Where The Association of Nutrition & Foodservice Professionals started
The Association of Nutrition and Foodservice Professionals (ANFP) is a nonprofit trade association with chapters around the country representing those in the food service industry. Each chapter hosts events ranging from educational programs, networking, to professional development, run by volunteers who are passionate about their work.
ANFP had each chapter manage its own bank account, as there was no better solution. Many chapters opted for local banks or credit unions that lacked modern amenities like digital banking. One chapter treasurer needed to drive an hour and a half to the closest branch!
Like any organization run by volunteers, it was challenging for ANFP local chapters to maintain a bank account with the relevant signatories if the volunteer treasurer stopped wanting to volunteer. Chapters could be left with bank accounts that they had no access to, with trapped funds inside.
The national office of ANFP heard the banking struggles of their chapters and wanted to not only provide a better alternative for their chapters but also for their own pain points as the national office. Because each chapter’s bank account was completely separate and had no ties to the national office, they had no insight into the health of their chapters. They also had limited ability to help with fraud allegations or fund mismanagement within a chapter.
The national office wanted to find a solution to centralize their organization’s finances, get visibility into their chapters, and make it easier for their chapters to manage their funds.
ANFP looked long and hard for a platform that could give insights into their chapters, and allow them to operate independently – investigating more than 20 different providers! They found Crowded and saw that it fit their needs on the national and chapter level for transparent association banking. In the end, the board approved Crowded and set it as the sole accepted banking provider for their chapters.
How this Association benefited from unified banking
Visibility For the National Level
In each chapter’s Crowded account, the national level has a read-only role. This role allows them to see the transactions and balances of their chapters, but they cannot take any action. This access gives them the visibility and oversight into each chapters’ financial situation that they were missing before.
Modern Digital Banking* for Chapters
Each ANFP chapter is set up with 100% online banking*, from account creation, the everyday maintenance, to officer handovers. Members are no longer needing to drive hours to the ATM! Busy volunteers can manage their ANFP chapter’s finances online and on their own time.
The officer handovers occurring online make it much easier and therefore likely that a volunteer will properly hand off their responsibilities to the next person. The chapters will no longer be left with bank accounts where it is impossible to change the signatory, they can retain full control of their financials, and the national office gets peace of mind.
ANFP chapters enjoy no monthly fees, minimum balances and FDIC pass-through insurance eligible accounts**!
Collecting Event Registrations and Sponsor Fees
Each ANFP chapter collects money steadily throughout the year from a variety of sources. They collect conference tickets from members, and event sponsorship fees from external parties. They have a clear need to keep incoming payments organized, rather than sticking to checks and cash.
Luckily,
Crowded Collect allows the ANFP chapters to methodically collect and track incoming payments. They set up collections with the name of the event and share it with a QR code. They can clearly see who has paid for what, and how much. Members, at the same time, enjoy the secure online payment process and pay in the method that is most convenient for them (debit, credit, ACH, check, cash).
No Need for Reconciliation
Before, ANFP chapter treasurers would need to dedicate a considerable amount of time to reconciling their books and bank accounts. Because Crowded compiles payment collection, spending and banking into one platform, there’s no need to reconcile – everything is in one place!
We were so glad to find a platform that allows us to support our chapters, and give them independence. There are complications managing an association partially comprised of volunteers who aren’t experienced with digital banking, but Crowded’s platform is so user-friendly that it was easily adopted across the organization.
Built-In Membership Management
The structure for ANFP is such that by paying meeting registration fees, an individual is enrolled as a contact for their local chapter. How convenient that when someone pays their fee with Crowded, the chapter receives that person’s full name, email, and phone number! Chapters can easily keep track of and communicate with their members and contacts using the contact information provided by Crowded.
Fraud Free Spending
With the money from event fees and sponsorships in each chapter’s accounts, they can use those funds to pay invoices, vendors, buy materials, etc. with Crowded’s debit cards. The admins of the account can see all purchases made, as well as the nationals with their read-only permission. These cards allow for transparent spending of group funds, and erase any opportunity for misuse of organization funds.
ANFP saves 17,000 hours a year
since switching to Crowded
reconciliation
digital banking
