NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. NAMI uses ZipCodeAPI in many ways. We’ve created this ZipCodeAPI Case Study on NAMI to benefit the ZipCodeAPI community.
“Over 40 million adults and 20 million children in the United State experience a mental health condition, including millions who have severe conditions that profoundly affect their lives and that of their families. NAMI is dedicated to building better lives for all people affected by mental illness. Using the ZipCodeAPI allows NAMI to support those individuals quickly and provide relevant resources at a time that is often most critical.” Jimmy Stewart, CIO, NAMI
How has NAMI benefited with ZipCodeAPI?
- NAMI quickly identifies resources in areas where constituents are located.
- ZipCodeAPI helps define gaps in coverage based on constituent searches.
Primarily, NAMI uses it on the NAMI National HelpLine where volunteers answer thousands of calls each month. Using Salesforce, NAMI’s HelpLine volunteers can enter a caller’s zip code and quickly identify resources and local NAMI affiliates close to a caller’s location. In 2018, almost 30,000 calls were received at the NAMI HelpLine and virtually every caller provided their zip code to allow NAMI volunteers to better support their needs.
NAMI also uses it for is on the www.nami.org website. Visitors to the site are often looking for a NAMI (there are over 600 of them) in their area. Visitors can just enter their zip code and find a NAMI near them. https://www.nami.org/Find-Your-Local-NAMI
James Stewart, NAMI CIO, explained that because they have apps built to use the API, they log all usage. With over 80,000 searches using the ZipCodeAPI, NAMI visualizes this data using Microsoft PowerBI and can easily identify gaps in coverage and identify areas for new program development.
ZipCodeAPI Case Study Details
As for ZipCodeAPI Case Study details, NAMI uses the Zip Codes in Radius method. Hosted on Microsoft Azure, they’ve built an embeddable widget that can be added to various applications. The form allows someone to enter a zip code and define a radius using a drop-down menu. After clicking search, the code obtains the complete list of zip codes and then queries the NAMI Salesforce instance for resources and NAMI Affiliate organizations. As a widget, the app is portable and can be easily added to additional applications.
Here is a snip of this embedded into their website:
You can try ZipCodeAPI for yourself for free.
