How 5 Years Of Using Hive Has Transformed Advocacy Organization Fight Colorectal Cancer

Fight Colorectal Cancer, or Fight CRC, is a leading advocacy organization full of relentless champions of hope in the fight against colorectal cancer. They are a national patient support organization focused on funding promising, high-impact research endeavors, while equipping advocates to influence legislation and policy for the collective good. As part of their mission, they provide objective information on cancer research, treatment and policy.

The Challenge

Before Hive, Fight CRC used disparate methods of communication, which ranged from spreadsheets to phone calls. Since they were a fully remote team, this style of communication was difficult to supervise, and the team needed a tool that provided clarity and transparency for leadership and teammates across the board. They also needed a tool that could serve as a repository of information and centralized hub for all relevant past projects, campaigns and documents. The Fight CRC team was also growing rapidly, so it was imperative that they quickly identify the right tool.

When Fight CRC started their search for a project management tool, there were a few mandatory features on their list. First, they needed a tool that had a proofing functionality, as their creative teams design and edit documents. They also needed a tool that had dependencies, as many of their projects had interdependent actions. Finally, they wanted a tool that had ample integrations, as they heavily used Box and Google Drive.

The Solution

When Fight CRC discovered Hive, they found a solution that centralized and streamlined all of their work with ease. In Hive, Fight CRC set up their projects organized by management team, which served as individual parent projects. Underneath the parent projects, the child projects correspond to individual projects and campaigns, and actions map out tasks, some of which include dependencies, to help streamline the team workflow. This system works beautifully, providing their Head of Partnerships with a macro-level view with access to all projects that fall under each management team.

Flexible project views, like Gantt, Kanban and Table view, were helpful for their team, as they allowed everyone to work in the way that works the best for them.

I’ve realized that all of our team members think differently. The view they use in Hive represents how they think. To have the flexibility to cut data in different ways has been really helpful. – Anjee Davis

Additionally, all members of the Fight CRC team heavily utilize Hive Chat, which is their primary method of communication — essential for a remote team. Proofing and approvals, another key functionality for the Fight CRC team, is the workflow hub for their creative team to proof, edit and approve documents. This functionality is especially helpful as the team sets up separate approvals for each leadership team member, and approval stages can be tracked easily. Overall, Hive’s proofing and approvals feature has drastically cut down on the amount of email oversight on every creative project.

Finally, Fight CRC also utilizes Summary Views in Hive, which is a great way for them to sort actions by label. By using labels that correspond to categories like social media or communications, teams can create a Social Media Calendar or Communications Calendar, viewing all relevant actions across projects.

Looking forward to how the team plans to grow their Hive usage, they are planning to implement Templates to increase standardization across departments. Overall, Hive has been vital to their growth and success as a team.

We have been a virtual team for over 5 years and selecting a virtual workspace was vital to success. From third party integrations to new features and enhancements Hive has helped us reach our goals as a team. – Anjee Davis