Healthy Futures of Texas saves 180+ hours per year sending grants with Tremendous

The highlight reel

→ Healthy Futures of Texas (HFTX) is a nonprofit organization that improves the well-being of young Texans through equitable access to sexual health education, contraception, and other resources.

→ Its Youth Advocates program provides monthly stipends to 75+ Youth Advocates who meet with state legislators, conduct health research, and educate their peers.

→ Before Tremendous, processing youth stipends took up to 15 hours per month and often triggered false fraud alerts.

→ Now, HFTX saves 180+ hours annually while maintaining perfect grant compliance and providing flexible student reward options.

The problem

HFTX is on a mission to improve the sexual and reproductive health of young people across the state through education, advocacy, and research.

One of the nonprofit’s many community initiatives involves sending grant-funded stipends to Youth Advocates who educate their peers on sexual health and contraception, conduct health research, and meet with state legislators on issues related to public health and civic engagement.

But processing grant-funded stipends for Youth Advocates was once a time-consuming, cumbersome process. 

"We tried two different ways of managing stipends, but both were problematic," said Curtis Ruder, Chief Finance and Operations Officer at Healthy Futures of Texas. "At one point, we were processing them like the rest of accounts payable (AP) and running it through that full process.”

Running stipends through payroll came with additional paperwork requirements. Chasing down recipients for documentation added yet another step to an already complex process. 

“We had to request documentation like W4s,” said Curtis. “And asking a 15-year-old for a W4 is a little weird."

The traditional AP approach required that HFTX set each student up as a vendor and then approve their invoices. With stipends ranging from $50 to $150 per month per advocate, the administrative burden was disproportionate to the payout size.

Then, the organization tried buying individual prepaid Visa cards. But that solution created its own issues.

"The false fraud alerts and processing fees kept piling up," Curtis explained. "For a $50 gift card, we’d have to pay $4 in fees. It just wasn’t efficient or cost effective for us."

The fix

The solution came through word-of-mouth at a convention, where a youth program director recommended Tremendous. After experiencing yet another declined transaction on a prepaid Visa card due to fraud alerts, HFTX was eager to find an alternative.

Streamlined processing

Before Tremendous, processing stipends meant hours of manual work each month, from gathering W4 forms to managing individual invoices for each payment. With Tremendous, the HFTX team can process payouts much faster — and with less administrative red tape.

"We can upload in a batch. It's a super easy CSV template that takes just seconds to copy and paste in the emails and amounts. The processing time our staff spends is dramatically less than it used to be," said Curtis.

“Plus, the platform automatically sends tax forms to students on our behalf, taking the stress and manual work out of tax compliance.”

The simplified process allows the HFTX team to focus on what matters most: supporting Youth Advocates and expanding the program’s impact.

Better options for recipients

Traditional gift cards present a common challenge for organizations. How do you choose the right gift for recipients you may not know personally, especially when operating at scale? 

Getting it wrong can waste precious grant funds and lead to a poor recipient experience.

With Tremendous, HFTX can give students the choice of hundreds of gift cards to specific retailers. And with rewards available in 200+ countries, Mexico-based program participants can choose locally relevant rewards.

"The students love the flexibility of choosing the vendors," said Curtis. "Now, they can get a Starbucks card or an Amazon card, whichever meets their needs and preferences." 

Simple sending. Easy tracking. 

For nonprofits managing grant funds, maintaining detailed records while streamlining processes can strain limited administrative resources and create bottlenecks. 

Tremendous' approval workflows help HFTX maintain tight control with minimal upkeep.

"Each month, the program director sends in the spreadsheet all filled out with the name, the email, and the amount. We're able to upload that, [and] the internal controls are great in terms of that invoice being approved through a regular process," Curtis explained. "Instead of approving 50 different invoices, we approve all the payouts at once."

Now, it’s easy for HFTX to trace funds from initial approval through final redemption during the organization’s regular audits.

Straightforward financial controls

Maintaining proper financial controls isn't just a good accounting practice — it's essential for compliance and trust. Tremendous makes it easy to establish and maintain these critical separations of responsibility.

"I transfer the money from the bank, and our Director of Finance processes it in Tremendous, so we've got great segregation of duties to make sure that everything is done properly. The system is super simple. Everyone loves it, from our program directors to our admins,” said Curtis.

This built-in separation of duties helps HFTX maintain strong financial oversight without slowing operations, allowing them to move quickly while staying compliant.

Perfect for young participants

Most of HFTX’s high school participants don't have bank accounts, making traditional payment methods challenging. 

With Tremendous, students receive stipends via email or SMS, so they’re accessible to all participants.

“Almost all of our students have email addresses through their school, and with Tremendous, that’s all they need to redeem their reward. When students don’t have email, it’s just as easy for them to redeem via text message,” Curtis said.  

The outcome

Switching to Tremendous has transformed how HFTX manages its youth advocate stipend program.

Dramatic time savings

"As a team, we probably save at least 4 hours a month of processing time because processing among our four cohorts is 75 individual payments," said Curtis. "That first month, it was a significant amount of time — 12 to 15 hours the first month, and then four hours every other month of the school year."

Significant cost reduction

The organization has already saved about $4,000 annually by eliminating processing fees previously spent on prepaid cards. 

As HFTX grows its youth advocacy programs, these savings scale proportionally — meaning more grant money can go directly to supporting students rather than paying processing fees. 

"Tremendous has been a great resource for us. And it's saved us a lot of money," said Curtis. "Those small processing fees added up to a small fortune. Now, we can redirect those funds to expand our programs and support more young advocates."

Painless compliance

With clear documentation and audit trails, Tremendous helps HFTX maintain compliance across multiple funding sources. 

"We are using both governmental grant funds and philanthropic grant funds. Since switching to Tremendous, we’ve never had an issue with compliance in either scenario," said Curtis.

"The best part is that it's seamless," he added. "We go through 5 to 7 different audits each year, and we've never had any issue with anybody accepting our documentation using the Tremendous platform." 

Better branding 

Tremendous allows HFTX to customize messaging for different audiences. 

"We're able to customize our voice, which is really important in our world because we are communicating with everybody from teenage kids all the way to the state legislators," Curtis said. "In a couple clicks, we can modify our branding to fit the intended audience and customize the message in a way that makes it resonate with every client or donor."

Rewards for any use case

In addition to student stipends, HFTX uses Tremendous to handle everything from teacher’s stipends to impromptu incentives.

"When we host training sessions for teachers, we offer gift cards via raffle — and the winners don’t have to wait to redeem their prizes," said Curtis. "It's in an email and ready to use that same day. It’s a big reason why we’re seeing enhanced participation and getting more people to go to our seminars.”

Ready to simplify your organization's reward distribution? Sign up now or schedule a demo to see Tremendous in action.