Working Partnerships is a non-profit organization that serves working families in Minneapolis and the West Metro Region of the Twin Cities area in Minnesota. They are dedicated to improving the lives of working Minnesotans through labor-supported research, outreach, education and services, including emergency financial assistance, food assistance, referrals, and advocacy.
Working Partnerships serves bricklayers, carpenters, boilermakers, cement masons, electrical workers, floor coverers, glaziers, insulators, iron workers, painters, drywallers, pipefitters, plumbers, roofers, metal workers, construction workers, hotel industry workers, and others.
Working Partnerships created the Twin Cities Hospitality and Events Workers’ Relief Fund to support workers who have lost their income due to business closures and event cancellations related to the COVID-19 outbreak. The hospitality and events industry has been shut down, and many workers are now facing an economic crisis on top of the health crisis. This fund helps support workers who are now having to navigate complicated – and sometimes daunting – challenges such as: unemployment, childcare, food assistance, housing / rent / mortgage support, utilities payments, and healthcare and worker protections for those working during the coronavirus pandemic.
The board of Working Partnerships approached LuminFire asking for help with technology support during this time of crisis. LuminFire put together an action plan to quickly build a custom pro bono WordPress website to allow the relief fund to accept donations and applications online.
In addition, LuminFire built a custom application solution with FileMaker (accessible via WebDirect or FileMaker client) based on BrilliantHub Cloud Essentials that connects directly to the new website via BrilliantForms/BrilliantConnect. This FileMaker solution will help manage and track the applications, donations, and distributions. LuminFire also provided hosting for both the website and the FileMaker solution, as well as the licensing and development, pro bono as a non-profit grant to help support these workers who are in need during this crisis.
A Technology Solution that Works
The website is based on WordPress with a Genesis theme that is fully responsive so that it works equally well on mobile devices. Multilingual support is provided so the site can be translated into Spanish.
The application form is built with Gravity Forms. LuminFire developers are experts at customizing and building better forms for submission with Gravity Forms…the most popular and flexible forms-generation tool for WordPress.
GiveMN is used to accept donations.
LuminFire’s BrilliantForms is used (Gravity Forms and BrilliantConnect) to import all the submitted forms into the FileMaker-based BrilliantHub application for management of both the donors and the recipients. Additionally, the entire process of selecting and approving potential recipients of financial aid can be tracked within the application.
This type of custom solution is an ideal way to deal with rapidly changing requirements because it is so flexible. With it, we can generate nearly any type of report required.
Understanding the urgency, LuminFire turned around this solution in short order – completing it in less than 2 weeks even while busy with many other projects. We hope that it helps to provide those impacted by the crisis with the assistance they need. That’s what we are about at LuminFire…making life and work better for everyone.
“LuminFire quickly generated a professional website that added recognizable legitimacy to the Relief Fund and provided a simple way for people in need to quickly contact the Relief Fund. The multi-lingual capability of the site made it available in Spanish to help reach additional effected workers. On the backend, LuminFire created a user-friendly FileMaker fmIgnite [BrilliantHub] database to track applicants and keep their data secure. Without the support from LuminFire, we wouldn’t have been able to serve as many people as quickly as we did during the early days of the economic crisis that was created by the pandemic.” – Mat Terwiliger, Business Representative, IATSE Local 13
So far the project has raised $268,000 and provided support to over 800 people. (Updated 10-5-2020)
If your organization (non-profit or for profit) is interested in a similar solution that is able to accept forms for any purpose (donations, applications, etc.) via the web and integrate or manage them in a FileMaker or other solution, give us a call! We can get a custom app built for you quickly and within budget.
Tim Cimbura – CEO and Software Engineer
Tim is an expert in creating custom business solutions that make businesses more effective, productive, and profitable. He specializes in rapid application development with the Claris platform including FileMaker and WordPress. He also knows Apple macOS technology inside and out.