How wellconnected powers Buffalo’s Toys for Tots campaign

The WNY Holiday Partnership is a largescale regional collaboration of toy giveaway programs for the December holidays. Members of the partnership create one network where everyone can come together without duplicate efforts and services to brighten the holidays for needy families.

The coordination of the campaign is a massive undertaking. Intake led by 211 WNY involved 29 agencies last year dispersing toys and gifts to 3,629 households and ultimately more than 10,000 children.

It’s the kind of effort that requires a system. Last year, 211 WNY turned to wellconnected to implement that system.

wellconnected is a mission-based technology startup in Buffalo that seeks to bring cutting-edge technology to the world of social care. Our allco platform creates intuitive tools for nonprofit agencies to manage everything from intake assessments to referrals.

Click here to learn more about allco, the first case management software that brings about systems change in collaborative community care

Our team has been supporting the Partnership and Toys for Tots campaign in some form for six years now. But in 2023, 211 WNY turned to us to create secure authentication through our platform and then to use our customer relationship management (CRM) platform to track the agencies and households involved. Wellconnected provided this service at no cost.

“The nonprofit world has been largely ignored by software solutions that solve their discrete problems at a price they can afford, even though they face the same modern need for security and efficiency as the broader business world,” said Duane Conners, CEO of wellconnected. “We created a secure login for the 2023 Toys for Tots campaign to bring that level of authentication to a big process with a lot of moving parts, and then offered our CRM to implement a collaborative system that drives success for this very important Western New York initiative.”

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The WNY Holiday Partnership and Toys for Tots, which is a collaboration of United Way of Buffalo & Erie County, 211 WNY, local nonprofits, The Buffalo News, Wegmans, and USMC, picks up in earnest each fall with requests from the community for donations and new products which can be given as gifts to families in need.

While the donation drive is being organized and promoted, the social care agencies get to work in identifying families who will receive toys. That involves an onsite visit to understand the needs of the family so they can receive the appropriate gifts.

“This campaign is an annual reminder of the deep support, compassion and sense of community in Western New York,” said Dawn Vanderkooi, 211 WNY director of call center services. “wellconnected provides that necessary layer of technology to ensure the campaign is a transparent and accountable process.”

Toys for Tots and the Partnership are a great example of our mission at wellconnected. We built this platform hand-in-hand with design partners in the nonprofit world. That industry still relies on static Excel documents and in some cases pen-and-paper to manage their relationships with stakeholders, but that leads to frustration, inefficiency and friction with funders that are requiring greater transparency in how their money is being deployed.

We are currently working with an expanding list of companies in Western New York and the northeast. Local clients include Independent Health, Peace Prints of WNY, Catholic Charities, Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency, Healthy Community Alliance, Harvest House and others.