Arts Corps: How a Good Database Helps Foster Creative Habits of Mind

Arts Corps is a regional leader and national force in arts education, bringing a range of artistic expression to young people in schools and community settings in the Seattle area. Sounds fun, and there’s more to it than finger paint. One of the building blocks of Arts Corps' philosophy is the importance of fostering creative habits of mind – higher level thinking skills that shape how we respond to challenges and new situations. Those habits include imagining possibilities, thinking critically, exercising persistence and discipline, courage and risk-taking, and reflection. Education experts have found that student learning advances more rapidly when these habits are practiced.

Arts Corps imbeds creative habits of mind in all of its classes, from breakdancing and Brazilian drumming to digital media, theatre and varied forms of visual expression. And imbedded in Arts Corps’ business practices is a Salesforce CRM (Constituent Relationship Management) database that the staff has used since 2006 to record student enrollment, track attendance, keep the online class calendar updated, and maintain donor records.  “We grew 45 percent in two years, and the database was an important factor in supporting that growth,” says Leslie Collins, Arts Corps Deputy Director. “Salesforce helped us to imagine possibilities for being more efficient and effective. It has really transformed how we do business.”

The Challenge

When Collins joined Arts Corps in 2005, they had a database for managing class enrollment but it wasn’t meeting the organization’s needs. “The database took information in but it didn’t give much back, and was not user-friendly,” Collins recalls. “We had to call our database consultant to run reports, which meant paying him and having a time delay.” In addition, the organization had a separate system for tracking attendance that didn’t “talk” to the enrollment database, leading to added steps, more staff time and more room for error when preparing reports.

The Solution

Arts Corps’ committed, energetic staff knew there had to be a better way. To move things along, Collins brought NPower Seattle in to provide a menu of solutions to their database woes. NPower facilitated a requirements review, basically a series of conversations about their business practices to determine what type of database could best meet their business needs. Based on that conversation NPower presented a range of options which included Salesforce. “Salesforce was the intriguing outlier at the time,” remembers Collins. “It was new on the scene and, although it was a risk, it potentially offered a lot of functionality combined with low cost.”
Arts Corps decided to take the risk on Salesforce in 2006, and Collins says it has paid off. However, it wasn’t always easy being an early adopter. Arts Corps navigated a different landscape without the benefits that are available now, like a more active application exchange program, the nonprofit users’ group that NPower facilitates, and NPower’s increasing expertise in Salesforce customization for nonprofits. What helped them through was NPower’s excellent guidance and advice. “If everyone could have a database consultant like we had from NPower, the world would be a better place,” asserts Collins. “He always comes back with answers, and encourages us to consider new ideas and possibilities.”

Once the Salesforce project was complete, Arts Corps had money left in the budget to add a web integration piece as well. The resulting online calendar of classes is driven by data in Salesforce, with the advantage of a clearer presentation on the website. Collins observes, “The online calendar and class catalog is a great service to our students and has improved our internal processes tremendously.  Staff no longer has to spend time on the phone explaining information about our classes because everything can easily be found online.  An unanticipated result is that the web calendar has become the point of reference for teaching artists and staff as well. It’s where we all look now to quickly find a current class schedule or partner location.”

The Impact

Rapid access to needed data was the first thing Arts Corps staff noticed once Salesforce was in place. Collins recalls, “Those reports we used to struggle with became a snap to produce. The essential information we needed for operations and decision making, whether a mailing list or stats on program usage, were suddenly just a click away.”

As an important element of Arts Corps’ plan to build organizational capacity, Collins believes that the Salesforce database contributed to a 45 percent growth in student enrollment over two years by freeing up staff time to support programming. “Thanks to the web integration piece, people can look online for the information they need. That has greatly reduced the number of calls we take at the office, freeing up staff time and energy.”

The online information also includes teaching artist biographies and profiles of partner organizations, providing a rich resource for Arts Corps’ supporters. “It’s amazing how the database and the web integration have enabled us to share information that then becomes part of the story of who we are and the difference we make in the community. Our donors and prospective donors can see the actual results of what we’re doing. The benefits of the Salesforce database have been far reaching. We are a better, stronger organization today because of the work NPower did with us in 2005 and 2006.”