How a Nonprofit Uses Atlassian for Case Management — Helping 5,000+ People Seek Protection Each Year

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Challenge: A flexible system of work that fits the organisation and sectors' evolving needs while centralising knowledge and making it easily accessible to their team and volunteers.
Solution: RACS worked with solution partner Argenti to rethink how they manage legal casework with Jira, Confluence, Loom, and Rovo.
Impact: Reduced administrative burden, more time spent on core work to achieve their mission

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For nonprofits searching for client management software or case management tools that can flex with their work, RACS's story shows what's possible with the right configuration.

Refugee Advice & Casework Service (RACS) is a nonprofit community legal centre in New South Wales, Australia, dedicated to achieving justice and dignity for and with refugees through legal services and advocacy. They support over 5000 people and their families seeking protection annually.

For an organisation working at this scale, every inefficiency has a direct impact on the team and on the people they serve. Through an Atlassian Foundation Solution Grant, RACS used Atlassian tools to rethink how they manage legal casework, share knowledge, and reduce administrative burden so their team can focus more time on mission delivery.

Tracking client cases and capturing knowledge in a complex legal environment

RACS was operating in an environment where the work changes constantly. Migration law evolves quickly, client matters are complex, and the organisation depends on a mix of staff and volunteers who need to get up to speed fast. Their previous workflow management system was too rigid to keep pace with that reality.

"We were really drawn to Jira because it's really customisable. The previous workflow management system we were using was the opposite of that.” — Services and Systems Lead

Knowledge was also fragmented. Important context was spread across systems and team members, making it difficult to surface relevant prior work when it was needed most. With regular volunteer turnover, institutional knowledge was hard to retain — and experienced team members carried an outsized cognitive burden.

"If we aren’t able to find work done on a previous similar case, we're losing a lot of knowledge and insights and taking more time to serve clients." — Services and Systems Lead

For RACS, the problem was clear: they needed a system that could adapt to the way their team works, centralise institutional knowledge, and help lawyers find relevant information quickly without relying on memory or manual searching.

Atlassian tools configured around mission delivery

RACS implemented a connected solution using Jira, Confluence, Loom, and Rovo. Rather than forcing the organisation into a generic workflow, the tools were configured around the realities of legal casework and the needs of a nonprofit team delivering frontline services.

Jira as nonprofit case management software: flexible and client-centered

RACS uses Jira as a work management system for legal service delivery. Instead of a traditional project-tracking model, Jira was set up to support client-focused case management, giving the team a way to track matters from intake through to resolution.

Custom fields were created to capture information relevant to their legal service delivery and funder reporting requirements. Rather than adopting a purpose-built legal case management system with rigid workflows and high licensing costs, RACS chose Jira for its adaptability — configuring it as a client management tool that evolves as their needs change.

Dashboards provide visibility into work across the organisation, helping the team understand caseloads and manage priorities.

"We are client-focused rather than matter-focused. We needed something that would work the way we worked, and we weren't forced into a different workflow." — Head of IT

With Jira, the team can evolve workflows and fields without depending on a rigid external system — and non-technical team members can maintain the configuration themselves.

Confluence for a single source of truth

Before the implementation, information was spread across multiple systems. Confluence gave RACS a central place to store and organise operational knowledge, training material, practice guidance, and internal documentation.

That shift created a much clearer experience for both existing team members and new starters. Instead of hunting across systems, people can now go to one place to find what they need.

"We tried to consolidate this into a single source of truth, which is where Confluence really helped us. Documents were across different platforms and now they're in one location — it just makes it easier for the team to find that information." — Head of IT

For an organisation with volunteer turnover and a need for fast onboarding, a shared knowledge base helps preserve institutional knowledge and reduce dependence on individual memory.

Rovo to surface relevant knowledge at the right moment

RACS is currently experimenting with a custom Rovo agent designed to help lawyers discover relevant prior work. When a new client matter is created, the agent can identify similar past cases and surface that context directly within the workflow.

The aim is that relevant knowledge becomes easier to access at the moment it's most useful — reducing the need for manual searching or relying on colleagues' memory of past matters.

RACS is building this approach with care. The agent would work only from trusted internal data, with clear guardrails, strict instructions not to fabricate information, and human review in the loop before any output informs client work. That balance will help the team benefit from AI-assisted discovery while maintaining professional judgment and client responsibility.

Loom to support communication and knowledge sharing

Loom adds an asynchronous communication layer to the way RACS shares information. In environments where staff and volunteers need quick context without long meetings or repeated explanations, recorded walkthroughs can make operational knowledge easier to pass on and reuse.

Used alongside Confluence and Jira, Loom helps explain workflows, demonstrate processes, and give team members a faster path to understanding how work gets done.

Impact on RACS and their mission

The implementation has had practical benefits across the organisation.

• Reduced cognitive load: team members no longer have to rely as heavily on memory to recall similar cases, prior decisions, or where key information is stored.

• Less double-handling: existing knowledge and prior work are easier to find and reuse, helping the team avoid repeating effort.

• Faster onboarding: new staff and volunteers can use Confluence to get oriented more quickly and find guidance without depending entirely on colleagues.

• Improved continuity: when work is handed from one person to another, the context is easier to retain through linked records and documentation.

• Better adaptability: as legal requirements and team needs change, RACS can update workflows and processes without external support.

For a nonprofit serving thousands of people, these operational gains translate into something much more important: more capacity to deliver legal support with consistency, speed, and care. RACS has demonstrated that general-purpose teamwork software — when configured intentionally — can outperform rigid, sector-specific solutions.

"It's really important for us to have a system that can adapt with us because we're changing and developing and adapting every single day." — Services and Systems Lead

That adaptability is not just a product benefit. For RACS, it is a mission enabler.

A model for mission-driven transformation

RACS shows what is possible when nonprofits are able to shape technology around the real needs of their teams and communities. By bringing together Jira, Confluence, Loom, and Rovo, they have created a more connected way of working that supports legal service delivery, protects institutional knowledge, and helps staff and volunteers spend more time on the work that matters most.

For nonprofit and social impact organisations facing similar challenges, fragmented knowledge, rigid systems, and growing operational complexity do not have to be accepted as the norm. With the right setup, modern teamwork tools can strengthen the systems behind the mission.

RACS received an Atlassian Solution Grant, which provides nonprofits with funded implementation support to set up Atlassian tools for their mission. To learn more about how your organisation could benefit, visit Atlassian for Nonprofits.