting part.”

-Dominic Lau, Director of IT

For the first time, conversations about new integrations and connected experiences are not only possible, but they’re also expected. Before Salesforce, those possibilities were largely out of reach.

What began as a grant management project has become a platform that supports future growth and integration across the organization.