1. Customer Testimonials
  2. Bonneville Environmental Foundation

Nonprofit Bonneville Environmental Foundation Boosts its Impact with Oracle NetSuite Social Impact

Bonneville Environmental Foundation

Company

Bonneville Environmental Foundation

Location

Portland, Ore.

Industry

Nonprofit

Applications Replaced

QuickBooks, FileMaker Pro, Excel

Solutions

NetSuite Financials
Inventory Management
CRM

“NetSuite has really made everything so much easier and more efficient to manage for a nonprofit that's quite unique and complex, operating in a volatile industry and competing against for-profit companies.” Bonneville Environmental Foundation

Customer Success

  • Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) relies on NetSuite for critical automation and visibility across diverse lines of business of marketing renewable energy certificates, delivering solar education in schools and managing renewable energy and watershed programs.
  • On-demand access to financial and project-specific data helps BEF better manage complex business models and compete against for-profit companies in a volatile industry.
  • BEF is better able to focus on delivering innovative environmental solutions that have kept 6.8 million metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere and generated more than 5.5 million megawatt hours of clean energy.
  • BEF relies on NetSuite to manage sales of renewable energy certificates, carbon offset credits and other tradable environmental commodities to commercial power consumers in the Pacific Northwest and other U.S. regions.
  • BEF has reduced the time needed to deliver RECs and environmental commodities to clients from 144 hours to eight hours in an annual exercise each March, replacing paper-based processes with electronic automation.
  • BEF's Solar 4R Schools program relies on NetSuite for project management in partnering with K-12 schools to deliver renewable energy education that has reached more than 400,000 students.
  • The BEF Model Watershed Program benefits with NetSuite reporting on grants and financials, supporting its success in revitalizing 14 watersheds in six western states.
  • NetSuite has enabled BEF to improve transparency and accountability with funders such as Boeing, Disney, Bonneville Power Administration and Meyer Memorial Trust.
  • Financial reporting and compliance has been strengthened across fee-for-service revenue (about 75% of revenue) as well as grants and in-kind services.
  • An in-house customization to NetSuite has given BEF new visibility and control over the management of up to 150 contracts a year.

Challenges

  • BEF needed to maximize cost-efficiencies and better manage complex and diverse business models.
  • BEF struggled with a haphazard collection of QuickBooks, FileMaker Pro and Excel with no centralization of data and difficulties accessing key information.
  • Staff spent valuable time on unproductive manual data reconciliations that were tedious and prone to error.

Solution

  • NetSuite supplies a single system of record that enables BEF to streamline operations, minimize manual work and better focus on creative environmental solutions.
  • Grant of free and discounted licensing through the Oracle NetSuite Social Impact has helped the nonprofit organisation channel resources into value-add activities.
  • NetSuite partner Demand Solutions Group built customized workflows that enabled the reduction from 144 to eight hours the time needed for annual environmental commodity delivery exercise.

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