Force for Good celebrates a decade of social impact powered by tech

Through dance marathons and other events, students from all over the country help raise awareness for childhood cancers and raise funds to support the mission of The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation. The nonprofit conducts childhood cancer research and provides financial and emotional support to patients and their families. As the organization corralled the passion of their students and donors, they collaborated with Force for Good on an initiative that would enhance the donor experience. The Force for Good team created an automated tagging system to categorize donors and integrated it into their donation management system, as well as personalized email communications for each tagged group. The project has made donor communication more sophisticated and helped donors recognize the impact of their contributions. It also identifies donors who could be interested in further involvement and helps the team reconnect with existing donors. Now, when donors give to The B+ Foundation, they are consistently appreciated and communicated with. The B+ Foundation shared, "Participating in Force for Good connected us with brilliant employees, taught us to look at problems differently, and introduced sophisticated solutions to connect with supporters in an automated, yet personal fashion."

According to Paint the Town REaD’s research, children are more likely to start school ready to learn when they are surrounded by a community that values and celebrates reading with them, as it fosters a child’s brain development and strengthens their early literacy skills. Paint the Town REaD helps children excel in early learning by reading, talking, singing, rhyming, and drawing with them from birth. In 2014, when the Australia-based grassroots organization was a fledgling charity, Force for Good built an evaluation system using survey forms and a manual to guide the system’s use and improvement. The solution opened doors to new opportunities, from empowering Paint the Town REaD with evidence-based outcomes for grant applications to saving staff hours by automating surveys. Now, staff could allocate more effort mentoring communities and working towards their mission.

Barbie Bates, Executive Director, shares “The Force for Good team were so patient and creative in the way they taught me. Nearly 10 years on, we are still using the formats and the manual!”

Lend-A-Hand India is a nonprofit organization that aims to make a difference in underserved communities by providing skills-based education to high school students. Since 2014, Lend-A-Hand India’s collaboration with Force for Good has been a journey of mutual learning and growth, one that has extended beyond tech for good. Their first project together consisted of Force for Good building a Customer Relationship Management system to track and engage student alumni. Since then, Lend-A-Hand India and Force for Good have built several data analytics capabilities and expanded their offerings to eight states across India. Most recently, FFG built data visualization and AI models for Lend-a-Hand India’s Pathways program. According to the nonprofit, the ongoing collaboration has resulted in an expanded alumni network, a direct and indirect impact on thousands of students, cost savings, and a 30% time-save for their staff. "It's a testament to what can be achieved when technology and social purpose converge," Raj Gilda, Co-Founder of Lend-A-Hand India, said.

In the wake of disaster, most of the attention is directed towards the immediate response: rescue efforts, medical care, and emergency supplies. The mission of All Hands and Hearts is to also address the long-term recovery needs of communities. Since 2015, All Hands and Hearts has collaborated with JPMorganChase's Tech for Social Good team on various projects, with their most recent being the development of an application that helped the nonprofit crowdsource real-time data that shaped their response strategy in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. They also participated in the firm’s Code for Good Hackathon program to prototype a mapping tool to automate funding allocations, allowing the foundation to use all their hands in the field, rebuilding schools and lives. These applications extended their capacity beyond their staff team, tapping into a broader network of information and contacts to enable timely decision making. The nonprofit reported monitoring coverage increased by 15% and reduced decision-making timelines by 20%, creating a lasting influence on All Hands and Hearts’ approach to secondary response.

The family foundation of a renowned basketball player is making a difference in the community that raised him. The LeBron James Family Foundation (LJFF) is dedicated to creating generational change for students and families in need of additional support in his hometown of Akron, Ohio through educational initiatives. Since 2016, the nonprofit has partnered with JPMorganChase’s Force for Good teams to change the game on how technology can drive impact across LJFF. The first project used CRM software to track future student cohorts of the I Promise Program, alleviating the need to manually track student data across spreadsheets. This sparked an ongoing collaboration that has led to new technological solutions for the nonprofit such as check-in apps, enhancements to CRM software, and a dashboard.

As the nonprofit expands their reach and impact, Force for Good is a trusted partner along the way. The organizations recently partnered to create the Village Dashboard to aid LJFF in tracking operations across their transitional housing for families in need of immediate shelter. "The JPMorganChase Force for Good team has changed the way we record information, the way we manage our time, and the way we serve our families,” a representative from the LeBron James Family Foundation said. “[Force for Good’s] technology, expertise, and partnership allow us to focus more on our work with families, which creates an even bigger impact on lives every single day." To read more about the impact of the partnership, click here.

