Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles: More Houses and Less Spreadsheets

We are excited to share another new story in our client success series as we highlight Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles. This team continues to make a lasting impact across one of the nation’s least affordable housing markets. To strengthen operations and expand their reach, they set out to modernize their systems. With support from Arkus, a trusted Salesforce partner that has spent the past fifteen years helping over 800 mission-driven organizations make an impact across communities and causes, Habitat LA gained better visibility into key data and built a stronger foundation for collaboration and growth. Read on to discover how they transformed their workflow and delivered on their mission in the process. 

The Mission

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles (Habitat LA) defines their mission as, "Seeking to putting God’s love into action by building homes, communities, and hope in one of the least affordable housing markets in the country." In order to continue advancing its mission of eliminating substandard housing, Habitat LA sought to modernize its operations and better leverage technology.

The Challenge

Habitat LA was using HomeKeeper, a Salesforce-based solution, to manage partner homebuyer program applications. However, critical project data for construction and repair efforts was siloed in self-maintained spreadsheets. This approach limited visibility, slowed workflows, and made it difficult for stakeholders to access timely, accurate information. The organization recognized the need for a more integrated system that could unify data, streamline project management, and lay the foundation for future financial integration.

The Solution

Habitat LA engaged Arkus to expand its Salesforce footprint and create the architecture to support new build and repair construction projects. To accomplish this, Arkus built out the Nonprofit Cloud for Habitat LA. This included configuring the Program Management module to track impact and configuring the Sales and Service Clouds to create project opportunities and paths that integrated with loan applications via HomeKeeper. 

Arkus also utilized custom objects to create active projects, allowing specific deliverables and services to be standardized, added to projects, tracked individually, and reported across all or selected projects. The team created automations to increase efficiency and standardize project steps as needed. In addition, Arkus provided training to power and end users to ensure full adoption of Salesforce as a centralized project management tool and ensured that Habitat LA’s reporting and dashboard needs were fully met.

Our work together would come to include:

• Conducting a Salesforce Health Check to evaluate the current configuration and provide optimization recommendations.
• Consulting on and helping select a project management tool that integrates with Salesforce.
• Designing and configuring Salesforce to manage construction projects, milestones, project teams, and timelines.
• Migrating construction project data from spreadsheets into Salesforce.
• Building reports and dashboards to give stakeholders greater visibility.
• Delivering customized training for end users and system administrators on HomeKeeper, construction workflows, and project management functionality.
• Providing guidance on engagement planning, process documentation, and user story development, ensuring that Habitat LA can manage its Salesforce effectively.

The Results

Through our phased approach, Arkus and Habitat LA established the system infrastructure needed to centralize construction project management within Salesforce. The successful migration away from spreadsheets has enabled more consistent data capture and improved reporting. Stakeholders now have access to dashboards and reports that highlight project status, timelines, and outcomes, supporting better decision-making.

As our initial migration work came to a successful point of completion, Arkus and Habitat LA came together to lay the foundation for the next phase of collabortion: bringing financial data into projects and exploring synchronization with Sage Intacct. This forward-looking step ensures that Habitat LA will be positioned to connect financial, operational, and programmatic data within one unified system.

Looking Ahead

With this integration in place, Habitat LA can scale its Salesforce use across teams, expand automation, and ensure stakeholders—from staff to community partners—have access to the information they need. By embracing a modern, integrated project management solution, Habitat LA has taken a significant step in advancing its mission to make sustainable, affordable housing a reality for all.

Our team is excited to continue our support of Habitat LA and other Habitat affiliates across the country. As we build on the work done over the past decade with teams that include Habitat Charlotte and more, we invite you to continue your learning with us. Check out two of my other posts: one covering takeaways from a trip I made to the Habitat Conference one year, and another on lesson we learned after hosting a Pro Bono Day of consulting support with and for Habitat affiliates.  

Arkus is proud to continue to partner with teams to help put technology to work so we can make an impact in our communities. Curious to learn more and explore how we can support your team? Reach out to me on LinkedIn or connect with Arkus through our contact form.