Streamlining Adoption Matchmaking: From Excel Chaos to Custom Software

This case study describes a real project. Client details have been anonymized to protect confidentiality.

The Challenge

An adoption matchmaking agency was managing thousands of profiles in Excel spreadsheets - adoptive families seeking children and expectant mothers making adoption plans. Each coordinator had their own master spreadsheet with dozens of families, each with unique preferences:

• Religious requirements
• Open vs. closed adoption preferences
• Geographic location
• Family type preferences (traditional, LGBTQ+, single parent)
• Health and background considerations
• Dozens of other matching criteria

The daily reality: Coordinators spent significant time clicking through individual Excel tabs to find matches. If an expectant mother wanted a family in the Midwest who was open to alcohol use during pregnancy and preferred a semi-open adoption, a coordinator would manually check hundreds of profiles one by one.

With multiple staff members, various user roles, and hundreds of active profiles (plus tens of thousands in archives), Excel simply couldn’t keep up. Their public-facing website was managed in a separate CMS, requiring duplicate data entry and manual updates.

The Solution

I built a custom internal database platform that became the single source of truth for their entire operation.

Matching & Search

The core problem was finding the right families for each expectant mother. The new system lets coordinators search by any combination of criteria - what used to take an hour of clicking through spreadsheets now takes minutes.

Advanced filtering allows coordinators to search by any combination of criteria

Workflow Management

Tracking families through their adoption journey and keeping coordinators on task required automation and visibility.

• Status tracking - Families move through defined stages (onboarding through placement) with clear visibility
• Automated alerts - Email reminders for daily tasks and notifications when families need attention
• Performance metrics - Track how often profiles are presented, online profile views, and coordinator activity
• Personalized dashboards - Each staff member sees their assigned families and relevant metrics at a glance

Real-time dashboard provides visibility into all family statuses and metrics

Automated notifications ensure no family falls through the cracks

Access & Security

With multiple staff members handling sensitive personal information, proper access control and security were essential.

• Role-based permissions - Multiple user roles (coordinators, admins, case managers, etc.) with appropriate access levels
• Two-factor authentication - Required for all users to protect sensitive personal information
• Client portal - Families log in to complete onboarding forms, reducing staff workload

Integration & Automation

Connecting their existing tools and eliminating duplicate data entry streamlined the entire operation.

• CRM integration - Expectant mother profiles pull directly from their existing CRM, eliminating duplicate entry
• Public website API - The public site now feeds directly from the database via API instead of manual updates
• Photo management - Built-in cropping tool formats profile photos to exact specifications for the public site

Everything managed in one place, not scattered across Excel files and separate systems.

Migration

Over 12 weeks, we migrated all active profiles, trained the staff, and ran both systems in parallel during the transition. The team was enthusiastic about the change - the only friction was initial resistance to two-factor authentication, which they ultimately appreciated for security.

The Results

Significant time savings - The matching process that used to take coordinators an hour now takes minutes. Across the entire team, the agency estimates the system saves hundreds of hours monthly.

Better matches - Coordinators can search by complex criteria combinations that were impossible in Excel.

Single source of truth - Profile data, metrics, and public website all feed from one system.

Continuous improvement - Staff requested features directly, and changes happened quickly through ongoing development.

Key Takeaway

This wasn’t about building the flashiest software - it was about solving a specific business problem precisely. The agency needed sophisticated matching capabilities, tight security, and seamless integration between their internal tools and public site. Custom software delivered exactly that, built around their workflow instead of forcing them into someone else’s template.