Case Study: Playworks achieves simplified, collaborative financial planning and a 5-day faster monthly close with Workday Adaptive Planning

Nonprofit simplifies planning and reporting for its teams

Playworks is a national nonprofit that uses play to improve children’s social and emotional health, serving more than 2,000 schools across 23 U.S. cities. Facing a complex mix of revenue streams, the organization relied on fragile Excel-based processes that made planning time-consuming, uncollaborative, and limited to an annual cycle—hindering visibility into long-term financial impacts.

By deploying Workday Adaptive Planning, Playworks gave finance and non-finance teams a collaborative, faster way to plan and report. Rolling forecasts shortened the monthly close by five days, the team can quickly spot missing revenue or expenses, custom reports are created in minutes, and shareable forecasts have been used to support requests for future funding.

Playworks

Elizabeth Cushing

President