Guide Dogs for the Blind
Since 1942, Guide Dogs for the Blind has been creating partnerships among people, dogs, and communities. With exceptional client services and a robust network of instructors, puppy foster families, donors, and volunteers, the nonprofit prepares highly qualified guide dogs to serve and empower individuals who are blind or have low vision.
Heller Consulting has been a strategic partner for Guide Dogs for the Blind since 2016, leading the organization through tech transformations that serve the needs of its fundraising, marketing, and programs teams.
Guide Dogs for the Blind strives to be as accessible as possible and we appreciate the Heller teams’ willingness to learn and adapt their materials and approach to be inclusive in their work with us and other clients.
Laura Peabody-Park
Guide Dogs for the Blind
Director, Information Technology
Highlights
- Heller Consulting unified 16 departments and their tools in a single CRM that manages everything from puppy welfare to donor management.
- Data silos and on-premises solutions were united, and best-in-class tools sourced from third parties to meet capability gaps.
- All teams now have access to rich datasets about the org’s work, facilitating more effective fundraising and program delivery.
The Challenge: 16 Teams Using Different Tools
The unique work of the organization creates a complex set of requirements for its CRM. Work was strewn across a plethora of tools and departments had little visibility to the work of others, even when it involved the same guide dog, trainer, or donor. The org needed data layers that could track a single dog across puppy adoption, healthcare, training, and client placement, as well as traditional CRM functions for fundraising, marketing, and service delivery.
Naturally, no CRM was going to be able to handle these disparate needs out of the box, so the org’s leaders called Heller.
The Solution: A Customized CRM for Whole Org Visibility
Heller ascertained Guide Dogs for the Blind’s needs and built a roadmap to migrate and customize Salesforce. As well as the regular functions of a CRM, we implemented a volunteer management portal, file management, workplace giving, and fundraising capabilities. Where we identified functionality gaps, we audited and recommended third-party tools to support specific activities—especially in marketing and fundraising.
One of the unique features of our work was a custom integration called Clients and Canines. Built on the Salesforce Nonprofit Service Pack, it could track the entire life and work of a seeing eye dog, from kennel management and puppy adoption, through training, work, welfare, and its retirement.
The Heller team was inspired by Guide Dogs for the Blind’s commitment to accessibility, and we strived to optimize for it throughout this project—from the technology solutions we implemented to the documents and training we delivered.
Results: Better Animal Care and Smarter Fundraising
Guide Dogs for the Blind now has a state-of-the-art CRM that has united 16 departments in one cloud-based information center. The system can handle a multitude of documents from different sources—everything from donor acknowledgement letters to veterinary records—in the cloud, with access for those who need it.
Now the org can see the entire work and life of these marvelous animals without dipping in and out of disconnected, on-prem systems and siloed datasets. Trainers can now access health records while on mobile health visits, and the fundraising team can see the overlap between its volunteer and donor base. Using a rich set of integrated tools and systems, fundraising teams can now craft appeals and acknowledgement letters using rich data that is meaningful to the recipient, and therefore more successful.
In 2025, we are working on a set of fundraising components for Guide Dogs for the Blind, integrating its donation systems with the stack used by programs.