How a 60‑person nonprofit runs fast, compliant background checks for staff and students
A lean nonprofit uses Checkr to run fast, compliant checks for staff and students—directly from Gusto and Trakstar.
enFocus is a nonprofit founded in 2012 in the South Bend–Elkhart region of Indiana. enFocus runs programs across healthcare, education, manufacturing, and the public sector. Their Fellows and interns support clients across those industries, and their team handles both proprietary and sensitive data.
Nonprofit / Workforce Development
~60 employees (Fellows, interns, project managers, and permanent staff)
Key results
- Background checks are typically completed within 48 hours, often faster
- Background check status is visible across Checkr, Gusto, and Trakstar—no extra system access required
- Compliance forms and FCRA disclosures are handled automatically—no separate manual process required
- Custom screening package built for minor candidates (ages 16–18) without requiring a new vendor relationship
- Gusto integration sends background checks automatically with offer letters, with results back before most candidates sign
Products used
Ready to run background checks the modern way?
Growing programs, growing duty of care
When Melissa Douhan joined enFocus as Vice President of Programs in 2021, the organization relied on a multi-round interview process with reference checks. For a small staff, that worked—right up until the programs began to scale.
The Fellowship and internship programs grew to the point where enFocus was bringing in 10 to 15 new Fellows and roughly 30 interns each year. Then came CLIMB, a high school internship that put minors between 16 and 18 years old in day-to-day contact with the enFocus team and partner organizations that handle student records and healthcare data.
Reference checks alone weren't sufficient anymore. enFocus also partners with a local university that houses summer interns in its apartments and requires a background check as a condition of that arrangement. The organization needed a process that could handle multiple employee types, satisfy third-party requirements, and withstand scrutiny if anything came up later.
“It felt like the responsible thing for the organization to do to make sure that we had background checks that aligned with our hiring process. It also helps us boost confidence and make people feel comfortable knowing that we’ve done our due diligence,” says Melissa.
Why Checkr: Price, integration, and no manual workarounds
Douhan came to enFocus from higher education, where she'd used a different background check provider for nursing and speech pathology programs. Her first instinct was to return to that vendor: she knew the product and was satisfied with it, but it had gaps she couldn't work around, and the pricing wasn't competitive.
Checkr was competitively priced—and it integrated with both systems that enFocus already ran: Trakstar for candidate tracking and Gusto for payroll and HR. With her previous provider, compliance disclosures such as FCRA forms had to be sent separately—a two-part process that added steps and introduced risk. Checkr handles all of it inside the platform.
After Checkr: Faster hiring, less manual work
Speed that keeps hiring moving
Background checks at enFocus typically come back in under 48 hours, and often faster. Douhan described one case in which an international hire completed their Social Security paperwork around 9 or 10 in the morning, submitted the background check, and received clearance by lunchtime. For programs with fixed start dates and limited onboarding windows, that turnaround directly affects whether a program runs on schedule.
Visibility with simple, secure permissions
Because background check status flows into Gusto, Checkr, and Trakstar, different team members can verify clearance inside whichever system they have access to. Not everyone at enFocus should be in the payroll system, and not everyone needs to be. Hiring managers see what they need in Trakstar, while Gusto's color-coded status indicators give Douhan an at-a-glance read on where each candidate stands.
As Melissa puts it, “It’s really wonderful that there are three different ways that we can have users be able to check the information. It makes security and permissions a lot easier to manage because it integrates with all three.”
A dedicated package for screening minors
When enFocus launched CLIMB, Douhan worked with the Checkr team to build a custom background check package specifically for high school students aged 16 to 18. The package covers criminal searches, sex offender registry checks, and Social Security verification—screening designed for student participants in roles that put them in day-to-day contact with peers and partner organizations.
Highlights: Favorite features
- Gusto integration: Color-coded status indicators. Gusto's green and yellow status display gives Douhan an instant read on where every candidate stands, no login to Checkr required
- Trakstar integration: Background check status right in the ATS, so hiring managers stay out of payroll
- Custom minor package: Dedicated CLIMB package for 16–18-year-olds (criminal, sex offender, SSN)
- Automated compliance: Built-in FCRA forms replace a manual, two-step process
One less thing to worry about: Big-program impact with a small team
enFocus has been on Checkr for three to four years. For most of that time, Douhan managed the entire background check process largely on her own, with occasional help from one other team member. enFocus hired a dedicated HR manager in late 2023, but before that, the workflow ran with minimal overhead because the operation demanded it. A process that required active management would likely have broken under those conditions.
The few times Douhan has needed to reach the Checkr team, the experience matched the product. When setting up the CLIMB package, the team asked the right questions, built to spec, and moved quickly. The day-to-day running of the platform mostly takes care of itself.
