Joni and Friends, an international disability ministry, is dedicated to transforming the lives of people with disabilities through programs that offer practical help and spiritual hope to people living with disability. With international outreaches, domestic Family Retreats, and an expanding portfolio of training programs for volunteers, students, and faith leaderss, the organization needed a platform to centralize, scale, and deliver instruction that meets the needs of every learner, regardless of ability or location.
The Challenge
Joni and Friends had outgrown its legacy learning tools. Their previous platform simply couldn’t keep up with the needs of a multifaceted operation managing everything from semester-long internships and Family Retreat staff training to global disability ministry courses.
The lack of automation and integration made it increasingly difficult to deliver consistent, high-quality training across audiences.
“Our team is small, and our impact is big,” said Aimée Stork, Senior Manager of Online Education. “We were managing training for volunteers, staff, interns, and members of the public—often manually—and it just wasn’t sustainable.”
The team needed an LMS that was both robust and intuitive, capable of handling multilingual content, rich accessibility requirements, and diverse learner paths. Above all, it had to align with their mission of dignity and belonging for all.
We’re a small team, and it just wasn’t scalable or sustainable to manage enrollments manually. Catalog changed that; it’s affordable, efficient, and totally worth it.
Aimée Stork
Senior Manager, Online Education
Key Insights
Canvas simplifies complex training delivery for multiple audiences, allowing a small team to scale learning across staff, volunteers, interns, and public learners.
Built-in accessibility tools and language support help Joni and Friends deliver learning experiences that accommodate a wide range of abilities globally, with their mission of hope, dignity, and belonging.
Canvas Catalog automates registration and payments, reducing administrative workload and enabling program growth without additional headcount.
The Solution
Canvas LMS became the central hub for all of the ministry’s educational offerings.
Public courses, staff onboarding, volunteer training, and semester-long internship programs now live on one unified platform. With robust accessibility features and easy-to-use design tools, Canvas made it possible for a single instructional designer to serve global learners at scale.
Canvas Catalog proved critical for growth by automating enrollment, supporting financial aid codes, and managing payments through integrations like Stripe and PayPal. “There’s no way we could run public courses without it,” Stork noted. “We’d need another full-time hire just to manage registrations.”
Accessibility-first instructional design
Accessibility is deeply embedded in the mission of Joni and Friends, and Canvas provides the tools to support that vision.
Features like Microsoft Immersive Reader and interactive transcripts make content more inclusive for learners with visual, intellectual, and neurodiverse needs.
Courses are also translated and culturally localized using Canvas tools, extending equitable access to a global audience in six different languages. This built-in language support ensures that learners can engage meaningfully with content, regardless of their native language or location.
With these capabilities, Canvas empowers the organization to uphold dignity and inclusivity in every learning experience it delivers.
Custom learning paths for diverse roles
Joni and Friends serves a diverse learner base—including interns, volunteers, staff, and the public—each with unique training needs. Canvas allows the team to manage these distinct groups effectively through modular course design, blueprint courses, and flexible enrollment structures.
From hands-on internships and professional development to public certificate programs, Canvas enables seamless learning experiences tailored to each audience. This flexibility is critical to delivering high-quality education at scale with a small team.
Strategic scale for internal learning
Canvas is becoming the central hub for staff development at Joni and Friends. A standout initiative is the role-specific onboarding course for Area Directors, designed with a clickable table of contents for easy navigation and long-term reference, making it both a training and support resource.
With strong leadership support, the organization plans to expand this model across all departments. The goal is to make Canvas the unified platform for onboarding, training, and knowledge sharing, enabling a more efficient and equitable learning environment for staff across the organization
The Results
With Canvas LMS and Catalog, Joni and Friends has created a unified learning platform that supports accessible, multilingual training at scale. The tools have streamlined operations for their small team, enabling growth without added headcount. Looking ahead, the organization is expanding certifications and internal programs—all within Canvas to strengthen staff readiness and deliver greater global impact from a single, centralized platform.
Inclusive Learning with Canvas