Enable is a nonprofit dedicated to creating an equal society for every person who has a learning disability. Partnering with the Force for Good team has helped Enable expand its impact and better support its clients on their journey to paid work. In 2015 & 2016, Force for Good built The Enable Me app, to help their clients build travel skills and log their journeys on their phones, using video, text, and audio tailored to their individual needs. With over 5,000 downloads and a 65% increase in clients developing travel skills, the impact is significant. Enable shares, “The team took the time to understand us as an organization, our client group and their support needs. The team were so invested in making the project a success and we were incredibly proud to work with them.”

Nobel Prize Outreach inspires and spreads knowledge about the Nobel Prize, the Nobel Prize laureates and their achievements through various activities, such as digital publishing, events, podcasts and other international initiatives for a global audience. Over the past ten years, Nobel Prize Outreach has collaborated with Force for Good on various projects that have contributed to the organization’s technical growth and innovation. These projects have included a plethora of tech applications: a database visualization that attracts thousands of visitors annually, an API serving application with over 20 million visits per year, an analytics project that provides insights into Nobel Prize Outreach’s digital impact, and a graph database that enriches research, storytelling, and navigation, and more.

For their first Force for Good project, the team partnered with a nonprofit that was valued dearly by a JPMorganChase employee and her family, AEDIN. AEDIN provides education and rehabilitation services to children and young people with cerebral palsy and other developmental disorders, with the aim of improving their quality of life. The Force for Good collaboration brought to life an app called Expresate. Spanish for “express yourself,” Expresate helps children and teens with complex communication needs a find way to access written communication by providing them a personalized on-screen keyboard with pre-set words. Bernardita, member of the Augmentative-Alternative Communication team, views the Force for Good collaboration as a display of “beautiful human treatment,” appreciating how the team attentively listened to the needs of the children and the organization to create an impactful solution. Expresate has been a new way for children to connect and engage with others. It has had a multiplying effect in the lives of over 100 AEDIN children and adolescents in Argentina and neighboring countries and has also served as a training tool for new professionals within the Education and Rehabilitation space.

The Ballymun community was facing an increasing unemployment rate, affecting local housing, individuals’ well-being, and their overall livelihood. As a community response to the chronic unemployment situation, the Ballymun Job Centre was created to provide career guidance and employment support in disadvantaged areas. In 2018, Force for Good collaborated with the Ballymun Job Centre to digitize paper-based questionnaires used by the nonprofit to measure client progress in areas such as hope, self-esteem, and distance traveled towards employment. Through their new digitized system, the nonprofit could transcribe client satisfaction and employment impact and use this to support funding efforts. The project was even recognized by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, during a visit to the Ballymun Job Center. “[Force for Good] gave us a tool that is easy to use, can demonstrate the value of the work that we do, and that the funding we receive is used to achieve benefits for the people using our services,” Mick Creedon, Ballymun Job Centre’s General Manager, said of the collaboration. Today, the center uses the questionnaires with over 1,500 career services clients and has contributed to successful tender bids and high-quality audit scores.

Splash Foundation, or “Splash,” a Hong Kong-based charity, partnered with Force for Good to develop a swimming class registration system on CRM software. Prior to the project, Splash faced challenges with manual registration processes and inconsistent communication. The Force for Good team worked closely with Splash to understand their needs and customized the system accordingly, including transitioning their historic data to the system. The solution has allowed Splash to efficiently track beneficiaries, manage enrollments, assess results, and make data-led decisions. The following year, Force for Good helped Splash expand their database to include volunteer tracking. Using the learnings of the two Force for Good cycles, they independently tackled the third component of donor management on their own. Through the solution, Splash now manages twice the number of beneficiaries. "They treated us like a client, which doesn’t always happen when you are getting a service for free,” a Splash representative said. “No detail was too small, and they worked really hard to deliver us a product that we were genuinely happy with.”

