Case Study: The James Irvine Foundation achieves streamlined grantmaking and 18-day approvals with Salesforce for Nonprofits

The James Irvine Foundation streamlines the grantmaking process with FoundationConnect

The James Irvine Foundation is a California grantmaker focused on improving economic opportunities for low-income workers, with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles and a long history of philanthropic giving. The foundation struggled with a slow, manual grantmaking process—relying on paper binders and siloed emails—that made approvals take weeks or months and left staff without clear visibility or control over records and workflows.

By implementing Sales Cloud and foundationConnect, plus Marketing Cloud and AppExchange tools like FormAssembly, DocuSign, Drawloop, and Conga, Irvine automated application workflows, centralized records, and enabled grantees to submit and update proposals online. The result: processing time fell from months to just over 18 days, staff gained real-time visibility and better portfolio analytics, marketing/outreach was streamlined, and program teams now spend far less time on administration.

James Irvine Foundation

Kelly Martin

Senior Grants Manager