Use Case: Fundraising and partner collaboration for a large humanitarian org

Scenario: A large global organization collaborates with governments, NGOs, and numerous partners to provide key resources for people in crisis. One internal division handles fundraising, partnerships, and program development. There are multiple teams and hundreds of staff members. They often collaborate across teams and divisions and work with external stakeholders.

The need

This busy division needs a secure but flexible scheduling system which enables visibility of all events and meetings. Administrators need to see travel and availability for key leaders. Teams need to see their projects, events, and meetings. External stakeholders need secure, limited access so they can collaborate efficiently with internal staff members.

Calendar structure

Each sub-calendar represents a category, or event type. The calendars are organized in folders and color-coded for easy visual cues. 

They can rename and rearrange built-in event fields, plus add custom fields, to track other dimensions and capture information:

Calendar access

While every staff member and stakeholder needs to view events relevant to their role, not all staff members need to add or edit events. External collaborators only need to see the events relevant to their projects. 

Customized access with varying permission levels keeps the calendar both secure and accessible:

• Manager-level staff members involved with partnership have account-based access with Modify for the Partnership sub-calendars and Read-only permission for other sub-calendars.
• Team leads have Modify-my-events access to Team Meetings and other relevant sub-calendars for their team and Read-only for other sub-calendars.
• The assistant to Director Smith has full Modify access for his sub-calendar, Modify-my-events access for the Deputy Director, and Read-only for other calendars. 
• Staff members who just need to see scheduling and availability have Read-only permission for all relevant sub-calendars.
• All staff members have Add-only permission to the Staff PTO sub-calendar.
• External stakeholders get a secure, read-only link for the selected calendars that have events pertaining to their involvement. The link(s) can be shared with staff members who need to view events, but don't need to change them. 

Calendar views

The default calendar view is Multi-week (showing 4 weeks), which keeps the current week on top and shows the month ahead. The assistants often use Scheduler view to compare availability and find open times for meetings:

Team leads can use Year view to do long-range planning for meetings and milestones, and Timeline view for project management. 

Other features

• File uploads: To streamline information sharing, they upload relevant files and documents to calendar events. Files hosted elsewhere are linked in the event details. 
• Event comments: With event comments, team members and external stakeholders can ask questions and share information even if they have read-only access. 
• Mobile apps: Any event updates are automatically synced across devices, so everyone stays informed with the latest information.
• Notifications: Staff members can set up notifications for new events or changes.