New Directions for Children, Youth, Adults, and Families Automates the Complex

How New Directions turned disconnected systems into real-time speed and grew the impact of their mission.

The Sparkrock team’s experience from working directly with nonprofits was truly invaluable. They had amazing perspective and advice for the project.

Jennifer Hume
Director of Financial and Operational Support
New Directions for Children, Youth, Adults, and Families

About New Directions

New Directions for Children, Youth, Adults, and Families (New Directions) is a values-based nonprofit organization offering a wide range of supports tailored to individuals and families navigating complex life challenges.

Their services include foster care, residential treatment, clinical therapy, education and vocational training, and culturally relevant programs for Indigenous youth and families. With a focus on inclusion, empowerment, and community connection, New Directions works alongside children, youth, adults, and families to help them realize their strengths, pursue their goals, and build brighter futures.

The Challenge:
Time is Money

New Directions was well-positioned for a digital transformation, driven by the mounting inefficiencies caused by disconnected and manual systems across their operations. Staff were burdened by time-consuming manual processes, particularly in administrative tasks that left little room for strategic focus. 

One of the most pressing challenges was managing bimonthly payments for over 200 foster parents—a process that required staff to manually enter each dollar amount for every individual, consuming valuable time and increasing the risk of error. The need for a more streamlined, integrated solution had become clear. 

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The Solution:
From Seconds to Hours

By transitioning from fragmented systems to a unified ERP platform, New Directions has successfully scaled from a $21 million to a $51 million organization. This shift has transformed their financial operations as manual data entry has been replaced by automated processes that dramatically reduce time and error. For example, what once took hours—entering individual payment amounts for over 200 foster parents—can now be completed in seconds by importing a comprehensive contact list directly into the General Ledger. 

This streamlined approach has not only improved efficiency but also strengthened the organization’s ability to manage growth with confidence and precision.

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The Outcome: Rapid
Growth Fuelled by Automation

New Directions has been able to grow tremendously by increasing its efficiency and reducing the time it takes to complete administrative processes.

The biggest time saver for the organization has been how they’re now able to pay their foster parents. Instead of manually keying in every amount, they’re able to import a list of contacts with all of the amounts to pay directly into the General Ledger. What used to take an hour now takes seconds.

One of the most complicated areas of scheduling for New Directions is that 32 of their homes are scheduled 24/7, but this is all managed manually. Overtime costs become a problem because finding available staff with the right qualifications must be done over the phone.

With the new HRP solution and Scheduling functionality, all of these processes are automated, allowing staff to go online to see what shifts are available while built-in alerts will notify managers when certain staff are approaching overtime hours.

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