How Lahaina Community Land Trust helped families rebuild with automation

In August 2023, wildfires devastated Lahaina, Maui, destroying thousands of homes and leaving families with the daunting task of rebuilding their lives. On top of grief and loss, survivors faced a crushing amount of paperwork: insurance claims, government forms, and aid applications. 

For Lahaina Community Land Trust (LCLT), a nonprofit dedicated to community land stewardship and housing recovery, the challenge was clear: cut through administrative barriers so families could access critical resources faster.

“Folks have already been through so much,” said Deborah Mader, Systems and Operations Manager at LCLT. “Our goal was to remove as much friction as possible from the process of getting help.”

LCLT launched an Insurance Gap Program to bridge the financial and resource shortfall many families faced after insurance payouts. But with each application capturing extensive details for entire households—primary applicant, co-applicant, up to 20 household members, and dozens of data points per person—the process threatened to overwhelm staff and volunteers.

That’s where automation came in. 

LCLT’s results:

• Streamlined complex multi-person household applications into Salesforce

• Automated creation of Service File, Property, and Application Household Member records

• Saved hours of manual entry per application

• Freed limited staff and volunteer resources to focus on family support

Turning chaotic intake forms into structured data

Each application for the Insurance Gap Program starts as a Google Form filled out by a partner agency on behalf of a family. The form collects everything from names and addresses to ownership status, special needs, and Lahaina residency information.

Previously, this meant LCLT staff had to manually parse each form and input dozens of fields into Salesforce. With multiple adults and children per household, the chance of error was high, and the time investment was unsustainable.

With Zapier, Deborah built a workflow that transforms each submission into a complete Salesforce record set:

• Person Accounts are created for the Primary Applicant, Co-Applicant, and any Household Adults.

• A Property record is linked to the Primary Applicant and Co-Owners.

• A Service File connects the Property and Applicant Accounts.

• Application Household Member records are generated for every person in the household, including children.

“It turned a chaotic process into something clean and consistent,” Deborah said. “We can trust the data and focus on helping families instead of chasing paperwork.”

Managing complex household data with Python and Looping

The real challenge wasn’t just volume, it was variability. Some households listed multiple adults and children, while others left sections blank. Every record had to be created in a specific order to preserve relationships in Salesforce. 

Deborah added a Python code step. She wrote scripts to:

• Clean and normalize fields (like removing Unicode characters from names).

• Structure household data into arrays Zapier could loop through.

• Skip blank entries without failing the workflow.

• Dynamically assign roles like “Primary Applicant,” “Co-Applicant,” and “Dependent.”

• Convert multi-select fields like ethnicity into Salesforce’s required checkboxes.

By combining adults and children into a single Loop step, Deborah preserved relational integrity. The result is a workflow that flexes to any household size and structure.

“This gave us the ability to manage highly complex applications without breaking the system,” she said. “It’s scalable and reliable, which is exactly what we need in a crisis.”

Scaling operations to support urgent recovery

For families facing foreclosure and skyrocketing rebuild costs, time is critical. Every day saved in processing applications means aid can reach households faster. Automating the application pipeline allows LCLT to serve more families with the same limited staff and budget.

Zapier also helps ensure consistency. Default values and fallback logic prevent incomplete records, while dynamic mapping keeps every household organized correctly. That reliability matters when distributing funds and tracking recovery progress.

“Every dollar we save on operations goes directly toward helping families rebuild their lives,” Deborah said. “Zapier made it possible for us to move data efficiently and affordably, without needing an IT department. It didn’t just automate a workflow, it gave us the tools to deliver hope and support at a time when it’s needed most."

Deborah Mader is a 2025 Zappy Awards winner in the Nonprofit Automator of the Year category.