The Sylvia Center

Transforming Data, Fundraising, and Impact with Salesforce

About the Charity

The Sylvia Center (TSC) is a New York–based nonprofit empowering young people and families to lead healthier lives through hands-on culinary education. With programs spanning early childhood to teens and family learning, they teach essential cooking skills, nutrition literacy, and healthy eating habits across New York City and upstate New York communities.

Transforming Data, Fundraising, and Impact with Salesforce

To scale their life-changing mission, The Sylvia Center needed to transform how they managed data, tracked donors, and reported outcomes. Their existing systems were unreliable, and years of disconnected spreadsheets and platforms made it difficult to see what was working. Partnering with Passion Fruit Partners, they set out to rebuild their Salesforce platform -creating a reliable, easy-to-use system that could connect data, strengthen fundraising, and unlock insight into their community impact.

Pain Points

A Unified System to Strengthen Insight:

The team wanted one central place to bring together fundraising, program, and survey data so they could work with greater clarity and confidence.

The Need For Smarter, Streamlined Workflows:

Staff relied on time-consuming processes to compile data, build reports, and analyse program results, often needing external consultants.

The Need For Clear, Reliable Reporting for Growth:

The team wanted real-time visibility into donors, participants, and outcomes so they could deepen supporter relationships and tell a stronger impact story.

We weren’t on top of our data in the way that we were striving for. The development team didn’t have the visibility they wanted and needed due to being let down by a system that didn’t work.”
Barbara Glassman
Executive Director, The Sylvia Center

The Challenges

As The Sylvia Center grew, the cracks in their systems became clearer. They needed better visibility, efficiency, and data confidence to sustain growth and prove their impact.

01

Ineffective Fundraising and Donor Tracking

  • The team had no way to track major donors, campaigns, or board giving in one place.

  • Their previous system never went live properly, even after 18 months of work the team were left with a system that didn’t work for them.

  • Fundraising data lived across multiple spreadsheets and documents, creating duplication and confusion.

  • Leadership lacked visibility into revenue trends, donor history, or board contributions which they wanted to use to ensure they they could properly cultivate their supporters and grow their organization over time.

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02

Data Gaps and Manual Reporting

  • Reports for funders required intensive manual compilation.

  • Program evaluation data was managed inefficiently, requiring paid consultants for analysis.

  • There was no link between participant data and program outcomes, making it difficult to demonstrate impact.
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  • Teams lacked confidence in data accuracy, limiting strategic planning and donor engagement.
03

Disconnected Operations and Silos

  • Processes were manual, repetitive, and time-consuming - relying heavily on staff time and knowledge.

  • Without unified data, leadership couldn’t easily see who was being served or measure program outcomes.

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04

Technology and Training Challenges

  • The previous Salesforce setup was poorly implemented and underutilized.

  • Staff received minimal training, leading to inconsistent adoption.

  • Smaller nonprofits like TSC lacked staff expertise to implement without strong external partner guidance.

  • Existing integrations were unstable, creating long-term maintenance issues.

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05

Limited Insight Into Program Outcomes

  • Surveys and feedback tools weren’t connected to Salesforce, limiting their usefulness by making data difficult to analyze.

  • The team couldn’t easily see which programs had the greatest impact.

  • Without demographic insights, TSC lacked the data to fully understand and demonstrate to funders the needs of its participants and communities they served. 

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The Solution

Passion Fruit Partners rebuilt The Sylvia Center’s Salesforce system with scalability, clarity, and confidence at its core – creating a unified platform to track donors, programs, and impact seamlessly.

01

Data Centralization and Clarity

  • Integrated all fundraising data, including funder and donor information, as well as program data and participant demographics into a single Salesforce system.

  • For Fundraising, enabled full visibility of giving history, campaigns, and board contributions.
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  • For programs, centralized partnership, participant, and evaluation data into one platform.

  • Created dashboards for leadership and staff.

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02

Automated Reporting and Evaluation

  • Integrated all surveys directly into Salesforce.
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  • Automated analysis of student and family feedback to measure program outcomes.

  • Expanded  student demographic data collection to better demonstrate to funders who are program participants they served.

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03

Empowered Teams Through Training

  • Delivered hands-on training to multiple staff members, creating an internal “circle of excellence.”

  • Designed the system for simplicity, avoiding unnecessary customizations.

  • Ensured sustainability through user-friendly processes and ongoing support.

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Impact

100%
All Information in one place
100%
Automated Reporting and Evaluation
100%
Clear Data Centralization and Clarity

The Sylvia Center now has a much more streamlined and sustainable system to empower the fundraising teams.

01

Stronger Data and Decision-Making

• Dashboards and integrated surveys provide clear insights into program quality and outcomes.
• Teams use real-time data throughout the year to guide decisions and planning.
• Information is shared easily with donors, funders, and board members.

02

Improved Reporting and Accountability

• Grant reporting and proposal data can be pulled quickly and confidently.
• Automated reporting saves staff time and provides consistent, reliable outputs.
• Leadership can oversee partnerships, programs, and participants in one system

03

Enhanced Fundraising Visibility

• Donor history, board giving, and campaign performance are transparent and easy to access.
• Real-time insights support strategic conversations with funders and the board.
• Accurate data strengthens forecasting, stewardship, and long-term planning.

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04

Better Program Quality and Insight

• Integrated data highlights the needs of students and communities.
• Surveys reveal areas of success and improvement, guiding curriculum investment.
• Data storytelling strengthens funding applications and partnerships.

05

Efficiency Across the Organization

• Automated processes reduce manual workload across fundraising and programs.
• Staff no longer rely on external consultants for analysis or reporting.
• A unified platform ensures nothing slips through the cracks across sites or teams.

“Salesforce has become our growth weapon. It helps us expand without increasing staff, keeps us accountable, and ensures no participant falls through the cracks.”
Barbara Glassman
Executive Director, The Sylvia Center
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