Customer Stories
From Spreadsheets to Scale: How Mariposa Kids Saved 240+ Hours and Doubled Parent Satisfaction
3 years
on Jumbula
240+ hours
saved annually
100% increase
in on-time payments via auto-charge
About Mariposa Kids
Mariposa Kids is a nonprofit based in San Francisco that has been serving children for over 15 years. Their mission is to support and inspire kids’ natural curiosity and independence through unstructured play and social-emotional growth.
Their core programs include a 9.5-month after-school program for TK–5 students and 8 weeks of summer camps, all centered on play, outdoor time, and friendships.
They currently operate out of two clubhouses (in the Mission and Bernal Heights districts), where they serve children from two local public schools. Their after-school program serves 60–65 students annually, while their summer camps host around 50 kids per week. In August 2024, they expanded from one to two sites.
“We believe that we can change the narrative on childhood by bringing it back to a time when children have the freedom to have unstructured play, and it helps with their social, emotional development.”
Ryan Hazelton, Executive Director, Mariposa Kids
The Pain Points That Led Mariposa Kids to Jumbula
When Ryan Hazelton joined Mariposa Kids as Executive Director, he inherited a fragmented system of spreadsheets, accounting tools, and disconnected processes that made daily operations and parent communication difficult.
At the time, the organization was dealing with several critical challenges:
Key challenges included:
- Families found it hard and slow to register for programs
- Staff had to keep calling or emailing parents about missing payments and forms
- Using spreadsheets and paper caused errors and lost parent info
- Parents and staff didn’t have one platform to see schedules or info
- The team spent too much money on fees and too much time on paperwork
- It was hard for staff to create reports or share information with each other
The Switch to Jumbula and What Changed
Mariposa Kids transitioned to Jumbula during winter break, a quieter time when families weren’t registering and staff had space to focus. This timing aligned with both their fiscal year and school semester, minimizing disruption.
The shift required some upfront work. The organization had been using spreadsheets, accounting tools, and disconnected systems. These needed to be cleaned up and consolidated before moving into a centralized platform. The setup process itself was smooth, with support from the Jumbula team throughout. For Ryan, who had experience working with CRM systems, the transition was manageable despite the manual prep work.
Once the platform was in place, the benefits became clear. Tasks like setting up new seasons, processing payments, and managing forms became much faster.
“We save between 10 and 20 hours a month…”
One major improvement was payment processing. With families set up on auto-charge, payments were collected on time, reducing the need for staff to follow up. This created more predictable cash flow and saved the team hours of follow-up every month.
Day-to-day operations also improved. Mariposa Kids often runs outdoor programs or picks up students from local schools. With the mobile app, staff could check children in and out directly from their phones, no matter where they were. This made it easier to stay organized and communicate across the team.
Families noticed the difference too. Parents could manage registrations, view schedules, and download tax receipts through their accounts. Fewer support emails came in, and the experience remained consistent year after year.
Finally, lower payment processing fees meant more of each registration dollar could go back into programming, not admin overhead.
“I continue to appreciate, and am happy to have Jumbula as a partner in our work, because I know that Jumbula will grow with us… and provide a central hub of information that all staff today and tomorrow will be able to look at and pull information from, to make the best decisions for the organization moving forward.”
Conclusion: 3 Years, 2 Sites, 240+ Hours Saved — and Still Growing
For Ryan Hazelton and the Mariposa Kids team, Jumbula is more than a registration system — it’s the foundation that supports their everyday operations and future expansion.
- Since switching to Jumbula, they’ve:
- Saved 10–20 hours of admin time every month
- Automated billing — no more chasing payments
- Improved cash flow with on-time
- Used the mobile app to manage attendance from anywhere
- Stayed on the same platform for 3 years — no retraining, no switching
“We’re happy that Jumbula has been able to grow with us as our organization expands.”
As Mariposa Kids continues to grow, Jumbula remains a trusted partner — giving the team more time to focus on what really matters: helping children thrive through play, friendship, and emotional development.
