Special Olympics International gets more athletes on the field with Microsoft Power Pages

Splashing water, a dribbling basketball, the scrape of skates against the ice—these sounds of Special Olympics competitions are a testament to athletes’ talent, hard work, and ability. Yet it is perhaps the other sounds—a wildly cheering crowd, high fives, and triumphant cries of achievement—that demonstrate this global nonprofit’s underlying mission. By expanding opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to participate and compete in sports, Special Olympics International is creating a more inclusive world.  

Made up of 277 state and national Programs, Special Olympics International breaks down stereotypes all over the world. Yet each Program used its own systems and processes to engage with its constituents, leading to siloed data and an incomplete vision of how the organization works together as a whole. The nonprofit needed a uniform way to onboard athletes and volunteers and to gather consistent data that informs how Special Olympics can grow to serve its communities.

“Fundamentally, we’re trying to understand our people and use data to support our athletes, coaches, volunteers, and family,” says Nathan Cook, CITO of Special Olympics International. “We’ve used Power Pages and Power Apps to facilitate highly accessible customer-facing portals that allows people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their supporters to engage with us.” 

The nonprofit is working with state Programs in the US to develop, test, and pilot these portals. Special Olympics International aims to make them available to even more Programs and, eventually, the entire global organization. 

As Cook says, “These platforms give athletes more opportunity to get on the field and play.” 

Enabling athletes to lead

“Special Olympics leads with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities instead of for them,” explains Kymberly Jordan, Vice President of Global Corporate Engagement at Special Olympics International. “It’s important that we have representation in all aspects of what we do.” 

To build a self-service athlete registration portal, the team watched how people with intellectual and developmental disabilities navigated different websites, including the organization’s original registration portal. They noticed that many athletes could not complete registration on their own, which made it harder for them to sign up and participate.

The IT team then recreated a streamlined athlete registration portal through Microsoft Power Pages, a low- and no-code platform for building websites. They designed it to be easier to use, for example by reducing the options to click away, asking only one question at a time, and gamifying the process by awarding medals for completing portions of the registration. The portal is also screen reader compatible.

As a result, athletes can now register independently. 

Underlying the portal, Power Apps captures e-signatures, autofilling portions of medical forms based on already entered information, and other capabilities to make the process smoother. The portal connects to SharePoint, where medical and other forms are securely stored and backed up in Azure Data Lake Storage. 

The IT team continues to fine-tune the portal’s UI/UX based on athlete feedback and will add features in future development cycles, such as the ability for athletes to track their participation and achievements through the portal. “We believe deeply in the continuous improvement cycle,” Cook says. “We test and validate the portal with our constituency to ensure the tool works well for athletes, coaches, and families.” 

Leveraging data for deeper participation

More than 4 million athletes participate in Special Olympics programming in 177 countries and jurisdictions. The new athlete and volunteer portals gather much-needed data in a way Special Olympics International can use to improve participants’ experience. They capture information about each athlete, coach, volunteer, and family member, such as their language, interests, preferred sports, health information, and location. Data flows to the constituent relationship management (CRM) system Dynamics 365, which also documents the interrelatedness of participants and their roles—for example, if an athlete’s parent is also a coach. 

Further, Dynamics 365 records every touchpoint with each participant. “We can see what we’ve helped them with in the past, the things they’re interested in,” Cook explains. “The visibility of that communication history enables us to better serve our constituency.” 

For example, Special Olympics International will be using Fundraising and Engagement, the nonprofit-specific solution built atop Dynamics 365 Sales, as well as Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, to customize outreach. Regional Programs will be able to invite participants to events based on where they live and communicate in participants’ preferred language. Cook estimates that the ability to send messages in Spanish could increase participation in Washington state, where a large number of Hispanic families are currently underserved by as much as 30 percent. 

The volunteer platform built with Power Pages also employs the Volunteer Management Power App. This provides a one-stop-shop for volunteers to register and complete training, which the system documents in their Dynamics 365 record. That way, when a new opportunity to participate surfaces—such as a new team forming that needs a coach—the volunteers who have indicated that interest and have finished the relevant training can be contacted. “Through this portal, we’ve shifted our volunteer engagement from ‘attract’ to ‘funnel,’” Cook says. “We can bring in people who are interested, then grow them into lifelong volunteers.” 

Better data also enables Special Olympics to be more proactive. They will be able to contact athletes who haven’t participated in a while and help those who are “aging out” of their school-based programming to transition to other types of engagement, such as leadership roles.

As Cook says, "More engagement gives more opportunity for people to be part of something bigger.” 

Rolling out solutions at scale

By building portals connected to systems used across the organization, Special Olympics International will empower regional Programs across the globe to reach even more athletes, families, and communities. “We invest up-front to build a system and set of tools to reduce our maintenance and support costs on an ongoing basis,” Cook explains. “Power Pages, Power Apps, and Dynamics 365 are all in the same ecosystem, so we can do more with less.” 

Each dollar saved makes a big difference, especially for smaller regional Programs with a more limited budget. Savings can be invested in the work that drives the Special Olympics mission, such as running competitions for 32 sports and conducting health screenings.  

The data the new platforms collect will also inform how Special Olympics International grows to serve its communities. A Dynamics 365 dashboard will provide “correct, complete, and concrete data, so we can make better, more informed decisions,” Cook says. The up-to-date information gathered from all regional Programs using the new portals will influence where and how the organization invests in the future.  

For example, Cook anticipates that data will show opportunities for growth, such as where to expand increasingly popular pickleball programming. It will also reveal gaps, such as locations with lower-than-expected participation, so leadership can fix any issues quickly. “Data influences just about every decision we make,” Cook says. “It will help us make sure athletes and coaches are getting what they need, so they continue to come back to us.” 

By co-creating these solutions in partnership with diverse regional Programs, Special Olympics International is building solutions that support the constituents they serve as well as internal teams.  

“The efficiency, cost savings, and opportunities that digitizing the Special Olympics movement will allow us to better support the people we serve,” Cook says. “This work is creating a better sense of community for our athletes.” 

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