New system brings exciting opportunities to affordable home ownership organizations

Last week marked the launch of HomeKeeper at the National Community Land Trust Conference here in Seattle. HomeKeeper is an innovative Salesforce-based system that allows affordable home ownership organizations to track important program data. The project is a great example of both sector resource-sharing and building sustainable systems.

This project began over two years ago when NPower Northwest was approached by the forward thinking folks from the Northwest Community Land Trust Coalition, OPAL Community Land Trust on Orcas Island, Homestead Community Land Trust in Seattle, and Kulshan Community Land Trust in Bellingham. These organizations were struggling with management of the complex data required to run their programs. With such similar programs, the organizations recognized their common needs and wanted to build a system they could all use.

NPower worked to build the system for these three initial organizations with the shared long-term goal of expanding it to a wider scale. That goal became a reality with the involvement of NCB Capital Impact and the Cornerstone Partnership. With their support and leadership what started as system for three Washington state organizations has grown to be utilized by over a dozen organizations across the country. In 2012, there are plans to triple the number of organizations using the system.

A key benefit of having many organizations collecting the same core information is that a subset of the information is seamlessly transferred to a national sector performance database developed by Exponent Partners. This enables programs to compare themselves to their peers and contribute to the larger effort to measure the impact of the affordable home ownership program model. To ensure the program continues to grow, an affordable social enterprise funding model is in the final stages of development so that there continues to be user support and system enhancements. One key to this affordability is, of course, the generous 10 license donation that the Salesforce.com Foundation provides to qualified nonprofits.

Here’s a three minute video highlighting the system:

NPower is excited to be part of the development of this system. This project clearly demonstrates what a pivotal role technology can play in creating and advancing the greater good.

We’ll share more details in the coming months about the project process, the social enterprise model that will sustain it, and the positive impact it’s having on the organizations involved.

- Brad Struss