9/2/25
Adoption, Accelerated: The Digital Makeover That’s Changing Families Forever
One of America’s largest adoption agencies removed digital friction to scale its mission. A rebuilt adoption journey, dominant search visibility, and automated systems increased conversions, engagement, and capacity so more families could move forward faster.
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“Any solution must reduce intake barriers and improve outcomes for kids.”
For 135 years, one of America's leading adoption centers has delivered the most meaningful outcome imaginable: a child finding a family.
Its mission was clear. Its reputation was earned.
Its digital systems were not keeping up.
As adoption increasingly begins online, the agency faced a hard truth: growth was no longer limited by demand, but by digital capacity.
The mandate was clear: remove friction without disrupting the mission.
The Before: When Mission Outpaces Systems
The organization relied heavily on SugarCRM to manage processes and data workloads it was never designed to handle at scale. Intake and file handling were deeply embedded in the CRM, creating operational drag and technical fragility.
Websites were outdated, managed separately, and disconnected from backend systems. That separation obscured the visitor journey and made it nearly impossible to measure outcomes accurately.
Behind the scenes, data and reporting were siloed and duplicated across teams. Trust in numbers eroded. Decision-making slowed. Technical bottlenecks increased staff fatigue and limited the organization’s ability to grow impact.
High-friction intake led to drop-offs and delays.
Outdated tools weakened user trust and staff efficiency.
Inaccurate, inaccessible data undermined reporting and fundraising confidence.
Most importantly, limited visibility into outcomes restricted the organization’s ability to improve results for children.
The Intervention
We led a phased modernization designed to reduce risk while delivering measurable progress.
Rather than attempting a full rip-and-replace, we started where impact was highest: digital experience and data. The work followed a WIN cadence, shipping improvements incrementally while maintaining operational continuity.
This approach allowed leadership to see value early, teams to adapt without disruption, and the platform to evolve sustainably.
A Modern Intake Front Door
We decoupled heavy intake and file-handling processes from SugarCRM and introduced a modern, accessible front-end experience. This preserved existing domain authority while dramatically improving usability.
Families could now move through intake with clarity and confidence instead of friction and confusion.
A Unified Data Foundation
We implemented a governed data model with automated pipelines across programs and donors. Instead of fragmented spreadsheets and one-off reports, teams gained a single source of truth.
Role-based analytics replaced informal reporting, increasing confidence in insights and enabling leadership to track funnel performance and program outcomes in real time.
Reporting That Actually Worked
Reporting cycles were streamlined and standardized. Audits, research requests, and leadership updates no longer required manual reconciliation or backtracking through inconsistent data.Digital experience overhaul
We rebuilt and relaunched the agency’s core digital platforms with a mobile-first, self-service approach. Families could move cleanly from discovery to application to engagement without stalled steps or broken workflows.
Growth that actually matters
560 new keywords indexed.
More than 1.4 million Google impressions in six months.
34 top-three rankings and 170 top-ten rankings.
Not vanity traffic. These were families actively seeking adoption support and finding the agency at the moment it mattered most.
The After: Scale Without Compromise
The impact showed up quickly and across the organization.
• 15–25% reduction in intake drop-off within priority funnels
• 30–50% reduction in SugarCRM workload tied to intake and uploads
• 40–60% reduction in reporting cycle time
Qualitative Gains
• Increased confidence in data and outcomes
• Fewer operational bottlenecks across teams
• A clearer, more supportive experience for families from first touch through placement and post-placement engagement
Strategic Alignment
• Directly supported the organization’s objective to reduce intake friction and improve outcomes for kids
• Enabled incremental modernization aligned with nonprofit constraints
• Delivered value every sprint without putting mission delivery at risk
In Their Words
“It has been so nice to feel validated in a lot of my frustrations and know that we can improve and fix these things. You have been so quick to communicate and help.”
Customer Service Manager
Today, America’s largest adoption agency operates on a modern, mobile-first platform with digital reach that finally matches its national footprint.
More families reached.
More children placed.
More impact delivered, without compromising care.
When technology stops getting in the way, missions move faster.
