One Rubicon, One Platform: How One Nonprofit is Scaling with Salesforce

Breaking Free from a Broken System

Every hour lost to clunky systems is an hour not spent serving someone in need, and that has real human consequences. Over the years, as technology advanced and organizational needs evolved, Rubicon adapted by tailoring tools and implementing new platforms. Their team became experts at making things work. But recently, growing costs and complexity signaled it was time for a major overhaul.

“In our old system, each program was siloed, with its own separate procedures and structures. It was difficult to create efficiencies, like enabling programs to share data and procedures.”

– Rick Wood, Director of Organizational Impact, Rubicon Programs

Like so many human services nonprofits, Rubicon Programs ran their entire operation on a legacy tool called Exponent Case Management. While this was the gold standard a decade ago, it was no longer flexible enough to respond to today’s challenges, and progress was being stifled. Rubicon made the decision to fast-track a migration to Salesforce’s new Nonprofit Cloud native case and program management tool, and they turned to Plative for help.

One Salesforce Platform: One Rubicon

The goal was clear, transition Rubicon to Salesforce in under six months to avoid managing and paying for two disparate platforms simultaneously. Plative got to work fast.

The project focused on flattening Rubicon’s case and program management structure, allowing their vision of One Rubicon to finally come to life. Instead of segmented systems for each program, everything would now live in one cohesive environment.

“With the new structure, our system is working for us instead of against us again. It supports our integration efforts and is flexible enough to evolve with us.”

– Rick Wood, Director of Organizational Impact, Rubicon Programs

Built for Change, Designed to Grow

One of the most complex parts of the implementation involved redesigning how Rubicon manages its intricate network of government contracts. Plative worked closely with the team to develop a custom-ized solution that simplified contract handling without sacrificing data integrity or flexibility.

Their new Salesforce platform not only supports programmatic reporting across the organization but empowers staff to access—and even build—their own dashboards and reports.

“We want everyone here to not just use the system, but to innovate on it.”

– Rick Wood, Director of Organizational Impact, Rubicon Programs

A Partnership That Delivered

The Rubicon team praised Plative for their speed, dedication, and deep listening throughout the engagement. From data expertise to project management, the Plative team became an extension of Rubicon’s own staff. 

And ultimately, Salesforce was deployed on time and under budget. 

“Our project lead was incredible. She truly understood our challenges and worked through them with empathy and focus.”

– Rick Wood, Director of Organizational Impact, Rubicon Programs