From Manual Registration to Scalable Impact: How BIO Girls Scaled to 120 Programs with Blackthorn and Salesforce

BIO Girls (Beautiful Inside and Out) exists to build the most confident generation of girls.

As Laura Scott, Chief Operating Officer, explains, the organization’s mission is simple but powerful: “to improve mental health through empowerment of self and connection with others.”

Through programming designed for girls in grades 2–6, BIO Girls teaches critical life skills and protective factors that strengthen peer relationships, build resilience, and help each participant “be proud of who they are as an individual.”

Now in its 14th year, BIO Girls has grown from a founder-led passion project into a five-state nonprofit serving approximately 3,000 girls annually, nearly 17,000 girls since 2013. Programs operate in more than 90 communities across North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and South Dakota, supported by nearly 1,200 volunteers each year.

In 2025, BIO Girls supported approximately 120 programs, with plans to expand to 150+ programs in the coming years. That scale, powered entirely by volunteers, requires operational precision behind the scenes. As the organization prepared for its next phase of expansion, BIO Girls needed infrastructure that could scale alongside its impact.

Before Blackthorn, BIO Girls operated across a patchwork of platforms, including Insightly, DonorDock, Excel, and Race Planner. None of the systems spoke to one another.

“Multiple platforms that didn’t talk to one another,” Laura recalled.

Every registration cycle required hands-on intervention. In late 2021, when BIO Girls was running approximately 45 programs, staff manually created each registration, opened it individually, and later manually closed it. Setting up just one program registration required 60–90 minutes of data entry.

Over time, those hours compounded. Onboarding a new program required an average of 46.5 staff hours, and even existing sites required more than 35 hours of work. Manual processes led to delayed openings, long waitlists, redundant reporting, and significant administrative strain.

BIO Girls Volunteer Site Directors also lacked self-service access to participant rosters. Mentor-daughter registrations required manual verification, and financial assistance tracking relied on formulas in spreadsheets. Revenue could not easily be tied back to individual programs.

As BIO Girls grew, those inefficiencies became more than an inconvenience , they threatened the organization’s ability to scale. What once felt manageable at 45 programs became a structural constraint at 120.

In fall 2022, BIO Girls transitioned to Salesforce and began searching for an events platform that could automate complex, high-volume registration while integrating seamlessly with their CRM.

BIO Girls uses Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) as its core CRM and Partner Community (Experience Cloud) to support and engage its volunteer network. Together, these systems create a centralized environment for managing participants, volunteers, and community engagement across BIO Girls’ growing footprint. With programs operating across dozens of communities simultaneously, the team needed an events platform that could work natively within that Salesforce ecosystem while simplifying registration, payments, and reporting.

“We were looking for a tool that had automation available, that was intuitive, and that integrated with Salesforce,” Laura explained.

Ease of use, customization flexibility, reporting capabilities, and Salesforce-native automation were essential. BIO Girls evaluated other event management platforms but quickly eliminated them due to the complexity and scale of their programming needs.

“When it comes to the complexity of our programs, as well as the sheer volume of programs… Blackthorn was the only one who checked the majority of those boxes that we needed.”— Laura Scott.

Founder and CEO, Missy Heilman, led the internal decision process, bringing prior Salesforce experience from a technology consulting background. Implementation was supported by Galvin Technologies, which worked closely with the BIO Girls team to translate real-world workflows into automated Salesforce processes.

“Galvin was instrumental in making sure the setup aligned with our internal processes,” Laura shared.

With Blackthorn embedded into Salesforce, BIO Girls established a scalable foundation capable of supporting the organization’s continued expansion.

Today, BIO Girls manages approximately 240 registration events annually, two per program, one for volunteers and one for participants, all tied to a single Salesforce campaign per site.

What once required dozens of manual clicks now takes a single action in Salesforce: checking a box to generate a fully configured event automatically

Registration open and close dates are scheduled in advance, event registration closes automatically when full, and confirmation workflows run without manual oversight — all while keeping financial assistance embedded directly in the registration experience.

Financial accessibility is central to BIO Girls’ mission, and Blackthorn provides immediate visibility into both participant revenue and financial assistance awarded. For the first time, registration revenue is directly correlated to individual programs, eliminating spreadsheet formulas and improving audit readiness.

BIO Girls participates in an annual audit, and matching revenue to program participation has become significantly more efficient and accurate.

Reporting has transformed as well. Through Salesforce dashboards, the team can instantly view registration capacity percentages, volunteer applications, financial assistance totals, and upcoming program performance.

“The reporting from Blackthorn has allowed us to make data-informed decisions in real time,” Laura explained. “It’s been really incredible.”

What once required hours of exporting data and building pivot tables now takes minutes.

The impact of automation is most visible in BIO Girls’ growth trajectory. The organization expanded from 65 programs in 2021 to 120 programs in 2025 — without adding significant staff.

“What I can tell you is we went from 65 programs in 2021 to 120 programs in 2025, and we’ve been able to do that without the addition of many additional staff because of our transition to Blackthorn.” — Laura Scott.

“The reporting from Blackthorn has allowed us to make data-informed decisions in real time, allowing us to make strategic decisions much faster.” — Laura Scott.

BIO Girls operates with three volunteer managers. Previously, each manager could support roughly 30 programs annually. Today, they manage 40–50 programs each, with the potential to scale to 60 per manager.

Without Blackthorn, BIO Girls estimates it would have required three additional full-time staff members, representing more than $200,000 in annual salary and benefits costs avoided.

Onboarding time per program has dropped from 46.5 hours to approximately 15–20 hours, and administrative setup has shifted from manual repetition to automated precision.

Freed from repetitive tasks, the team now focuses more deeply on volunteer enablement and community impact. Automation has shifted capacity from administration to mission delivery.

BIO Girls’ strategic plan centers on three pathways: increasing accessibility, producing undeniable outcomes, and building enduring connections.

“Blackthorn is a very important piece of ensuring we have ease of access to achieving these goals,” Laura shared.

The organization aims to increase program capacity from 85% to 90%, expand to 125–130 programs in 2026, and surpass 150 programs in 2027.

Continued automation enhancements, including improved attendance tracking, greater registration flexibility, and refined confirmation workflows — will support that trajectory.

As BIO Girls grows, Blackthorn continues to evolve alongside it, strengthening the infrastructure behind the mission.

For BIO Girls, ROI is not a single number, it’s a shift in capacity, confidence, and control. The Events platform streamlined registration and reporting, reduced repetitive setup, and enabled significant program growth without adding staff.

It increased reporting accuracy, improved audit readiness, delivered real-time financial visibility, and strengthened the parent and volunteer registration experience.

“It’s made registration really easy, really simple, a great end-user experience.”— Laura Scott.

Through Blackthorn, BIO Girls has moved from managing registration manually to leveraging events strategically, scaling impact while protecting the heart of its mission.