This Education Nonprofit Saved 4,000 Hours and Processed 250,000 Submissions

Learn To Be has leveraged Paperform to overcome volunteer challenges, streamline their operations, support their mission, and ultimately impact the lives of students and tutors alike. Neeraj Kapoor, Co-Founder of Learn To Be shares how.

Education is a powerful, life-transforming tool. But for some, getting access to a good education is out of reach. That’s where people like Neeraj Kapoor, Co-founder of Learn To Be, believes it’s a vision and mission worth fighting for

Established in 2008, Learn To Be has been a beacon of hope for thousands of students across the United States, dedicating itself to providing free online tutoring to underserved youth. In this journey, Paperform's innovative digital platform has played an essential role in making their mission more efficient and impactful.

Building a Foundation

Neeraj and his childhood friend started Learn To Be out of frustration at the lack of affordable tutoring for underserved communities, deciding to build a website in a weekend. What began as a small passion project has since grown into a transformative nonprofit providing almost 300,000 hours of tutoring to more than 14,000 students. And that’s just scratching the surface.

"Private tutoring is very expensive, anywhere from $25 to $50 an hour, which is just too exorbitant for many families in the United States," says Neeraj. “Learn To Be offers a completely free alternative, focusing primarily on students from low-income households, foster youth, and those attending Title I schools.”

From Manual to Magical with Paperform

Running a nonprofit with such a large impact wasn’t easy, especially when it was just Neeraj and his co-founder handling everything. "We didn’t have a lot of funding, and couldn’t really pay for developers. We had full-time jobs, so for a long time it was just one person after work hours," Neeraj explains. The challenge for Learn To Be was clear: how do you build and scale a platform without a team of developers?

“I didn't want to build this advanced form collection on the student side and the tutor application side,” explained Neeraj. “We were looking for products that would help me more easily build out some of these things we needed without having to manually code.”

Paperform stepped in as a game-changer, allowing Learn To Be to automate and streamline their processes with ease. “I was the only person working at Learn To Be and the only engineer as well, of course. Paperform saved me at least 20 hours a week, for 12 months a year, for 4 years. That's almost 4,000 hours saved.”

Neeraj was able to leverage Paperform to create everything from student and tutor applications to donation collection and feedback forms. Paperform helped turn what would have been a logistical nightmare into a smooth, automated process.

Paperform saved me at least 20 hours a week, for 12 months a year, for 4 years. That's almost 4,000 hours saved.

“When I found Paperform, it immediately provided solutions for our donations and forms. I think one of the most wonderful things about Paperform was how quickly you can spin up a form and then connect it to your stripe account and then you're done,” shared Neeraj. ”It’s the little details that matter, too. I could have a test account and a production account, so, great, I don't have to keep charging my actual credit card to test this out!”

For Learn To Be, Paperform wasn’t just a tool—it was a critical component in their ability to grow and serve more students. “The name of the game for us is reaching as many students as we can and providing them with tutoring. Paperform has, over the last ten years, made our ability to reach more students so much faster,” says Neeraj.

With over 250,000 form submissions collected through Paperform, Learn To Be has been able to efficiently track tutor feedback, communicate with parents, and even flag concerns when needed. This treasure trove of data not only supports their daily operations but also provides valuable insights they can share with funders and stakeholders.

Ease of Use: A Developer’s Dream

Being a developer himself, Neeraj was impressed with the simplicity and versatility of Paperform. “You can kind of tell that this was built by a developer who has a good product sense, because it really is just very easy to build with,” he says. “Features like conditional logic in questions, reliable webhooks, and the ability to dynamically insert data into forms have been game-changers for Learn To Be.”

One standout feature for Neeraj was Paperform’s ability to prevent sensitive information from being stored on their platform by using a Simple Storage Service (S3) bucket. This is a critical requirement when dealing with the data of minors. “There were times when we wanted the data sent to us but didn’t want to store it. That feature was great,” he adds.

Automating Impact: The Power of Paperform

One of the most impactful uses of Paperform for Learn to Be is their automated post-session feedback form. After each tutoring session, tutors fill out a form detailing what they worked on, what went well, and any concerns. This data is then used to automatically send customized emails to parents, celebrating student successes, or addressing any issues that arise.

This automation not only saves time but also ensures that families stay informed and engaged in their child’s progress. “Every piece of software we have to build is an obstacle to reaching more kids,” says Neeraj. “Paperform eliminates that obstacle, allowing us to focus on what really matters: helping students learn.”

The Impact of Learn To Be

With the support of platforms like Paperform, Learn To Be is poised to continue its incredible growth and impact.

Paperform is dope...The product is just good. It does what it’s supposed to do very, very well.

For any nonprofit or business looking for a flexible, powerful, and easy-to-use platform, Neeraj’s advice is simple: “Put your money into Paperform, and the return on investment will be so large for your processes and time saved. Outsource the data collection to Paperform, and you can start to focus on the things that matter.”

“Paperform is dope. It’s a really, really dope product,” Neeraj says with a smile. “The product is just good. It does what it’s supposed to do very, very well.” For Learn To Be, the return on investment has been crystal clear. They can now focus on scaling their mission, reaching more students, and making a more significant impact.

And that impact matters. One recent story involves a young fourth grader who started the year struggling in math, but by the end of the year was at the top of his class, scoring in the 95th percentile. “The mom called the tutor crying, she was so thrilled,” Neeraj recalls. “It’s awesome for the student who now knows that they can do this stuff—they can do math, they can go do whatever they want to be doing.”

And the stories of Learn To Be's impact do not stop there. Their Wall of Love showcases dozens of other stories representing the 14,000 students they have impacted.

And this work matters, which is why we are privileged Paperform can support organizations like Learn To Be. As Neeraj puts it, “I want to be teaching kids how to read and how to do their times tables. I don’t want to build the logic for post-session feedback and where the email should be going. Paperform has helped us focus more on that and less on the logistics.”

Want to support Learn To Be? Consider volunteering as a tutor or donating to help provide free tutoring to students in need. Every hour of your time or dollar donated makes a huge difference in the lives of these kids. Visit Learn to Be’s website to get involved or view more inspirational stories on their Wall of Love.

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