Catholic Charities Fort Worth: How Catholic Charities Fort Worth Streamlined their Client Program Onboarding While Simultaneously Reducing Overhead Costs
Supporting the amazing work being done by individuals at charitable organizations like Catholic Charities is a pleasure for us here at Foxit eSign. We recently had an opportunity to catch up with part of the team at Catholic Charities Fort Worth to discuss their experience with utilizing Foxit eSign’s electronic signature software. In this case study, we’ll discuss more about how the Fort Worth, TX Catholic Charities team utilizes eSigning to establish intuitive solutions to unique challenges and streamline important processes.
The history of the national Catholic Charities USA organization began over 100 years ago at The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. where almost 400 people gathered to, as stated by the organization, “bring about a sense of solidarity” and work “to be an attorney for the poor.” Today, Catholic Charities USA has 167 local agencies throughout the country – one of these agencies being Catholic Charities Fort Worth.
The story of Catholic Charities’ Fort Worth agency began when a group of women in 1910 saw the needs of the local poor community and decided to be a “voice for the voiceless,” as their website states. From there, St.Teresa’s Home for Children was established, with expansions into immigration, disaster response, refugee support, and more happening as Catholic Charities Fort Worth grew.
Today, Catholic Charities Fort Worth serves those in need and in poverty by continuously supporting and developing programs to offer real-world solutions.
Before Using Electronic Signatures
On any given day, the team at Catholic Charities Fort Worth completes a lot of paperwork. Everything from onboarding new clients to coordinating essential services requires the necessary forms to be completed – this in itself can be a lot of work and be time-consuming for both social workers and their clients.
Prior to using Foxit eSign, Catholic Charities Fort Worth wasn’t using electronic signatures; paperwork was completed and gathered manually. While it got the job done, collecting manual paperwork was proving problematic in several areas:
- Time: Traveling between locations with paperwork, waiting on complete forms to be collected or delivered, and coordinating meetings for paperwork completion can all prove time-consuming for both the clients and social workers.
- Cost: Printing, mailing, scanning, copying, and filing traditional pen-and-ink signed paperwork can make for costly solutions to necessary processes.
- Accuracy: When a lot of information has to be gathered, mistakes and errors can happen more often. Unfortunately, correcting mistakes and errors can be burdensome when it requires in-person meetings and signing.
- Convenience: Scheduling in-person meetings to complete paperwork can be difficult between social workers and clients. Meetings aren’t always convenient for the clients and can require a lot of coordination between parties.
Why Foxit eSign Was Approached by Catholic Charities Fort Worth
When Catholic Charities Fort Worth approached Foxit eSign, they were looking for a signature solution that would allow them to continue to service their community effectively, while also allowing effective streamlining of important daily processes.
During this time, there were also COVID-19 pandemic-related efforts that required a better solution. When the pandemic hit, Catholic Charities Fort Worth was hard at work supporting their clients. Fortunately, a lot of funding sources came through during this time to help ensure desperately needed services could be provided. While funding and donations were amazing and greatly appreciated, this placed additional paperwork and signing requirements on staff that required additional time and resources; a better solution was needed.
When Foxit eSign was approached by the team at Catholic Charities Fort Worth, they were looking for electronic signature solutions that would be:
Easy to Use:
Utilizing electronic signatures that would not only be easy for staff and social workers to use but that was also considered user-friendly for clients was a top priority.
Time Saving:
With busy staff tirelessly working on coordinating services for the communities underserved, it was imperative that the electronic signature solution could cut down on time spent completing essential processes.
Secure:
The majority of information collected by staff and social workers is sensitive, making privacy and security with document collection and sharing a must at all times.
Mobile-Friendly:
A mobile-friendly electronic signature solution would allow busy social workers to complete forms on-the-go and would also allow clients without computers to complete paperwork quickly and easily.
Cost-Efficient:
For charitable organizations, maximizing spending and improving cost-efficiency is imperative. The electronic signature solution used would need to not only be reasonably priced (since it was to be a new expense) but also help streamline paperwork processes to reduce spending in other areas.
“When we do recruitment season, which is like an August, September, and then January, February, we set aside a certain amount of time. I can tell you the amount of time that it saves me by sending those documents through Foxit eSign – it saves me a ton of time. And I can walk a client through the documents fairly easily. I would say probably saved me about 10 minutes for every recruitment.” Kay Carroll, Client Navigator with “Stay the Course”
In the End, Catholic Charities Fort Worth Chose to Partner with Foxit eSign for These Primary Reasons
When making their decision, it was important that Catholic Charities Fort Worth chose an electronic signature solution that was not only built with their needs in mind but that would also allow them to support their continued growth and community outreach. In the end, the primary features that made Foxit eSign stand out were:
Cost Efficiency:
The Catholic Charities team found that Foxit eSign offered everything they were looking for, but at a much lower price point than their competitors.
Ease-Of-Use:
Foxit eSign’s easy-to-use workflow-based interface would allow the team at Catholic Charities to be onboarded quickly and enable clients to utilize it easily.
“For me, I really felt it was really user-friendly. I love working with programs I love. I’ve taught myself a lot of the information that I do know right now. And so I had to do that basically with Foxit eSign, and I didn’t find it to be difficult to learn, personally.” Samantha Cowan, Project Management Specialist
How Foxit eSign Has Helped Catholic Charities Fort Worth Successfully Meet Its Goals
Upon completing a successful implementation of Foxit eSign electronic signatures, Catholic Charities has experienced several benefits that have since supported their continued growth and service to the local community.
Improved Workflow
Whether it’s getting management approval on certain purchases or processes, saving staff a trip to collect or deliver paperwork, or simplifying the entire paperwork process through the use of pre-built document templates – electronic signatures have helped Catholic Charities make significant improvements to their overall workflow.
Cost Reduction
While utilizing Foxit eSign has been an additional expense for Catholic Charities, it has allowed them to save in other essential areas. By using electronic signatures for most of its paperwork completion, the Catholic Charities team has seen substantial cost savings in the cost of office and printing supplies. There is also a reduction in travel times, thus saving on gas and other travel-related expenses.
Easier Bulk Signature Completion
Multiple signatures are often required on forms completed by Catholic Charities. Prior to using Foxit eSign, it was at times difficult coordinating the signatures needed. Since using electronic signatures, the staff at has been able to speed up the bulk signing process by sending documents to multiple signatories all at once, while simultaneously monitoring completion through Foxit eSign’s detailed auditing.
Faster Client Onboarding
It’s the goal of Catholic Charities Fort Worth to provide essential support and care services to their community as fast as possible. With the introduction of electronic signatures and digital document completion, social workers and staff have seen a significant reduction in onboarding times for new clients and services. Paperwork can often be completed and sent in from the convenience of client’s homes and even during virtual client meetings. This time-saving component is important during busy client recruitment times, where some Catholic Charities team members are reporting time-reduction averaging 10 minutes per client.
“Being a nonprofit, we try to get programs that are going to be efficient, but also cost-effective. So, based on our needs, based on our budget, we felt like Foxit eSign was robust enough to help us with the needs that we had.” Samantha Cowan, Project Management Specialist
Plans for the Future
As continued growth and expansion is expected and changes needed, Catholic Charities Fort Worth plans to utilize Foxit eSign to support their efforts in:
- Continuing to support their local community in order to effectively maximize the programs they have.
- Streamlining the processes for social workers and staff to support efficient time use and continue to onboard clients quickly and efficiently.
- Continuing to improve their team member’s and client’s experience by supporting the demand for improved and more remote services with things like continued template usage.
