Founded in 1983, Good360 has grown to become the world’s leader in product philanthropy. Over its 30-year history, the Alexandria, Va.-based nonprofit has distributed more than $7 billion worth of goods to those in need, including goods with a fair market value of $350 million in 2012.
As its name implies, Good360 (www.good360.org) strives to broker a virtuous 360-degree circle across its diverse stakeholders—businesses, communities and individuals. The nonprofit works with more than 125 corporate donors such as Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, UPS, Hilton, Walmart, IBM, Disney and others to collect excess products such as apparel, furniture, computers, toys and office products. Good360 then distributes these product donations to its network of nearly 40,000 charities, including shelters, schools, foster care programs and others.
A Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Navision) ERP and CRM application implemented in 2008 didn’t give Good360 the cross-functional visibility into finances and operations that it needed, and lacked the international capabilities the non-profit wanted to support expansion beyond North America. Facing a costly and time-consuming upgrade to the Microsoft application, Good360 began exploring options from NetSuite and SAP.
“We needed an ERP that could accommodate our vision to scale quickly and internationally,” said Good360 CIO Shabab Gruberg. “It was easier and more cost-effective to scale with NetSuite, whereas with SAP we would have had to implement a server somewhere. We didn’t want IT infrastructure in-house.”
Freeing Resources for Greater Social Impact
Scheduled to go live in January 2014, NetSuite will enable Good360 to eliminate two on-premise servers and avoid the expense of a full-time IT person, while netting additional savings as a grantee of the NetSuite.org corporate citizenship program, which offers free and discounted licensing to qualified charities and social enterprises, and pro bono services from NetSuite’s 2400 global employees.
That frees resources for Good360 to channel into programs and social impact, including the launch of operations in Australia, currently in progress. Handling financials, inventory management and CRM, NetSuite will also deliver a new degree of transparency and efficiency that is critical for Good360 to fulfill its vision, including a goal of roughly tripling its impact to deliver $1 billion worth of goods a year.
“NetSuite gives us the transparency and scalability we need to grow quickly and internationally with less overhead,” Gruberg said. “Transparency and reporting are really key for us—understanding who we’re helping, how we’re helping and how we can do greater social good.”
NetSuite also gives Good360 enhanced CRM capabilities with a consolidated, on-demand record of both its corporate donors and recipient organizations, while NetSuite’s reporting functions make it easy for Good360 to view key metrics and drill down to detail for impact analysis, forecasting and optimal distribution of goods.
“Prior to NetSuite, we were really in the dark—we knew we were going in the right direction, but couldn’t quantify it,” Gruberg said. “The level of transparency we get with NetSuite will help us be more efficient.”
NetSuite.org is proud to support the mission of Good360, one of more than 400 charities and social enterprises to benefit through the donation program and NetSuite’s industry-leading cloud business management solution. Learn more about the NetSuite.org program at www.netsuite.org, or find us on Twitter @NetSuiteOrg.
- David Geilhufe, NetSuite.org Director