An award-winning partnership eliminates 25 admin hours per week for the Little Free Library nonprofit team.
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Little Free Library® (LFL) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that builds community, inspires readers, and expands book access for all through a global network of volunteer-led Little Free Libraries.
Through Little Free Library book exchanges, millions of books are exchanged each year, profoundly increasing access to books for readers of all ages and backgrounds.
Little Free Library’s (LFL) website featured a popular web-based map for finding book-sharing locations worldwide. However, the map’s functionality didn’t meet today’s user experience expectations, and patrons wanted a mobile-friendly version.
With limited resources and only a Facebook page to connect with its community, LFL felt it couldn’t identify or communicate with Little Free Libraries visitors. Its team was also burdened with hours of data management to keep book-sharing location information updated.
The LFL team saw these challenges as an opportunity to create iOS and Android apps that were user-friendly mobile maps at their core yet also served as valuable business tools for alleviating the administrative burden of managing the ever-changing details of Little Free Libraries.
Little Free Library knew their app would be relatively complex and require several skill sets, so they sought an experienced development team. They contacted one of their long-time partners, Brave North Technology, to ask for guidance, and The Jed Mahonis Group (JMG) was one of their recommendations.
JMG developed custom iOS and Android apps allowing users to search for libraries and save favorites, create mapped routes, check in and track libraries visited, and leave messages for library owners.
To give Little Free Library stewards the ability to manage their library's online information, JMG built an admin portal powered by Ruby on Rails. Library stewards can now edit and update library details in real-time, upload photos of their Little Free Library, alert users when their library needs book donations or recently added books, post a message for visitors, and enable a virtual guest book to interact with visitors.
A Salesforce API and Mixpanel analytics tool help the Little Free Library team seamlessly manage and track its database.
The app gained 100,000 users in its first year and has averaged 10% monthly growth. Map usage has doubled since its launch, and LFL can now communicate with library guests to encourage support of its mission.
Special app features allowed new partnerships with Good Morning America and Reese’s Book Club, increasing public recognition of the Little Free Library organization.
In creating and maintaining the mobile app, JMG helped streamline data management, eliminating 25 weekly admin hours for the nonprofit.
The Minnesota Technology Association awarded Little Free Library and the Jed Mahonis Group the 2023 Excellence in Partnership Award for accomplishing exemplary collaboration and remarkable results for the client’s business. JMG and LFL's partnership has extended access to more than 150,000 registered book-sharing boxes, growing the Little Free Library community across all seven continents.
Read LFL's review of their experience working with JMG by visiting Clutch, an independent rating and review site.
I think one really telling metric is that only about 2% of people who’ve downloaded the app have contacted us with questions or problems. That’s really amazing. It means the app is intuitive and the workload for our small staff is manageable.
JMG has been awesome to work with, and I highly recommend them! Working with JMG has been like welcoming a team of developers into our organization. They were always accessible and quick to answer questions. I particularly appreciated their efforts to take complex decisions about technology and break it down into layman's terms so we could understand the pros and cons.
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