Crawl, Walk, Run—Break Down the Complexity

Clients come to us because they want reliable and effective ways to connect with their members and supporters.

They're looking for better messaging, deeper insights into how their audience responds, and a smooth routine for ongoing communications. And of course, they want solutions that are easy to use, trustworthy, and deliver quick results.

Our process usually kicks off with a 60-90 minute discovery session, along with a quick audit of their current practices. We review their messaging, data, channels, and compliance to get a clear picture of where they currently are. From there, we collaborate to develop and pilot a small but impactful starting plan — something that delivers immediate value and results.  Once that plan is working well, we help scale it up with playbooks and training.

Honestly, we think it's way more valuable to teach our clients' teams how to fish—give them the skills to keep winning on their own—rather than just tossing them a fish. That way, the success actually sticks.

We realize this can be a lot at first. But we try to keep things simple:

• Define the audience
• Set the goal
• Craft the message
• Share on the right channel

To keep everything running smoothly, we establish governance using "RACI" matrices that clearly assign roles—Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. We then help them to build content libraries, analyze data on engagement, and make adjustments to improve results.

It might sound overwhelming at first, but we take things step-by-step—crawl, walk, run—to break down the complexity into manageable pieces. That way, clients can focus on what truly matters: building genuine connections with their members and supporters.

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Shubhangi Srivastava is the Chief Technology Officer at NEP Services, where she leads the creation of award-winning technology platforms that serve more than 750,000 members in 700+ unions, nonprofits, and public safety organizations nationwide. Recognized for her ability to turn complex ideas into secure, scalable, and impactful solutions, she has helped transform NEP from a service-based agency into a nationally recognized SaaS platform company.

Her flagship innovation, Connect Plus+, earned Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in North America honor and has been recognized with the Tech for Good Award and the Nonprofit Tech Innovation Award. The platform is the first of its kind to include a patent-pending AI chatbot for secure, role-based member data access, along with advanced communication, dues processing, and engagement tools tailored for unions and nonprofits.

Shubhangi also led the development of Help a Hero, a secure union-governed crowdfunding platform, and First Responder Processing, which fully automated donation workflows and doubled NEP’s annual processing volume to over $10 million. A mentor in Women in STEM programs and a judge for the Timmy Awards for Best Tech Manager, she delivers technology that drives efficiency, revenue, and community impact.