Community Health Center of Lubbock relies on grants for at least 60% of operational funding for eight clinics and two mobile units as it provides crucial services to nearly one in 10 Lubbock residents who otherwise would go without healthcare.

When CHCL Finance Director Barbra Moore led her team to adopt Blackbaud software in 2013 she saw how Blackbaud solutions provided greater accuracy in financial reporting, improved processes, and allowed the organization to serve more people in need by capturing additional grant funding.

Then in 2019, Moore decided the time was right to step things up by migrating to cloud-based Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT.

“Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT is my toolbox. It is where I go for everything, and I am in it all day. It is the backbone of Community Health Center of Lubbock, as far as our financials,” said Moore, who leads the three-person finance team. “If we didn’t have Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT, we wouldn’t operate up to the level that we are now.”

Operating More Efficiently with Dashboards

With Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT, the Community Health Center of Lubbock continued to use Blackbaud tools that they had come to rely on, such as the Visual Chart Organizer, which intuitively applies grant coding structures, saving time and helping ensure accuracy in reporting. But the rich, new solution also provided enhanced capabilities and features, for example, dashboards that allow the team to work faster and drill down deeper into their financial data.

“Without having a dashboard, it might have taken 10 or 15 minutes to pull something and manipulate it, versus a couple of minutes to hit a button and drill down with the dashboard,” Moore explained. “If you add that up over a period of time, you’re definitely manpower saving.”

Now Moore can have several sources of data on screen at one time and toggle back and forth without issue. As a result, she can field questions from others in the organization more easily, with less interruption to other workflows. “We have so many people we have to answer to, and the occasional random call, and we are able to get the information they need so quickly.”

Whether budgeting, following the money, or reporting back to the board and other stakeholders, “everything is so much easier,” she said. “With the time we’re saving with Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT in processing, we’re actually analyzing and utilizing that data better.”

As a result, the team can “shine” even more when requesting grant funds, for example, by being able to track financial activity, such as medical supply costs, at a granular level. With their ability to work faster and deliver more detailed reports with Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT, they have seen their grant funding increase by roughly 25%, Moore said.

Gaining Flexibility Just in Time

The shift to cloud-based Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT also allowed finance employees to access data anytime, anywhere, which turned out to be a critical capability in 2020, allowing them to work remotely as needed as COVID-19 unfolded, and at a time when the finance department only had two employees.

They were also better positioned to nimbly respond to opportunities for COVID relief funding and to adapt as the health center increased its telehealth options for patient.

Moore appreciates the fact that Blackbaud specializes in solutions for social good organizations, promotes a sense of community in that space, and is committed to powering advances that are shaping a better world. She knows her team can rely on Blackbaud’s training, resources, and customer support—whether provided through a call, email, or help desk chat. “It’s not just a software—it’s a partnership,” she said. “You have somebody that’s fighting with you, especially through the trying times.”