Friends of Children Everywhere (FOCE) serves as the fundraising arm for Casa Bernabé (House of Comfort) in Guatemala, supporting programs that help break the cycle of poverty for hundreds of children. Before finding Aplos and Keela, this volunteer-led organization faced significant challenges managing both their accounting and donor relationships. In this case study, we explore how Board Treasurer Julia Amstutz led the organization's transition to an integrated approach using Aplos for nonprofit accounting and Keela for donor management to make major improvements in their financial operations.

The Heart Behind the Numbers

For Julia Amstutz, her role as Board Treasurer at Friends of Children Everywhere is about much more than balancing books. "For me, it’s about seeing the impact it has on the kids," she explains. "There are 100 kids who live on campus and then another 250 or so that go to the school... I love getting to see that you're making a difference in their lives when they would otherwise not get an education or be living on the streets."

As a professional accountant, Julia volunteers her expertise to ensure that every donated dollar has maximum impact. Beyond her treasury duties, she manages the organization's sponsorship programs, communicating with donors who sponsor individual children or houses with house parents. This dual role gives her unique insight into the financial operations and donor relationships that sustain the organization's mission.

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Organization Background

Friends of Children Everywhere is, in Julia's words, "the fundraising arm of Casa Bernabé Ministries. It's a 501(c)(3) that raises money to support Casa Bernabé." The ministry they support operates seven core programs in Guatemala designed to break the cycle of poverty. "That's why we don't have any employees on the U.S. side," Julia explains. "There are tons of them down at Casa Bernabé, but all we really do here is make it so people can give money tax-deductibly."

Working entirely through a volunteer board, FOCE channels donations to support children's homes, schools, vocational training, family support, and mentorship programs. This lean operational model maximizes the impact of every dollar donated but also creates a significant administrative lift.

The Challenge of Clunky Systems

Before implementing their current software solutions, FOCE struggled with systems that weren't designed for nonprofit operations. They were using QuickBooks for accounting and a combination of Neon and Constant Contact for donor management – systems that didn't communicate with each other.

"We used to have two different people doing accounting and development. One did accounting in QuickBooks, and one managed donors in Neon," Julia recalls. "At board meetings, one of them would tell you one number for how much donations we'd gotten and the other would tell you another number, and they were sometimes pretty significantly off."

This disconnect created major inefficiencies. "We get a lot of designated gifts for specific purposes," Julia explains, "and I had set up a way to do it, but QuickBooks isn't set up for that at all." The limitations of standard accounting software meant that tracking restricted funds required constant manual effort and reconciliation.

Even more challenging was the manual data entry required. "I was inputting everything manually into QuickBooks," Julia says. "Every donation I would have to download from our Stripe system, and then upload into QuickBooks." The process was time-consuming and error-prone, depleting valuable volunteer hours away from mission-focused activities.

Finding a Better Way

The journey to better systems began when another board member shared his experience using Aplos with his church. "He told me, 'You should check out this other software. They have a really good way of tracking finances and actually using funds,'" Julia recalls. After seeing a demonstration of Aplos, the value was immediately apparent.

"When I saw the fund management in Aplos, I immediately realized it would be so much easier because the systems works for a nonprofit process."

The organization implemented Aplos first, immediately benefiting from its nonprofit-specific accounting features. But they soon recognized the need for more robust donor management capabilities as well, which led them to Keela.

"Aplos obviously has some level of donor management, but it's pretty clunky," Julia explains. "Keela is a lot more seamless, especially when it comes to tracking the connection between donations that were prompted by specific email communications. That, and the fact that we could send out and format our emails a lot better."

The Powerful Results of Aplos and Keela

For FOCE, the decision to implement both Aplos and Keela was driven by their complementary strengths. As Julia puts it, "I think they have different purposes, and I think both of them do really well at their respective purposes. If you try to use just one, you're not going to get the full benefit of fund accounting."

The anticipated integration (Aplos and Keela will have an integrated data sync soon!) between the two systems was a key factor in their decision.

"Having that integrated piece will be huge. Once the reconciliation is automated so that Aplos and Keela talk to each other, it will be amazing.”

Each system has brought significant improvements separately, and the combination of the two offers even greater advantages:

Benefits of Using Aplos

• Nonprofit-specific accounting
• Streamlined donation entry
• Better donation tracking

"The system's ability to track designated gifts properly resolved a major pain point when it comes to our donations that are given for specific purposes. You click a box in Aplos and everything is imported in the proper way we need to have our donations tracked. No more manual entry.” — Julia Amstutz, Board Treasurer

Benefits of Using Keela

• Automated donor acknowledgment
• Visual fundraising progress
• Streamlined volunteer management
• Email campaign effectiveness
• Board-wide communication visibility

"I now have Keela set up so that as soon as a new donor gives a gift, within two business days they get a personalized thank you from our chairman of the board. Also, as a board we’re all handling communications together. Keela gives us insights to see who has already talked to each donor, what was said, and how to continually personalize those communications. — Julia Amstutz, Board Treasurer

Benefits of Using Both Systems Together

• Eliminating data discrepancies across donation management: "If your accounting system isn't talking to your CRM system, then you end up having to spend a lot of time reconciling the two and figuring out why they don't match," Julia explains. “The planned integration between Aplos and Keela will eliminate this challenge completely.”
• Leveraging a unified view of donor giving and financial impact: "I think what was going to be super helpful is that I don't have to do this reconciliation monthly to see that my CRM system matches my accounting system," Julia says, highlighting the value of having donor and financial data in sync.

Lessons for Other Nonprofits

For organizations considering similar implementations, Julia offers this insight: "If your accounting system isn't talking to your CRM system, then you end up having to spend a lot of time reconciling the two and figuring out why they don't match. If the two systems talk to each other, then you know that the people dealing with donations are using the same information that your accountants are, and there's no discrepancy between the two."

Julia’s story makes one thing strikingly clear: volunteer-run nonprofits can benefit from sophisticated and synced technology solutions. By choosing systems designed specifically for nonprofit needs, Friends of Children Everywhere has created a more efficient, transparent, and effective operational infrastructure that allows them to focus more energy on their mission of changing children's lives in Guatemala.

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