How Arbor Day Foundation manages 300+ global projects and grows their impact with Calendly

The Arbor Day Foundation leads reforestation and urban greening efforts in more than 60 countries. Each year, their Community Trees team supports hundreds of tree-planting projects in cities and neighborhoods around the world. From funding partners to local planting teams, collaboration is essential — and that means a lot of meetings. But scheduling those meetings was slowing everything down. With the help of Calendly, the Foundation transformed what was once a manual, frustrating process into a fast, flexible system that supports their mission and frees up time to focus on what matters: planting more trees.

Challenge

Manual coordination was slowing projects and wasting hours

Amy Lester, Project Coordinator for the Arbor Day Foundation’s Community Trees team, manages partnerships with tree-planting organizations, municipalities, and corporate sponsors. Every project requires multiple touchpoints and stakeholders — kickoff calls, check-ins, and group alignment meetings. The trouble was, scheduling each of those calls had become a chore. She was using a polling tool that often failed to get through her partners' security firewalls. When that happened, Amy had to screenshot her availability, email it out, and manually collect responses. It could take five to ten emails just to agree on a time.

This created unnecessary delays for every single project. As the Foundation’s impact expanded, Amy found herself caught in a cycle of calendar coordination that left less time for actual project management. Even small issues, like confusion over time zones, slowed things down and added pressure. With hundreds of projects on her plate each year, Amy needed a better way to connect people without losing momentum.

Solution

Meeting Polls and calendar sync eliminated friction and improved everyone’s experience

After seeing a partner’s Calendly link in an email signature, Amy clicked, and everything changed. Within minutes, she was exploring the platform, and by the end of the day, she had her own account. Her first use case was simple: create custom scheduling links so partners could book time directly with her, synced to her Microsoft Outlook calendar. From there, she expanded into one of Calendly’s most popular features for bringing groups together: Meeting Polls.

“When Meeting Polls rolled out, I did a dance party. It just works — even with firewalls and across time zones. That’s huge for us.”

Amy Lester

Project Coordinator at Arbor Day Foundation

Using Meeting Polls, Amy could share multiple time options that stakeholders automatically saw in their time zone. The polls worked even for contacts behind strict firewalls, removing one of the biggest blockers in her previous system. She could now send a poll, gather availability, and book a time — all in one simple flow. The ability to update poll options and automatically notify participants of any changes also helped keep meetings on track without added effort.

Amy customized Event Types for her most common meetings, adding buffers to create breathing room between calls and lead time to avoid last-minute bookings. Then, she set up automated reminders with Calendly Workflows to ensure everyone shows up prepared. For Amy, those small settings made a big difference. She regained control of her time and gave her partners a better, more organized meeting experience. She also embedded her Calendly links into email templates to make scheduling even easier and more consistent across projects.

“Calendly helped us do more with less. What used to take 10 emails now takes one — and that shift has helped us keep 300+ projects on track each year.”

Amy Lester

Project Coordinator at Arbor Day Foundation

Results

Faster scheduling, stronger partnerships, and more time for mission-driven work

What used to take at least half a dozen emails now takes just one. With Calendly, Amy can schedule meetings faster, more reliably, and with less stress. She no longer has to worry about resending screenshots of her availability or confusing time zone math. Meeting Polls alone have helped her coordinate stakeholder calls across 300+ projects a year — with partners from different time zones, organizations, and IT systems.

Calendly has also improved the experience for Arbor Day’s external collaborators. With automatic reminders and clear meeting details, donors and planting teams feel confident, prepared, and professionally supported throughout every interaction.

Most importantly, Amy can confidently shift her energy from calendar management to mission-critical work: helping people plant more trees in more communities.

“Calendly helps me look good at my job. It makes the experience seamless for our partners — and that reflects well on the foundation. It’s been the best solution for us.”

Amy Lester

Project Coordinator at Arbor Day Foundation