THE NTEN STORY

Bridging the Digital Divide: How NTEN Supports Nonprofits

Since its founding in 2000, NTEN has been at the forefront of helping nonprofits leverage technology to drive social impact. As a nonprofit dedicated to digital equity, NTEN provides expert training, research, and a community-driven approach to supporting organizations in their technology adoption journey.

Ash Shepherd, NTEN’s Chief Program Officer, describes the organization’s mission:

“We are creating a world where missions and movements are successful through the skillful and equitable use of technology. We build transformative power by connecting people who put technology to work for social change.”

Through its robust training programs and certificate offerings, NTEN equips nonprofit professionals with the digital skills they need to be effective in their roles and drive social change through technology. However, as NTEN expanded its virtual learning programs and online meetups, it faced mounting challenges in community member onboarding and support. The organization needed a solution that enabled end-users with seamless self-service and in-app guidance without increasing the support burden on its already small nonprofit staff.

THE CHALLENGE

The Growing Pains of a Digital-First Learning Experience

As NTEN’s training programs grew, so did the demand for participant support. The challenge was twofold: ensuring users could navigate NTEN’s online training center powered by Appinium LMS while reducing reliance on staff for routine support questions related to the training center.

Key obstacles included:

• High Support Ticket Volume: During peak periods, its LMS-related support tickets spiked to 60 member tickets a month, consuming 1.5+ staff hours daily.
• Manual Member Onboarding Process: New community members relied on emails, videos, and live calls for training, leading to confusion on how to use its online learning platform and spikes in support tickets.
• Underutilized Appinium LMS Features: Participants often struggled to track course progress and manage prepaid course credits, limiting member engagement and causing dropoff.
• Lack of Targeted Insights: NTEN found it impossible to identify where these friction points occurred in its LMS workflows and struggled to improve the onboarding experience without clear user behavior data.

Recognizing the need for a scalable, self-service user adoption solution, Shepherd began researching technology providers that could provide real-time, in-app support while reducing support ticket volume. He then organically stumbled upon Whatfix.

“Honestly, I was unaware of the term Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) in any sense when I began my process. I started by researching “onboarding resources/technology” as my starting point. From there, I found several tools in the broad category. Whatfix’s website introduced me to the concept of DAP, and it was exactly what I was looking for,” said Shepherd.

THE SOLUTION

Implementing In-App Guided Onboarding and Self-Service Support for a Seamless Learning Experience

NTEN turned to Whatfix to create a more intuitive and self-sufficient onboarding experience within Appinium, its Salesforce-native Learning Management System (LMS). The implementation focused on three key capabilities:

1. Guided Training Center Tour

Whatfix Flows provided step-by-step walkthroughs introducing participants to the training center and certificate dashboard. This eliminated the need for live onboarding sessions, allowing users to explore and navigate independently.

“The Flows were an obvious and instant win as they helped our new participants onboard to the system without waiting for or joining a live event to walk through everything,” said Shepherd.

2. Self-Service Help & Contextual Support

Whatfix DAP’s Self Help feature offered an on-demand resource hub where users could search for answers without submitting support tickets. NTEN integrated its internal help articles, ensuring its members who had signed-up for its online courses and programs had immediate access to relevant information within the LMS.

“We also found instant success with the self-help functionality combined with internal help articles. Having insights into what topics folks were visiting most and which Flows were being utilized helped us identify the next area to focus our support materials development efforts. Spreading our time and resources on what adds the most value to participants,” said Shepherd.

3. Data-Driven Insights & Community Member Experience Optimization

The analytics from Self Help allowed NTEN to track search terms and identify content gaps. Based on user behavior, NTEN could refine its help articles, making its existing support content more helpful and providing data-driven suggestions on what new member help articles to create.

An unexpected significant value drive was having insights into what topics folks were visiting most and seeing what search terms were used in Self Help that did not lead to successful matches.

“The biggest value we have found that we didn’t originally expect was seeing what search terms folks were using in Self Help that did not lead to successful matches. It allowed us to better refine content in existing articles to match the terms they might be using and identify resources we were unaware folks needed and get them added,” said Shepherd.

By embedding Whatfix into its LMS experience, NTEN transformed its participant experience, reducing the burden on staff while improving user satisfaction.

THE RESULTS

Dramatic Efficiency Gains by Empowering Members With Guided Learning Experiences

The impact of Whatfix on NTEN’s training programs was immediate and significant. Key outcomes included:

• 100% Reduction in Support Queries Related to Navigation & Onboarding: Before Whatfix, NTEN staff spent up to 1.5 hours daily addressing system-related queries. Post-implementation, these queries dropped to zero, freeing up ~5 weekly staff hours for higher-value tasks.
• Enhanced User Engagement & Feature Utilization: Participants became more confident in navigating the LMS and using prepaid course credits. Support requests shifted from basic navigation issues to strategic learning inquiries, improving learning outcomes.
• Data-Driven Decision Making: By analyzing user search behavior within Self Help, NTEN identified new training content needs. This allowed for continuous refinement of support materials, ensuring they aligned with user challenges.
• Operational Cost Savings: Each support query took ~45 minutes and cost ~$30/hour in staff time. Eliminating these tickets led to significant cost reductions, allowing NTEN to allocate resources strategically.

NTEN’s partnership with Whatfix showcases how frictionless technology experiences and contextual self-service can empower non-technical users, reduce operational strain, and drive digital transformation efforts. By enabling self-service learning and reducing reliance on direct staff support, NTEN has improved efficiency and reinforced its commitment to digital equity and social impact.

As NTEN continues to expand its offerings, Whatfix remains a strategic partner in driving adoption, engagement, and long-term success in nonprofit technology education.