When outdated systems threatened growth, a nonprofit turned to Armanino to help them transform their technology, streamline operations and make a bigger impact in the communities they serve.
The Vermont Community Foundation (VCF) is a collective of more than 1,000 funds and foundations created by Vermonters looking to fulfill their charitable aspirations.
VCF had a sunsetting Foundation Information Management System (FIMS), an inadequate donor portal, complex allocations and siloed processes stalling growth.
With Armanino’s expertise, VCF integrated Sage Intacct and Salesforce Experience Cloud into a seamless, scalable solution.
Donors now have real-time transparency, gift and grant processing time is greatly reduced and VCF has a scalable platform to support long-term growth.
As the Vermont Community Foundation (VCF) was expanding, it became clear their technology wasn’t keeping pace with their growth. They had been using the Foundation Information Management System (FIMS), a specialized fund accounting and grants management software platform. While it could handle basic data entry, it offered little in the way of analysis, reporting, customization and flexibility. When the vendor announced plans to discontinue the platform and end support, upgrading wasn’t just a good idea.
It was an urgency.
That’s because operating with outdated technology can cripple a nonprofit’s ability to manage finances, comply with regulations, engage donors and operate efficiently. The inefficiencies, errors and compliance risks that come with aging systems slow operations and drain resources from the mission, erode transparency and threaten long-term financial stability.
Determined to modernize, VCF launched a comprehensive search for a solution designed to grow with them. After months of evaluation, the organization selected a model that included Salesforce for customer relationship management (CRM), Sage Intacct for finance and grant management software. The design included an integration via an application programming interface (API) to share data seamlessly across all three platforms. Armanino was an essential implementation partner through this stage.
Midway through the project, one of their original implementation partners was not able to meet VCF’s requirements, leading to a pivot to a new plan, using Salesforce and Sage Intacct.
To put the new plan into action, the foundation brought in Armanino as the sole implementation partner in May 2024. Armanino provided the Salesforce expertise, technical management and commitment to the project. One year later, in May 2025, VCF successfully went live.
A turning point came when Armanino demonstrated Salesforce Experience Cloud, showing the VCF team exactly how the portal could deliver the features and user experience they needed. It helped the foundation feel confident about the new direction and laid out a clear path forward.
“Armanino has excellent developers who really listened to our needs, understood our processes and brought experience in Salesforce. As our primary CRM, Salesforce was critical, and they delivered a solution that worked for us,” Grady said.
When VCF ran into challenges trying to define requirements and translate those requirements into a design that worked, Armanino’s Technical Engagement team stepped in to help.
With experience integrating Sage Intacct and Salesforce, Armanino acted as the central liaison among implementation teams, developers and VCF leadership. They worked with Sage’s product team for the allocation module and engaged in candid, daily conversations with VCF to identify what was or wasn’t working to keep the project moving forward.
Just as momentum was building, two catastrophic floods struck Vermont. The implementation had to take a backseat to answering fundholder and nonprofit calls asking for an emergency response. The disruptions stretched the project timeline from the planned 18 months to more than two years. Armanino stayed flexible, working with the VCF team to set a go-live that worked for everyone.
By listening closely to staff needs, translating them into technical solutions and looping in the right experts at the right time, Armanino turned potential derailments into a workable solution using the software VCF already had.
The work resulted in allocation scenarios configured to VCF’s exact needs, a clear integration path between systems and a best-practice model for future projects rooted in flexibility, open dialogue and problem-solving under pressure.
“Armanino is a great organization with talented teams who are committed to seeing us succeed in whatever we needed,” Grady said.
VCF’s previous donor portal was basic and glitchy, with limited functionality. Now, donors have a powerful, easy-to-use dashboard that puts everything they need right at their fingertips.
For instance, donors can see real-time balances, track investment performance and pull up their grant history whenever they want. If contributors need a report, they can download it instantly. Same with increasing funds. Now, it can be done in a few clicks.
The portal also makes giving more personal. Donors can browse curated lists of nonprofits based on their interests, such as animal welfare or health and wellness, and direct grants to the causes they care about most. Behind the scenes, Salesforce and Sage Intacct work together to handle the accounting and process payments seamlessly.
It’s a self-service model that gives donors the transparency they want and frees up VCF’s team to focus their efforts on making an impact in the community.
The transformation was about more than technology. It changed the way VCF works. Silos that once kept teams apart are gone. Staff now work across departments. They have a much better understanding of the full lifecycle of a grant or gift. More importantly, they see how their role connects to the bigger mission. There’s an openness to change, a willingness to problem-solve together and a shared sense of ownership and pride in VCF’s success.
From an operations standpoint, grant processing time is greatly reduced. Previously, the grants team had to invest time reviewing and verifying hundreds of requests, building spreadsheets for tracking and sending the information to finance to cut and verify each check.
Now, the team can pull up all the information in Salesforce, connect directly with Guidestar for due diligence and print the checks and envelopes in just a few clicks in Salesforce and Sage. All that’s left to do manually is to stuff and mail them.
With everyone working from the same enterprise-wide system, the organization runs smoother, adapts faster and can scale to meet its five-year growth plan. The shift has strengthened VCF’s ability to deliver on its mission while building a culture that’s more collaborative, resilient and ready for what’s next.
Throughout the process, VCF gained valuable insights that any nonprofit can benefit from when taking on a major change, including:
“By choosing Armanino, we gained a partner with the nonprofit and technology expertise to help us build the foundation for future growth,” Grady said.
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