Emily Gilles
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Designing a nonprofit engagement plan

A nonprofit construction school struggled to track graduate outcomes. I designed a follow-up process to keep graduates connected and supported.

The challenge

Colorado Homebuilding Academy helps people get jobs in construction, but it was difficult to keep in touch with students after training. Without reliable follow-up, staff couldn’t report accurate outcomes to funders or offer support to graduates who were struggling.

With limited staff capacity, budget, and tech resources, the nonprofit needed a lightweight but effective way to collect job data and maintain engagement with graduates.

 

The approach

I talked to the students before jumping into ideas.

I surveyed 30 current students to understand how they felt about the onboarding process and how they preferred to share job data. I also interviewed trainers and students to understand the full student journey and analyzed historical employment data to find trends. To support future analysis, I added survey questions to the student application process.

I visualized the student journey to design holistic solutions.

Mapping the entire student journey revealed two key issues:

  • Students had no incentive to share employment data unless offered tangible rewards.

  • Roles and responsibilities at follow-up touchpoints were unclear, leading to missed connections.

  • I led research and designed solutions to improve post-training communication and data collection. I collaborated with other nonprofit staff to define and redesign internal processes.

  • Skills I used include user research, service design, journey mapping, visual design, and form design.

  • Tools I used include Adobe Illustrator for visualizing process maps, Google Docs for collaboration, and Excel for synthesizing surveys and student data.

 

The solution

Process improvements, documented in a service blueprint

I facilitated a collaborative session with staff to create a service blueprint (PDF) that clarified every touchpoint and responsibility. We introduced:

  • Incentives (Home Depot gift cards and extra career support) for students who shared job data.

  • A follow-up schedule: every 3 months for a year via text, email, and phone.

  • Defined staff roles for each step, including a “warm hand-off” from recruiter to trainer to build rapport early.

Service blueprint graphic with a different color boxes in a flow chart.
 

A streamlined form to collect job data

I redesigned the job data form by removing unnecessary questions, using survey logic to skip irrelevant ones, and rewriting copy for clarity. I rebuilt the form in the nonprofit’s CRM so staff could collect and analyze data without extra manual work.

 

The results

  • The share of graduates with current employment status data increased from 7% to 59% in the quarter after project launch.

  • The organization had more of the information they needed to serve students and attract funders.

  • A visualized service blueprint improved staff communication, reducing stress and wasted time.