No Code, No Problem

The analogy that Leah Lizarondo likes to use for Food Rescue Hero is describing it as DoorDash for food surplus. The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania- based nonprofit’s platform is used by food rescue organizations in 25 cities where charities download as an app.

Nonprofits that license the app become a mini-Door- Dash in their cities, coordinating pick-ups and drop-offs. The app mobilizes volunteer drivers to go from one place to another while the nonprofit serves as the dispatch.

The rise of no-code tools has opened the door for small charities like the 7-year-old Food Rescue Hero, a turnkey solution that’s downloaded as an app by food rescue charities.

Without the Food Rescue Hero platform, organizations would have to build their own app, which is expensive, or use texting and emails to manage it all, said Lizarondo, co-founder and strategic advisor. Most nonprofits don’t have their own IT or if they do, they have a network administrator and not their own software engineer. The charities pay a sliding scale fee depending on size and volume. Food Rescue Hero can white label the app to each nonprofit, which can also add on other features. “If you want your own branded app, that’s definitely a higher level of engagement with us,” Lizarondo said.

The rise of no-code tools has opened the door for small charities like the 7-year-old Food Rescue Hero.

“There’s a lot of automation to working with data that I think is a big game changer for nonprofits,” said Brian Perron, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. “It’s not going to completely replace coding but there’s definitely a place for them,” he said. Perron added that within the past year and a half they’ve been gaining a lot more traction and relevance to the nonprofit sector.

With no-code tools, you build practical solutions for a given problem, Perron said, piecing together different modules of different code so it allows you to build your tools without needing to be able to write code. “If you have an idea and a background in code, it becomes natural: just grab these different modules to snap together,” he said.

“People in the nonprofit sector, this is our bread and butter: Finding ways to finagle these systems to do what we want without actually building something new. That’s what we do. That’s what we’re good at: ‘MacGyvering’ our systems,” said Amy Sample Ward (they/them), CEO at NTEN in Portland, Oregon.

“Where we see the most ad hoc, on-the-fly, is disparate systems getting set up and using some of these tools to basically build the connections between the other existing systems,” they said. “That’s what the no- and low-code tool set is: something that exists, where they’ve already written the two plugs and you just plug them into your tools.”

Goodwill Industries International (GII) uses several types of no-code development tools including a shared service case management system, enabled by CaseWorthy, and a centralized web site platform, Goodwill™ Exchange, enabled by LifeRay, according to Ceri Danheux, chief information and technology officer.

The CaseWorthy case management system is used by more than 30% of the Goodwill member network. “We have Goodwill members who serve participants of our workforce development and other support services who come from all walks of life — youth in foster care, individuals who are involved in the justice system, and individuals who may be a victim of sexual assault,” Danheux said. “This case management solution can be leveraged by the network of Goodwill members and customized to support each unique business process of each member and customized on the front end without using code.”

Caseworthy allows the network of Goodwill members to save time in intake processing by 50% which can be dedicated to facilitating Goodwill’s mission. It also improves data quality and compliance reporting and allows seamless data capture relevant to unique programs, exposure of the needs of the communities served and visibility for potential grant or other financial opportunities, and the ability to create compliance reporting automatically, according to Danheux. The availability of a world-class leveraged solution would otherwise be out of financial reach for an individual Goodwill member.

The implementation and support design are unique for a nonprofit, according to Danheux. “We have a foundational business model which is customized for each Goodwill member. We offer both a web-based solution and local application installation.” The GII foundation allows GII to automate network wide reporting, and to offer best practices — such as the Opportunity Accelerator (OA) program, which assists job seekers with obtaining employment, building skills, and advancing their careers.

GII’s Goodwill™ Exchange is a centralized website platform that empowers Goodwill employees and board volunteers to stay connected, access tools that foster collaboration, and collectively strengthen the power of the Goodwill network.

“This no-code technology platform also allows us to rely on staff and not external vendors to update our content and enables us to be nimble with requests from either our members or our employees.”

Nonprofit managers can do a better job of understanding workflows, how they receive data and how it gets stored and prepared, where bottlenecks happen, Perron said. “Using these tools facilitates these processes, solving problems to make things more efficient, allowing people to use their content expertise to make decisions,” he said.

Too often, however, Perron said managers jump to the software and don’t address the problem they wish to solve. “You have to be very clear on the problems you are trying to solve and measure your success in achieving those goals. Don’t start with the software. What are the biggest problems you’re facing?”

With more sophisticated tools, like Microsoft’s Power BI, there’s no expectation that to use it one must be certified or be a technologist. “You could take all those spreadsheets and connect to Power BI and now you’re getting the display and more analysis,” Sample Ward said.

Creating websites quickly has always been external facing, using platforms like Wix or WordPress, while other pieces often have been internally viewed and used. Now there are more platforms that are external facing, like Google Data Studio or Microsoft’s Power BI, and using graphics publicly.

As always, integration is the name of the game. Organizations often spend money on different systems but then don’t have a good way to pass that information between them — which is where no- and low-code tools come in. Zapier is a popular no-code solution that can integrate WordPress to Google Calendar or Salesforce, helping to track in-person registration for a nonprofit event or sending calendar invites. It’s all about automation to allow employees to focus on other things.

“We constantly look for the ability to integrate, looking at APIs, how does one software integrate with others,” Lizarondo said. “It’s a choice between what you want to customize. The more code you can put into a software, the more customization you can do. Those are the choices that you have really.”

Sample Ward pointed to things like real-time data, maps and resource lists that organizations put together during COVID, because it was such an emerging topic and a priority for their community. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping technology is not something most people know but you don’t have to know how to do longitudinal markings to drop a pin and build a Google Map that’s public and explore and add to it. “That’s an area that’s been cool over the years, how organizations have used it and let their community members add to the map,” Sample Ward said.

Some low- and no-code tools don’t require you to have 501(c)(3) status or apply for a nonprofit discount. “A lot of no- and low-code tools are for anybody to use,” Sample Ward said, making them more accessible to a mutual aid effort or grassroots campaign. Maybe these are the tools that are able to nimbly grow with a community in different ways, rather than a big price that requires you to be a nonprofit and sign all those contracts.”

Mark Hrywna formerly was senior editor of The NonProfit Times.