HOW CLOUD TECHNOLOGY HELPED A CHARITABLE FOUNDATION DOUBLE DOWN ON ITS MISSION

AFTER THE BRENDA STRAFFORD FOUNDATION COMPLETELY REIMAGINED ITS DATA INFRASTRUCTURE, THE HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATION WAS FREED TO DO WHAT IT DOES BEST: HELPING PEOPLE IN NEED

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CAMBRIDGE MANOR is one of seven senior living communities the Brenda Strafford Foundation operates in Calgary and the surrounding area.

For the Brenda Strafford Foundation, putting people first is part and parcel of its mission. In fact, it is its mission. The Calgary-based charitable organization is dedicated to improving lives through compassionate senior care, international healthcare, domestic violence prevention and support, and innovation and research. In recent years, however, the organization's ability to help people was being compromised by the limitations of its technology.

Outdated and fragmented technology infrastructure was creating extra work for employees who routinely had to collect and organize data from many different sources, keeping them from focusing on tasks more directly tied to the foundation's mission. That lost time represented lost money—a red flag for any organization, but especially for charities working on limited budgets. "For mission-driven organizations, every hour and every dollar counts," says Brendan Park, the foundation's director of information management and information technology. "We're constantly trying to optimize our services to enrich people's lives."