How the Lindsey Vonn Foundation Found Their Top Speed

The Lindsey Vonn Foundation was founded by Olympic Gold Medalist and World Cup Champion Ski Racer Lindsey Vonn, with the mission of empowering girls from underserved communities by providing empowering experiences through scholarship and educational programs. Focused on kids 10-18 years old, the organization aims to provide support at a time of life when girls need it most. 

The experience I've had over the past few months with my implementation specialist has been just beyond anything I've experienced over the past few decades.

Jason Ketterick

CEO

To that end, the Foundation team runs two initiatives—a scholarship program and a series of educational camps. Thus far, the scholarship program has provided over 400 scholarships, with $1 million invested. The #STRONGgirls Camps have given thousands of girls the opportunity to learn with their peers while focusing on mental and physical health, healthy relationships, building confidence, goal setting, and leadership skills. 

In 2023, Jason Ketterick took on the role of CEO. As he stepped in, he found that the programs were starting to bump up against the infrastructure they were built upon. Jason knew that the technology they used had served them well, but if they wanted to grow and evolve they would need something else. Along with new software, they needed support from real people who had seen a foundation through this kind of transition before. 

Carving out a new future

Looking for new software wasn’t just about replacing the software they had, it was about opening up a new future for the Foundation. Jason and the team established their priorities. 

1. Reach a more diverse group of girls

To create an equitable and diverse program, the Foundation needed to reach a broader audience in the application stage. Software had to be accessible and easy to use for applicants with reporting tools that would give the Foundation team visibility into whether they were connecting with their intended audiences. 

2. Get a clearer picture of impact

As a small foundation team with an involved founder, Jason knew he needed data to evaluate the effectiveness of their programs. Software would need to give them a clear picture of the ROI of their work with the nuance to capture qualitative and quantitative data. 

3. Set the Foundation up to scale

With the early success of the scholarship and the #STRONGgirls Camps, the team wanted to lay the groundwork to grow existing programs and support future partnerships. Software needed to give them capability to easily expand and evolve. 

Finding a true partner in Submittable

In the search for new software, Jason’s focus extended beyond the purely technical aspects. Of course, the team needed an intuitive software that could give them and their applicants a positive experience. But more than that, the Lindsey Vonn Foundation wanted a partner they could lean on. In Submittable, they found both. 

1. A straight line to impact 

The Submittable interface mapped perfectly onto what the Foundation team needed. The front-end application was straightforward and easy to navigate. Branching logic allowed them to account for age—so that the application would suit girls filling it out themselves or situations in which a parent or guardian needed to contribute. 

On the back end, labels and advanced reporting allowed the team to understand the nature of the applicant pool. This visibility helped Jason and his team understand who they were reaching in real time. “The consistent response has been Submittable is an intuitive system. It leads you to where you want to go,” Jason says.

2. The lift of an experienced coach

In past experiences trying to onboard new software, Jason had been let down often. “I'm used to being disappointed by the proficiency of the consultant we're interacting with,” he confesses. This time would be different. Implementation specialist Trinda Rieck was on the case, ready to dig in.

With years of experience helping customers work backwards from their goals to create the applications and workflows that would get them there, Trinda became a collaborative partner for Jason. “Trinda was a step ahead and anticipated a number of these questions because she's been there and done that, but also offered a really custom consultation,” he says.

From her ability to anticipate questions to her dedication to the Lindsey Vonn Foundation vision, Trinda went above and beyond Jason’s expectations. “The experience I've had over the past few months with my implementation specialist has been just beyond anything I've experienced over the past few decades. You usually don't get the kind of consultative and intuitive collaboration that I've received working with Trinda,” he explains. 

3. Reporting to stay on course

Submittable’s robust reporting capabilities give the team exactly what they need to understand their reach and impact. “It was eye-opening to me to see the difference in the geographic areas that we saw requests come in from,” Jason says. 

Being able to draw insights and create reports from the data within the platform is particularly useful for an involved founder. When she wants to see traffic metrics or evaluate applications from a qualitative or quantitative perspective, she has exactly what she needs. This capability is integral to how they do their work. “We want to make really informed decisions,” Jason explains. 

The power of a collaborative relationship

Working with Submittable provided an important lesson for the Foundation: as essential as it is to find the right software for your mission, you also need people, like Trinda, who can grasp your vision and help you map it onto the technology. 

Many software companies overlook this human component. For Jason and team, Submittable’s commitment to building collaborative relationships was a breath of fresh air. “It's a blessing for a customer to have that kind of support and consultative leadership,’” Jason explains. 

The other thing the team has noticed is how this relationship extends beyond implementation. In the same way the LVF team is thinking about growing and evolving, Submittable is too. The platform is always adding new features and functionality, using customer feedback to shape the roadmap. Jason has seen that first-hand. “I asked about an automated scoring function that wasn't available when I started. It is available now. It's something that Trinda and I are going to build into the next cycle,” he says. 

If you’re interested in partnering with Submittable, we have a whole team of implementation specialists ready to help. They’ll meet you where you are and help you plot out the path to where you want to be.