Howard University's involvement in Force for Good exemplifies the program's success in fostering meaningful partnerships. The collaboration resulted in the development of a web-based dashboard specifically tailored for the university community. This dashboard allowed real-time tracking of the implementation progress of Howard Forward, the university's five-year strategic plan, and facilitated the recording and submission of contributions from faculty, staff, students, and administrators. What gets measured makes progress, and the project provided a well-defined roadmap for successful implementation and sustaining departmental goals aligned with the strategic plan. This structured process led to time savings, increased participation, and a heightened sense of excitement surrounding the execution of the plan. It also enhanced visibility and awareness of the strategic pillars across the entire university community, ensuring broader understanding and embrace of the plan's goals and initiatives. The collaboration with Force for Good fostered a sense of unity, shared purpose, and collective responsibility within the university community. “The experience was not only professionally fulfilling but also exceptionally enjoyable, exciting, and rewarding,” a Howard University representative said. “Working hand-in-hand with the talented individuals comprising the Force for Good team was a pleasure, as their expertise and dedication were evident throughout the entire collaborative process.”

As the pandemic closed the doors to the world for public safety, the National Veterans Memorial & Museum looked to open the doors to a digital world of remembrance. The National Veterans Memorial & Museum mission is to share the stories and journey of the American Veteran to lead a national conversation about the impact of the selfless acts of service and sacrifices of veterans and their families. In response to the pandemic, the nonprofit partnered with the Force for Good team to pivot its programs and resources to virtual platforms.

Different from other museums, The National Veterans Memorial & Museum focuses on the individual's experience rather than on artifacts. Staying true to that vision, the Virtual Exhibit Hall was established to showcase compelling stories of service and sacrifice, as well as support aspiring small business owners. The Force for Good team developed an online form for veterans and their families to submit videos, audio, images, and other files, which were then stored and managed by the museum. The Virtual Exhibit Hall allowed the museum to share and uplift the stories of veterans and their families, making them readily accessible to visitors and guests. Through the project, The National Veterans Memorial & Museum expanded its awareness and built a brand beyond Ohio while positively impacting lives.

For more than 90 years the RAF Association has been there for the RAF community, providing help and support to serving personnel, veterans and their families. Whatever their need, the RAF Association ensures that those who have given so much on our behalf are able to lead the dignified, fulfilled and independent lives they deserve. The Force for Good team came in to help the RAF Association quickly adapt its services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the goal of reducing the sense of loneliness and isolation many were feeling. The charity’s goal was to expand its ‘face to face’ program, which, prior to the pandemic, successfully matched volunteers with veterans across the UK to provide companionship. By combining it with an emergency solution, the nonprofit would transform its program into a long-term sustainable welfare service. The Force for Good team helped the RAF Association create a WordPress site that could exist into their built-in system, working closely with them to polish the website’s design and layout to include adjustments for users on mobiles and tablets. The site also provided all the necessary information about the charity, its volunteer programs, and how to get involved.

“HITEC is proud to recognize JPMorganChase & Co. as this (2023) year’s Corporation of the Year for their ongoing commitment to our community and to HITEC’s mission and work,” said HITEC President Omar Duque. “JPMorganChase & Co. played a critical role in the redevelopment of the HITEC website, providing thousands of hours in pro bono services to help create a more seamless user experience.” A proud moment for JPMorganChase & Force for Good for having been selected as the 2023 HITEC Corporation of the Year for exemplary leadership and commitment to HITEC and the Hispanic community. Force for Good, through its Design Edition, teamed up with HITEC to assess, analyze and enhance their overall digital presence. The Force for Good team provided assistance on conducting groundwork from a design standpoint, including heuristic reviews, persona maps and brand reviews to ensure the foundational design of their new website was strong, and followed by wireframing and the actual website migration. HITEC saw an increase of 57% web traffic on their new website, going from 28k to 44k visitors over the year. Beyond Force for Good, JPMorganChase has been a partner to HITEC since 2019, providing contributions through their leadership and mentoring programs. HITEC’s mission is to accelerate the power and impact of Hispanic technology leaders, achieving lasting equity from the classroom to the boardroom.

Nearly a decade ago, Mantra4Change embarked on a mission to transform public education in India, aiming to drive sustainable improvements in 2.5 lakh schools by 2025. With the support of the Force for Good program, Mantra4Change addressed challenges related to scale, quality, and urgency in the Indian education system, which consists of 250 million school-going children and a network of 1.5 million schools. The Force for Good team streamlined Mantra4Change’s monitoring and evaluation process for data analysis. This collaboration resulted in well-organized data, seamless visualization, and ease of navigation through large datasets. Mantra4Change reduced the time spent on monitoring and evaluation by 86% and decreased manual effort for data analysis by 66%. The project empowered Mantra4Change to utilize data effectively and bring evidence-based change to the education leadership space. "The Force for Good team has been a great help in envisioning the whole process," Rucha Pande, Chief Operations Officer of Mantra4Change, said.

