Habitat for Humanity

Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity’s (TCHFH) mission is to eliminate poverty housing from the Twin Cities area and make decent, affordable shelter for all people a matter of conscience.

When it comes to organizing TCHFH’s extensive event and volunteer schedules, collaboration is key. When others do make changes in the event spreadsheets, it is essential that the whole team be notified.

Brian Juntti, Director of Marketing and Communications at Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, uses Smartsheet to manage a variety of marketing communications programs, from website updates to marketing campaigns.

"The type of work that is managed within the organization is broad - ranging from donor outreach and event planning to the construction of homes. Smartsheet enables us to stay informed at all times.“

Juntii recently expanded usage to include event management because Smartsheet automated key parts of the workflow. He leveraged Smartsheet’s Smartforms to collect RSVPs from hundreds of VIPs (board, major donors, sponsors, and public officials) for a week of events as part of the 27th Annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro in October 2010. The forms automatically populate the data in a Smartsheet where it then can be used at check-in and for follow-up donor cultivation.

“We have a very small team juggling hundreds of tasks,” said Juntti “The beauty of using Smartforms to collect all the RSVP info is that the attendees and the Smartsheet do the work for you.”

Additionally, the team sets alerts on specific rows so as information is changed, such as when volunteer photographers upload photos to a Smartsheet, team members are notified via email. “My staff can then post these pictures on the Website or on our social media sites immediately,” added Juntti. “It shaves off hours of time emailing them around.”