Case Study: Degrees of Change expands reach and scales student support with Microsoft Power Apps

Nonprofit organization for students uses Microsoft Power Platform to expand its reach

Degrees of Change is a small U.S. nonprofit that runs the Act Six leadership and scholarship program for underrepresented, first‑generation students. The organization struggled with a paper‑based, privacy‑risky application scoring process and the high ongoing costs of a custom .NET solution, plus difficulty tracking cohorts across 17 partner colleges — so it turned to Microsoft Power Apps and the broader Microsoft Power Platform (Power Automate, Power BI, Power Pages) to modernize workflows.

Using Microsoft Power Apps, Degrees of Change built an in‑house low‑code Act Six Application Scoring App (with Dataverse, Power Automate and Power BI) in weeks, went paperless, added features like online signatures, progress bars, video links and an embedded texting-enabled Power BI dashboard for student outreach. The platform slashed third‑party development costs, enabled 120+ volunteer assessors across seven communities to review close to 1,000 applications and select about 140 scholars each year, supported rapid outreach to 400+ students during the pandemic, and improved data‑driven student support and operational efficiency.

Degrees of Change

Tommy Kim

Software Developer