An education-focused nonprofit serving families across Greater Chicago modernized intake, case tracking, and reporting with Microsoft Power Platform and Copilot experiences, giving staff one place to work, fewer handoffs, and clearer visibility for leaders and funders.
Challenge
For years, the nonprofit’s technology worked well enough. Referrals came in from schools, community partners, and families. Program staff did what mission-driven teams always do: they made it work.
Until growth made the cracks obvious.
Intake arrived everywhere. Emails. PDFs. Web forms. Phone notes. Someone would copy details into a spreadsheet. Someone else would forward the thread to the right person. Then a follow-up email would go out asking for missing info. If the family replied, the message might land in a different inbox than the original thread.
Meanwhile, the work kept moving. Tutoring schedules. Scholarship eligibility. Career readiness checklists. Family support referrals. Each program had its own “way,” shaped by good intentions and limited time.
Three problems started to hurt daily operations.
1. Intake was slow and inconsistent
During busy periods, staff spent hours triaging messages, rekeying details, and tracking down attachments. Some referrals stalled because key fields were missing. Others duplicated because the same student was referred twice through different channels.
2. Workflows lived in people’s heads
A few experienced team members knew how to move a referral from “new” to “served.” New hires needed weeks to learn the unofficial process. Program leads got pulled into routine questions that should have had simple answers.
3. Reporting became a fire drill
Grant reporting required outcomes, volumes, and timelines. But the data lived in too many places. Pulling a clean report meant reconciling spreadsheets, inbox searches, and notes scattered across systems.
The question shifted from “How do we keep up?” to “How do we make this predictable, without adding a complex system nobody wants to use?”
Solution
The nonprofit partnered with Reintivity to build a workflow that was simple for staff, trustworthy for leadership, and flexible enough to scale.
Reintivity’s approach was phased. First, reduce confusion. Then, automate the repeatable work. Finally, add AI in places where it saves time without adding risk.
That work began with three practical questions:
- What must be captured every time, no matter the program?
Student and guardian basics, school, referral source, program fit, urgency, and the minimum documentation needed to take the next step. - What does “moving forward” mean at each stage?
Clear statuses that match real work: New, Waiting on info, Ready for review, Scheduled, In service, Closed. - Who owns the process day to day?
Staff needed one system of record and one way to work, not a string of one-off fixes.
From there, Reintivity delivered a connected solution using Microsoft Power Platform, with Copilot experiences to reduce the manual load.
A unified intake and case workspace (Power Apps + Dataverse)
Reintivity built a lightweight case workspace in Power Apps, backed by Dataverse, to replace the spreadsheet-and-inbox shuffle.
- A single intake experience for staff with program-aware logic
- Required fields and guided prompts to reduce missing information
- Duplicate checks to prevent double entry
- A case record that tracks status, notes, attachments, and owner
- Role-based access to protect sensitive information
Staff no longer had to ask, “Where is the latest version?” The case record became the hub.
Automated routing and task flow (Power Automate)
Next, Reintivity implemented flows that handled the repeatable steps that were slowing the team down.
- Automatically create a case when a referral arrives via email or web form
- Route cases to the right program queue based on defined rules
- Generate follow-up tasks when key documentation is missing
- Send consistent confirmation messages to partners and families
- Escalate urgent cases to a supervisor channel
Instead of relying on forwards and reminders, the system moved work to the right place, with visibility.
Smarter handling of unstructured emails and attachments (AI Builder)
One major bottleneck was email volume, especially around school-year transitions and program deadlines. Reintivity used AI Builder to reduce the time spent reading, extracting, and retyping.
- Extract key fields from common intake attachments where formats were consistent
- Pull basic intent and keywords from inbound emails to support routing
- Flag messages likely missing required information so staff could respond once, clearly
This was not “AI for everything.” It was AI for the small parts of the process that reliably create drag.
Staff support copilot (Copilot Studio)
To reduce repetitive questions and speed up onboarding, Reintivity built an internal copilot with Copilot Studio.
It helped staff quickly find:
- Eligibility rules and program requirements
- Required documents and common exceptions
- Step-by-step guidance for each workflow stage
- “What to do if…” scenarios that used to require an experienced teammate
New hires gained a steady reference point. Program leads got fewer interruptions.
Leadership visibility and funder-ready reporting (Power BI)
Finally, Reintivity connected the new data model to Power BI dashboards that leadership could use without a manual data cleanup.
Dashboards provided:
- Referral volume by program, partner, and time period
- Time-to-first-response and time-to-service indicators
- Case load by staff member and queue
- Common stall reasons, so leaders could remove bottlenecks
- Outcome tracking aligned to grant reporting needs
Reporting shifted from a scramble to a routine check-in.
Security and governance built in
Because education nonprofits handle sensitive information, Reintivity implemented practical controls from day one.
- Role-based permissions and least-privilege access
- Data loss prevention policies for connectors and sharing
- Audit logging and retention rules
- MFA alignment and secure access standards
- Clear guidance for staff on responsible use of AI-assisted features
As the Program Operations Lead put it:
“We did not need a complicated system. We needed a clean process that we could trust. Reintivity gave us one workflow, clear ownership, and automation that actually fits how we serve families.”
Results
Within the first rollout period, the nonprofit saw a clear shift in daily operations. Less time spent chasing information. More time spent delivering services.
1. From inbox triage to one place to work
Staff stopped hunting through email threads, shared drives, and spreadsheets to understand case status. New referrals landed in a queue with clear ownership and next steps.
2. Faster follow-up, fewer back-and-forth threads
Guided intake and automated task prompts reduced the “we are missing one more thing” loop. Families and partners received consistent messages with clear requests, which improved response quality.
3. Better consistency across programs
The nonprofit did not lose program flexibility. Each program kept its unique requirements. But the core workflow became shared, visible, and repeatable. That reduced confusion and helped staff cover for one another.
4. Easier onboarding and less reliance on tribal knowledge
The internal copilot and documented workflow steps gave new hires a reliable way to learn the system. Experienced staff spent less time answering the same operational questions.
5. Clearer leadership reporting and smoother grant support
Dashboards provided a steady view of volumes, timelines, and outcomes. Leadership could spot trends earlier and tell a cleaner story to funders without weeks of manual reconciliation.
6. A platform for the next improvements
With intake and case flow stabilized, the nonprofit now has a foundation for future enhancements, including:
- Appointment scheduling and reminders
- Volunteer coordination workflows
- A public-facing copilot for partner referrals
- Additional automations for scholarships, reimbursements, or compliance tasks
Most importantly, the organization reclaimed focus. Technology returned to its proper role: quietly supporting the mission, not competing with it.
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