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.
The Start of Our Journey Together
Each M&E program team at Save the Children US 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 — including SCORE, Foundant, Partner Portal, and Surveys — to provide information, with no standardization for data collection.
Introducing Impact Hub
Together, Save the Children US, Salesforce Professional Services, and Vera Solutions built Impact Hub — a central source of data for both internal and external use via a partner portal. The solution combines Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud for partner data, award management, and program management; Salesforce Experience Cloud for the external partner portal handling awards, applications, and reporting; and Amp Impact for monitoring & evaluation and impact reporting.
The team began with initial meetings to assess requirements, after which Salesforce and Vera Solutions presented a prototype of Nonprofit Cloud for Programs, Experience Cloud, and Amp Impact. They 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.
“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.”
– Brenda Miele, Head User Experience & Solution Architecture, SCUS
Benefits and What's Next
With Impact Hub, Save the Children US has attracted over 100 applications by launching three funding opportunities to date, and has standardized its USP program hierarchy and indicator catalog. The team streamlined its approval process, supported users with 17 quick reference guides, educated 200+ staff during 15 live training sessions to upskill system skills, and deployed 15 state-based trainers using a train-the-trainer model.
The external portal simplifies grant applications with easy access via a custom URL, with open funding opportunities prepared and aligned with programs, and the Impact Hub portal collecting data for partner reports. Program teams can now manage grants to partners and supervise program implementation efficiently, while M&E teams evaluate programs, collect data, and provide impact insights across partners, programs, and regions. All users can review, manage, and track applications, converting them into funded projects, and manage partner and contact data with clear visibility across partners, programs, and regions.
Looking ahead, Save the Children US plans to enhance its internal hub for the MERL team to verify partner data and leverage reports and dashboards to showcase work and results, providing stakeholders with insights into partner locations, program implementations, and individual program results — both by specific locations across the USA and aggregated nationally. Plans also include case management to transfer attendance-based data from the legacy system to the central system, strengthening support capabilities, and widening tech adoption by building out an AWS Data Lake and enabling complex reporting using Amp Impact and Tableau.