Located in the heart of New York City, the Harlem SGL•LGBTQ Center, Inc. serves as a vital community anchor committed to uplifting and empowering Same Gender Loving, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer individuals, as well as their families and allies. Rooted in Harlem’s vibrant cultural legacy, the Center’s mission is to foster a safe, inclusive, and affirming space where people of all identities can access culturally competent services and thrive without judgment.
Guided by a vision to become the central hub for connection, healing, and growth, Harlem Center provides a wide array of holistic programs—including youth development initiatives, senior support services, educational workshops, cultural events, and health and wellness resources. Through these offerings, Harlem SGL•LGBTQ Center, Inc. honors the legacy and amplifies the voices of Harlem’s diverse and historically significant SGL•LGBTQ community.
Background & Project Objectives
Harlem SGL•LGBTQ Center is a vibrant community organization in New York City, providing holistic programs, youth development initiatives, senior support services and community events for LGBTQ+ people and their families. As the organization grew, it needed a bilingual online space to connect members and guests, simplify event registration and bring all communication into one place.
As a growing organization with a deep commitment to the community, Harlem Center needed a powerful yet flexible digital platform to serve both members and guests. Their vision was to launch a bilingual (English and Spanish) online portal capable of handling complex functionality while maintaining simplicity for end users. The project aimed to create a comprehensive membership portal for Harlem Center, which provides a variety of services and programs to the LGBTQ+ community. Key features included member registration, volunteer management, resource booking, event registration, and more.
“We needed a central hub of communication for our members to receive information, interact with each other and our organization, which was built on Salesforce. We needed to have member information in our Salesforce database to ensure continuity of programs and services.
We were trying to streamline our membership and event registration processes, as well as create a central communication hub so that our members would have one location to access all our program information and services as well as community news that we share from our community partners and collaborators.
The factors that were most important to us were: Native Salesforce format, flexibility to grow as our organization grew, user interface and overall functionality. AC fits the bill one hundred percent across the board.”
Carmen Neely, President & CEO – Implementation Contact
The center needed a solution that would:
- Provide a single online hub for members, guests and staff
- Support membership registration and approvals for different membership types
- Make it easy to find and register for events, workshops and programs
- Manage volunteer shifts and hours in a structured way
- Centralise resource booking for rooms and facilities
- Support English and Spanish to serve a diverse user base
Our Approach & Solution
Advanced Communities implemented an AC MemberSmart-based portal on Salesforce Experience Cloud, V4S package, and extended it with custom functionality to support Harlem Center’s membership, events, volunteering and resource booking workflows. The result is a user-friendly, bilingual portal that serves both guests and registered members.
“We expected a solution that would manage our members, partners and also engage non-members in event registration, fundraising and other touch points that would hopefully motivate them to become members. ”
Carmen Neely, President & CEO – Implementation Contact
Key features delivered:
- Member registration & approvals – custom flows for different membership types (Individual, Nonprofit, Business) with manual review and approval by staff.
- Volunteer management – a dedicated Volunteer Shift Calendar that shows available shifts, tracks upcoming commitments and records completed hours.
- Events & programs – event listings with filters, registration and tracking of attendance for community activities.
- Resource booking system – online booking for rooms and facilities, including requests, staff approval and automated creation of events and payment links.
- Directories & groups – public and members-only directories of groups, programs and services, helping users find relevant opportunities.
- Bilingual experience – English and Spanish UI to make the portal accessible for the entire community.
- Staff tools – internal views for staff to review bookings, manage memberships, monitor volunteer hours and keep data up to date.
“We chose AC because they have a comprehensive product, excellent customer service and were able to map out exactly what they would do and exactly how much it would cost. There was no ambiguity in the process. Everything was clear. Also, their team was able to clearly answer any questions we had and suggest best practices as we reviewed various implementation options. The onboarding and implementation processes were seamless. The communication was clear. Benchmarks were set and met. The entire team was responsive. ”
Carmen Neely, President & CEO – Implementation Contact
The Solution in Action
Benefits & Results
Modern, bilingual portal
Better community engagement
Streamlined internal processes
Within a short timeframe, Harlem SGL•LGBTQ Center launched a modern, multifunctional portal that supports community engagement, streamlines internal processes and delivers on the organization’s mission of inclusion and empowerment.
Guest and Member Experiences
Guests can easily discover information, attend events, join groups and apply for membership. Once approved, members unlock additional features such as volunteer shifts, directories and self-service profile management.
Membership Registration Workflow
Structured application flows and manual approvals help Harlem Center keep member data clean and ensure eligibility checks before granting access.
Volunteer Management
The Volunteer Shift Calendar helps coordinate volunteer work, track hours and report on contributions across different programs.
Resource Booking System
One of the standout customizations was a full facility/resource booking feature that enables community members to reserve Harlem Center spaces. Online booking requests for rooms and facilities, combined with staff approvals and automated event creation, save time and reduce manual coordination.
Bilingual Access
A bilingual portal interface (English and Spanish) makes the platform inclusive for Harlem Center’s diverse community.
And here’s what Harlem SGL•LGBTQ Center, Inc. said about our performance:
Carmen Neely
President & CEO – Implementation Contact
Learn more about AC MemberSmart:
Visit AC MemberSmart page on the Salesforce AppExchange.
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