Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the United States and around the world, they do whatever it takes – every day and in times of crisis – so children can fulfill their rights to a healthy start in life, have the opportunity to learn, and be protected from harm. With over 100 years of expertise, Save the Children is the world’s first and leading independent children’s organization transforming lives and the future we share.

Market segment: Nonprofit, iNGO
Thematic Area: Health, Child Protection Services, Education, Food and Shelter
Region: USA, Federated Model
Project Type: One-team project implementation between Save the Children US, Salesforce Professional Services, and Vera Solutions
Solution used: Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Amp Impact

With Salesforce and Amp Impact, Save the Children US can

Attract over 100 applications by launching three funding opportunities to date

Standardize USP program hierarchy and indicator catalog

Streamline their approval process

Support their users by providing 17 quick reference guides

Educate 200+ staff during 15 live training sessions upskilling system skills

Deploy 15 state-based trainers using the train-the-trainer model

Goals

Implement a new system to consolidate program data, identify the communities served, and determine how to better utilize partners for greater impact
Leverage system functionality to support award management, boosting workflow productivity
Optimize monitoring & evaluation by centralizing all data in one unified hub

Challenges

Each M&E program team used separate manual tools for data collection, award management, and program implementation, causing delays in answering basic questions about partners, programs, and results by region
Partners used multiple systems and formats (e.g. SCORE, Foundant, Partner Portal, and Surveys) to provide information with no standardization for data collection

Solutions

Impact Hub serves as a central source of data, for both internal and external use via a partner portal with:

Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud for partner data, award management, and program management
Salesforce Experience Cloud for the external partner portal with awards, applications, and reporting
Amp Impact for monitoring & evaluation and impact reporting

Approach

Conducted initial meetings to assess requirements
Salesforce and Vera Solutions presented a prototype of NPC for Programs, Experience Cloud, and Amp Impact
Employed a hybrid/agile approach with train-the-trainer sessions, quick reference guides, and a collaborative ‘one team’ style, all focused on improving children’s lives and driving adoption

Benefits

External portal simplifies grant applications with easy access via a custom URL
Open funding opportunities are prepared and aligned with programs
Impact Hub portal collects data for partner reports

High-level user capabilities

Program teams manage grants to partners and supervise program implementation efficiently
M&E teams evaluate programs, collect data, and provide impact insights across partners, programs, and regions

Manage partner and contact data and provide impact insights across partners, programs and regions
All users can review, manage, track applications, and convert them into funded projects

Next Steps

Implement five impact indicators across all projects to measure outcomes
Refine the user interface and train staff for optimal system operation and maintenance
Instruct the team on creating visualizations to highlight community impact and enhance understanding of data use cases and value

Future Plans

Update the system to align and support the goals and requirements for the next project phase
Centralize project views with standardized indicators for consistent tracking and reporting of key metrics, including progress, outcomes, and performance, across teams

"We are thrilled with our Vera Solutions partnership. They consistently take the time to understand our needs, which helps them deliver the best user-centric solutions. Our product and support teams have also benefited from Vera Solutions’ expertise as we grow and develop our Salesforce skills internally. Overall, this partnership has made us more efficient and has helped us bring a better user experience to our program partners across the United States."