Foster the Family: Unified Case Management for Foster Care Support
Foster the Family
3,100
Hours Saved (Annual)
Eliminated manual tracking & coordination
↓ 55%
Placement Coordination
Faster volunteer matching
17
Families Recovered
Flagged during high-risk transitions
100%
Family Visibility
Complete support history per family
2
Years Partnership
Growing impact & reach
48
Staff Empowered
Across all programs
The Challenge
Foster the Family supports foster and adoptive families through training, community events, practical resources, and one-on-one mentoring. As the organization grew, their data infrastructure couldn’t keep up: family intake was tracked in one spreadsheet, volunteer matches in another, resource requests in email threads, and event attendance in a separate system. Staff couldn’t see what support a family had already received, leading to duplicated outreach and families slipping through gaps at critical moments.
Our Solution
We implemented Salesforce with NPSP (Nonprofit Success Pack) to create a unified record for every foster and adoptive family. Built intake workflows, volunteer matching automation, resource tracking, and event attendance logging — all tied to a single family profile. Created dashboards so staff can see at a glance which families are new, which are in crisis, and which haven’t been contacted recently. Integrated an automated follow-up system to ensure no family goes without contact during key transition periods.
The Results
Foster the Family now has a complete picture of every family they serve. Staff can see the full history of support provided in seconds. Volunteer matching time dropped 55% because the system surfaces the right volunteers based on location, experience, and family needs. Events are automatically cross-referenced with family records so engagement trends are visible. Most importantly: no families have fallen through the cracks since go-live — the automated follow-up system has flagged and recovered 17 families who had gone silent during high-risk transition periods.
We had the heart to help but not the systems to do it consistently. Now we know every family by name, by need, and by where they are in their journey. We’ve caught families in crisis who didn’t know how to ask for help. That’s why we do this work.
Jennifer Zeman
Executive Director, Foster the Family
About This Partnership
Foster the Family
Nonprofit
2 Years
Active engagement & optimization
48
Across entire organization
3,100 hours
Saved per year
FAQ
Your Questions Answered
How do you handle the sensitive nature of foster family data?
Data security is paramount. We implemented role-based access so each staff member only sees information relevant to their role. All family records are encrypted. We exceed HIPAA-like standards because these families deserve the highest level of privacy and trust.
How does volunteer matching work?
When a family needs support — whether it’s a meal train, a mentor match, or emergency childcare — the system filters volunteers by proximity, availability, and experience with similar families. Staff review the suggested matches and confirm. What used to take hours of phone calls now takes minutes.
How do you identify families who need proactive outreach?
We built a check-in cadence into Salesforce. Families who are newly placed, going through adoption finalization, or approaching key anniversaries receive automated flags for staff follow-up. If a family hasn’t had contact in 30 days, it shows up in a daily alert dashboard.
What does the reporting look like for leadership and funders?
Executive dashboards show families served, volunteer hours contributed, resources distributed, and program engagement over time. We generate funder reports in minutes instead of days. Leadership can finally tell their story with data — which has directly supported grant renewals and donor conversations.
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