According to Tarrant to and Through Partnerships, roughly 65% of jobs in Tarrant County (Texas) today require a postsecondary credential, yet only 39% of residents possess an Associate degree or higher, and many families lack a full understanding of fields of study and available career options. To fill this education to employment gap, Tarrant To and Through Partnership (T3) aims to ensure students have the skills and training they need to thrive in today's workforce. The Force for Good team partnered with T3 to develop its new T3 Pathways to Careers digital platform, including a Return on Investment (ROI) calculator that shows the various career paths and calculates associated income potentials, allowing students and families to explore and create their own pathways to industry-based credentials, degrees, and certifications. The increased exposure to new career opportunities allows the student to make a choice that will likely impact their livelihood. Based off of their work with Force for Good, T3 has been motivated to build more features into the platform and make it accessible to all school districts in Tarrant County. “The platform wouldn’t be what it is today without the hard work and creativity of the Force for Good team,” Natalie Young Williams, Tarrant To and Through Partnership Executive Director, said. JPMorganChase also made an additional philanthropic investment of $750K to fund T3’s digital workforce pipeline platform that would further amplify its impact and reach.

Force for Good partnered with Feeding Hong Kong to optimize its inventory management system and streamline its order picking processes. As an organization that has saved over 6,000 tons of good food from landfills and 13 million kgs in CO2 emissions since 2011, having technology instilled in Feeding Hong Kong’s day-to-day operations was critical to scale their impact. “We can now better allocate our manpower and resources and better maintain the tracking of the donations to be reliable,” a Feeding Hong Kong representative said. “This experience of working with a group of professionals also gave our staff members the opportunity to witness how developers navigate and implement technical changes, equipping us with better knowledge for future system development. We are impressed by the team’s professionalism in effectively addressing our pain points.” The solution saves staff at Feeding Hong Kong 20% more time in managing shipping orders and inventory records. It also saved them hundreds of dollars in vendor fees which they are hoping to redirect towards the mission of fighting hunger and reducing food waste in Hong Kong.

Rise Infinity Foundation was founded with the goal of creating a more responsible, inclusive, sustainable, and eco-friendly society. The organization approached Force for Good with a data processing and management challenge, impacting their engagement and relationships. Rise Infinity Foundation wanted to build a platform to engage participants for their flagship event, aiming to bring together 5,000 participants from 975 cities globally. The Force for Good team helped save Rise Infinity Foundation significant development and agency costs by working with them on this platform. The platform allows for collaboration and ideation at scale, empowering Rise Infinity Foundation to reach 1 million people globally. "The designed tech intervention will allow us to have more control over data, plan targeted interventions with larger impact, and bring together 10 years' worth of PECO community built through the RISE World Summit," Deepak Nanda, Senior Impact Manager at Rise Infinity Foundation, said.

National Literacy Trust believes that literacy is for everyone and their mission is to empower people from disadvantaged communities with the literacy skills they need to succeed in life. They work in schools and with communities across the UK to help people change their life stories. Together, they are working to create a fairer society. To help achieve this goal, National Literacy Trust partnered with Force for Good to address challenges with their online donations platform, which was originally static and limited in design, making it difficult to customize for individual giving campaigns. The Force for Good team designed and deployed a new microsite with enhanced data modeling and donor stewardship. Through this solution, the organization expects to see greater campaign deployment speed, improved user experience, cost savings, increased revenue, and clearer donor insights. “JPMorganChase’s digital expertise has enabled the charity’s team to refine and enhance our individual giving platform,” The National Literacy Trust said. “The team here also benefited from the experience and expertise that the Force for Good team were more than willing to share throughout the process."

Founded in 1991 as an organization serving Argentina’s Jewish community, Fundación Tzedaká provides comprehensive social, educational, and health programs to thousands of Argentines who live in risky or vulnerable living conditions and offers the country’s only aid program to Holocaust survivors. Force for Good collaborated with Fundación Tzedaká to develop an interactive web platform for the organization’s “Godparents” sponsorship program, allowing individuals to financially sponsor and nurture a child’s development through the Foundation’s education programs which follows students from kindergarten to university. The platform allows the sponsor to track the child’s progress and provides transparency on how the sponsor’s donations are contributing to the child’s future. It also provides a deeper sense of connection and trust with its donors who can see how their donations are making a direct impact and providing for a brighter future for youth.