Nonprofit director believes brightwheel is well worth the investment

Alyssa started using brightwheel in the summer of 2020, when she was a Director at Southminster Child Care overseeing a program with 50 children. Since then, she’s grown into an Executive Director role at the nonprofit McNeilly Center for Children, overseeing 200 children and providing quality child care for low-income families in the Nashville area. She brought brightwheel to both programs, and she’s never looked back.   

The start of Alyssa’s brightwheel journey

Before bringing on brightwheel, Alyssa and her team at Southminster Child Care were frustrated with their experience using a different child care management software. They ran into major technology issues with their old tool, and it was hard to reach their Support team. When they finally did get a hold of them, they didn’t find their answers helpful.

Brightwheel, in contrast, was a breath of fresh air. Right from the get-go, Alyssa was amazed at how supportive the Onboarding team was. They made sure she understood how to use the app to the best of its capabilities. This made Alyssa feel confident and ready to dive in to all the different features brightwheel has to offer.

The Onboarding team did all of the uploading of the kiddos and all their information, which is the most tedious task. Brightwheel took care of all of that for our center.

Alyssa D

Executive Director at McNeilly Center for Children

Something else that changed after Alyssa started using brightwheel is that she no longer had the stress of feeling like she didn’t know what was going on at her program when she took well-deserved vacation. She now knows everything that is happening, every day, thanks to the app. She describes brightwheel as the one thing that keeps her day running smoothly.

A new chapter kicked off with brightwheel

When Alyssa moved into the Executive Director role at McNeilly Center for Children, the first decision she made was to implement brightwheel and move off pen and paper. The program quickly saw relationships between families and staff become stronger, and they also saw efficiency gains in their enrollment process.

Teachers love brightwheel because they are able to share the sweet moments that are in their day-to-day. It’s a way for teachers to brag on themselves, as they should!

Alyssa D

Outside of providing child care, McNeilly Center for Children also provides support services to help parents strengthen their parenting skills and assist families in solving problems. Brightwheel Messaging gives staff an easy way to share everything from book recommendations to potty training resources to information on caring for newborns.

Alyssa is proud to see her staff soak up information given at brightwheel webinars and take full ownership of parts of the tool. With 50 staff members spanning all age ranges, she is grateful to provide an inclusive software that is user-friendly for every level of tech savviness. 

Her Enrollment Director is “obsessed” with the brightwheel Waitlist feature, as it gives them a digital system to move families off the waitlist more efficiently which then increases their revenue. Gone are the days of prospective families calling in and coming in person to both pick up and drop off paper forms.