- Customer stories
- One More Day on the Appalachian Trail
How a nonprofit built a custom application process on Zapier
4x faster application review process
By automating their entire application process on Zapier, each application is processed within a week—down from four weeks.
Saved thousands of dollars and weeks of work
Mike created the custom app in just five hours using Zapier, saving the nonprofit thousands of dollars since they didn't need to hire a developer.
18+ business days of manual work removed
By digitizing the entire application process and adding in automation, the team reclaimed 150+ hours of admin work per year.
About One More Day on the Appalachian Trail
- Company size: 1-10
- Industry: One More Day on the Appalachian Trail is a nonprofit offering financial assistance to individuals battling addiction who want to travel the Appalachian Trail as part of their recovery.
- Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Application data all in one place
Challenge
Application data lived across Google Forms and Google Sheets, which are less reliable when connected with other SaaS tools.
Solution
Applicants complete a Zapier Interfaces form that's embedded on the nonprofit’s site. The workflow then automatically adds this data into Zapier Tables for storage.
Results
The nonprofit can now store, edit, share, and automate the scholarship application process by having all of the data in one place.
Collaboration made simple and seamless
Challenge
To select scholarship winners, the nonprofit’s board met in person or had calls to vote on each application. The schedule wrangling often delayed the process.
Solution
When an applicant moves to the review stage, an email is automatically sent to the voters with a unique link. Responses and notes from the voters are tracked in a table.
Results
The board is able to collaborate and discuss the applications virtually and on their own time, removing 2-3 weeks from the application process.
Seamless application management
Challenge
The team didn’t have a simple way to track the progress of each application, which meant applications could slip through the cracks.
Solution
By storing applicant info in Zapier Tables, the team can easily track the status in a Kanban view using Zapier Interfaces. In the same tracker, the team can also move applications from one step to to the next.
Results
The nonprofit aims to award 100+ scholarship applicants in the new year, and the team now feels confident none will get lost in the shuffle.
“This would have taken weeks of work to develop an application like this, and it would have cost a ton of money. So, to be able to spin this up all in five hours in Zapier is life-changing.”
Mike Freeman
Marketing Automation Consultant for One More Day on the Appalachian Trail
