Salesforce CRM Contributes to Fight Against Poverty and AIDS by Educating Girls and Empowering Young Women in Africa

Case Study

Mildred from western Zambia recently became the first person in her village to graduate from university. Twenty-eight year old Mildred grew up in a family of nine children in Shangombo, a remote district off the electricity grid where poverty runs deep. Mildred is one of more than 1,451,600 children in impoverished areas of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Ghana and Malawi that have benefited from Camfed’s innovative education programs. Since 1993, the charity has been fighting poverty and HIV/AIDS in Africa by educating girls and empowering women to become leaders of change.

Salesforce.com has played a small part in that success. Camfed was originally using The Raisers Edge non-profit software for management and fundraising; however the Salesforce Foundation kick-started a relationship which now sees the non-profit organisation using the cloud-based salesforce.com customer relationship management (CRM) solution throughout its entire operations. One of the fundamental benefits of the browser-based solution is that staff can log onto Salesforce CRM in remote parts of Africa—or just as easily at the Cambridge U.K. headquarters or San Francisco office —and manage the care of the girls and young women. The agility of Salesforce CRM has improved Camfed’s ability to use data to increase transparencies in the management of resources in rural Africa.

“When you educate a girl in Africa, everything changes. She’ll be three times less likely to get HIV/AIDS, earn 25 percent more income and have a smaller, healthier family,” explains Dan Luton, program manager, IT and Data Analysis, Camfed. “Salesforce CRM gives us the flexibility to work harder and more effectively to help these girls and deliver more successful outcomes.”

Fundraising in the cloud

Salesforce CRM supports Camfed (an abbreviation of the ‘Campaign for Female Education’) across the lifecycle of community-based programs in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Malawi and Tanzania. Fundraising, for example, is all managed through the cloud. The non-profit has worked closely with Westbrook Consultants to customise the CRM solution so that there are just two transactions between a donation and the benefiting girls, each of which is under Camfed’s control. Integration with the Appexchange application Convio Common Ground allows the team to track all donations, build revenue forecasts, find prospective donors and monitor major donor opportunities.

“Using Salesforce CRM, we have a complete profile of Camfed’s constituents, allowing the organization to build stronger relationships with all supporters, not just donors. When a donor makes a contribution through the Camfed website, for example, Salesforce CRM is immediately populated with their profile and contact details,” Luton says.

Mobile computing enhances girls’ outcomes

The CRM solution is having a similar impact on girls’ outcomes. The CRM solution is improving Camfed’s program management and reporting, enabling better tracking of the impact on girls’ and communities’ lives. Camfed has adopted an innovative approach to mobile working. Teachers and community volunteers in Africa can input the progress of the girls’ under their care directly into a standard Nokia phone, regardless of location or time. A pre-designed mobile phone-based survey is available to each teacher/volunteer, with a list of questions ranging from the girls’ entitlements (books, allowance and fees paid, for instance), to the meetings attended, examination pass rates, and the involvement of local schools. All of the data is automatically integrated into Salesforce CRM to create a single, comprehensive, and shared view of each girl’s development.

“We currently have 500 volunteers in Ghana and Zambia, using mobile technology to automate the process of tracking every girl,” says Luton. “By 2012, we expect to have 1,000 phones active in the field. The mobile solution, underpinned by Salesforce CRM, is transforming the speed of decision-making and the trust we have in the data. We effectively have a real-time life data feed on the girls’ performance. If there is a problem with one of the girls, we can react immediately, and potentially prevent her dropping out of the program.”

The mobile approach to data collection and analysis ensures that records are in place for each transaction, are maintained in a manner consistent with best practice, and provide a clear trail for auditing. The audit process, which happens annually in each country, also seeks to trace funds from the time of donation to the time it reaches individual girls.

Salesforce.com staff devote time to the Camfed cause

As part of the Salesforce Foundation’s unique 1/1/1 integrated philanthropy model (whereby the company donates one percent of its time, product, and equity to the community), Salesforce.com staff have also devoted one percent of their time to Camfed’s community engagement. Amy Harbin, a Salesforce.com staff member, travelled to Zambia to train 15 staff from five countries on how to use Salesforce CRM. By applying the core strengths of salesforce.com, Harbin helped Camfed to further its social mission, deepen the impact, and improve the lives of girls and women in Africa.

“There are limitless opportunities to what Camfed can do with Salesforce CRM,” says Luton. “Camfed believes that every child has the right to an education. Salesforce CRM is an important tool that Camfed uses to get the most needy girls in school and maximise the value of their education after graduation.”

Results

• Helped Camfed to deliver more successful outcomes among young girls and women in Africa
• Supported the lifecycle of fund-raising programs
• Enabled program management from anywhere in the world, regardless of location, time, or content
• Staff can log onto Salesforce CRM in remote parts of Africa—or just as easily at the U.K. headquarters—and manage the care of the girls and young women
• Improved Camfed’s ability to use data to increase transparencies in the management of resources in rural Africa
• Provided near real-time view of progress of girls’ under Camfed’s care, via mobile phone data input
• Created a single, comprehensive, and shared view of each girl’s development
• Increased data quality and accuracy
• Provided a clear data trail for auditing

Camfed