Parks and Recreation Ontario

About the Charity

Parks and Recreation Ontario (PRO) is the professional association for recreationists across Ontario, Canada. Representing municipal leaders, nonprofits, and private sector providers, PRO offers education, training, and advocacy. Its flagship program, HIGH FIVE®, sets national standards in quality assurance for children and older adult recreation, training coaches and leaders across Canada.

Turning Eight Systems into One Seamless Experience and Scaling Without Increasing Headcount

As PRO and HIGH FIVE® grew, their operations became increasingly complex. Staff were juggling eight disconnected systems, hundreds of spreadsheets, and manual processes that consumed valuable time. Salesforce offered a way to unify operations, prevent internal duplication, and improve data quality. Partnering with Passion Fruit Partners, PRO transformed its processes into one scalable, automated system, enabling the team to work smarter and focus on growth.

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Pain Points

8 Systems Used At Once:

Including SmartSheet, custom databases, and two learning management systems.

Manual Workload and Inefficiencies:

Staff had to manually upload new members (from 5 to 500 at a time).

Poor Data and Reporting:

Hundreds of spreadsheets tracked critical information, making analysis slow and unreliable.

We needed one place where staff could see every conversation. Instead, we were competing for our own dollars.

Maggie Henderson

Director of Education, Training, and Quality Assurance

The Challenges

Key Pain Points:

Disconnected Systems

PRO and HIGH FIVE® ran on eight separate systems, including SmartSheet, custom databases, and two learning management systems.
Each update costs thousands of dollars, even for minor changes.
Systems didn’t communicate, leading to duplicated data and siloed records.

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Manual Workload and Inefficiencies

Staff had to manually upload new members (from 5 to 500 at a time).
Contracts, training completions, and credentials were manually tracked and filed.
Human error frequently created “dirty data,” such as members logged under the wrong city.

“A big part of someone’s role was clicking boxes to make things run.” – Maggie Henderson

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Limited Capacity After COVID

Staff numbers dropped from 21 to just 5 during the pandemic.
Despite reduced capacity, the workload remained the same, forcing reliance on inefficient manual processes.
Rebuilding the team highlighted the urgent need for automation and knowledge transfer.

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Poor Data and Reporting

Hundreds of spreadsheets tracked critical information, making analysis slow and unreliable.
Staff relied on gut instincts rather than clear data.
Cross-departmental confusion sometimes led to competing campaigns targeting the same partners.

“We needed one place where staff could see every conversation. Instead, we were competing for our own dollars.” – Maggie Henderson

Decision Making

Decision making wasn't straight forward without all data in one place
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Data wasn't accessible on the move when on-site
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Staff relied on being in the office to look at a 360 view of all data

The Solution

Passion Fruit Partners implemented a tailored Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud solution that unified PRO and HIGH FIVE® into a single, scalable system.

Digitizing Operations

Integrated Salesforce with FormAssembly, consolidating 26+ forms into one streamlined system.
Automated membership uploads and welcome emails.
Replaced manual tracking with real-time dashboards and reports.

Improving Collaboration and Reporting

Created indicators to show whether contacts were PRO, HIGH FIVE®, or both, enabling cross-team visibility.
Built two portals (for PRO members and HIGH FIVE® trainers) to simplify engagement.
Enabled Chatter and shared meeting notes to cut duplication and confusion.
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Developed tools to track KPIs and outcomes linked to PRO’s strategic plan.
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Built automations to eliminate redundant steps and ensure consistent, clean data for budget planning and board reporting.

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Enhancing Training & Accreditation

Connected Salesforce to the Learning Management System (LMS) to automatically update credentials for trainers and organizations.
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Allowed staff to track progress and ensure quality assurance standards across Canada.

Impact

Systems Consolidated into Salesforce

100s

Hundreds of spreadsheets eliminated with clean, centralized data

1000s

Thousands of staff hours saved through automation

Salesforce has enabled PRO to scale operations while ensuring efficiency and quality. Staff now share knowledge across departments, avoid competing for funding, and have reliable data to guide campaigns and budget planning. Instead of maintaining eight outdated systems, the organization runs smoothly on one central platform.

Efficiency and Automation

Automated onboarding and credential tracking saved hundreds of hours.
Removed unnecessary process steps, reducing a 12-step workflow to 9.
Eliminated costly $5,000-per-change database edits.

“By removing extra steps, staff realized they were just creating more work for themselves. Now Salesforce does it for us.” – Maggie Henderson

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Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing

Staff across PRO and HIGH FIVE® can see conversations and meeting notes in Salesforce.
Prevented internal competition for the same members and partners by coordinating campaigns.
Knowledge is no longer “in someone’s head” - all data is accessible system-wide.

Better Data and Reporting

Clean data supports accurate budget assumptions and strategic planning.
Board and funder reports are generated quickly from Salesforce.
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Hundreds of disconnected spreadsheets were retired.

Staff Empowerment and Flexibility

Staff freed from repetitive admin now focus on value-add projects.
New hires onboard faster with standardized workflows.
Salesforce “Lego block” flexibility means PRO can scale and adapt its system as it grows.

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A Strong Foundation

PRO now has a strong Salesforce foundation and is exploring further automation, AI opportunities, and grant funding to continue scaling. The partnership with Passion Fruit has not only delivered immediate time savings and efficiencies but also given PRO confidence to grow sustainably across Canada and beyond.

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Turning Eight Systems Into One and Scaling Without Increasing Headcount