Case Study: Allies for Community Business scales funding 10x and delivers $396M to small businesses with Smartsheet

Allies for Community Business meet 10 times the demand for small-business funding with Smartsheet

Allies for Community Business (A4CB) is a small nonprofit that connects underserved entrepreneurs in Illinois and Indiana with capital, coaching, and procurement services. Facing disconnected spreadsheets, project tools, and paper-based workflows, A4CB needed a single, secure platform to digitize its funding process and protect data integrity as demand surged—growing from $3.8M in 2019 to $396M in 2020 and serving many more businesses.

By consolidating program creation, applications, eligibility reviews, payments, and reporting on Smartsheet, A4CB automated intake, tracked internal work, and shared real-time dashboards with partners while securely managing bank data. The result: A4CB administered 15 emergency programs, scaled to meet roughly 10× the funding demand, disbursed $396M to ~37,000 businesses, reduced fiduciary risk, and generated richer reporting that prompted partners to request more engagement.

Allies for Community Business

Brad McConnell

CEO