How data is shaping the next generation of charity operations

Compassion International uses data to keep children safe

 

Compassion International is a multinational children’s charity. Every year, the charity supports more than two million children around the world who are living in poverty.

 

The organisation works with an extensive network of sponsors and over 8,000 international church partners to deliver physical, social, economic, and spiritual care to children living in conditions of extreme poverty.

 

They work on an immense scale. This means that they need to draw the right insights from their data to be able to deliver their services effectively. The Compassion International team leverages insights from Splunk to ensure seamless operations at every stage — whether screening sponsors to protect children, tracking gifts to ensure delivery, or securing financial data to maintain sponsor trust.

 

“Given the times that we’re going through right now, we need to be able to reach and serve even more children. By allowing us to make decisions based on data, the Splunk platform will become even more vital to serving and protecting the children who need it most.”

 

— John Edom, Principal of Monitoring & Automation at Compassion International

 

One of these innovative solutions is the PATCH (Protect All the Children) initiative, which protects children from those with potentially malicious motives. PATCH uses Splunk’s machine learning and data processing capabilities to screen sponsors, automatically flagging anyone affiliated with a sexual predators database.

 

“Before Splunk, we had a spreadsheet of ‘bad actors’ that we were trying to manually maintain, but it simply wasn’t scalable,” says John Edom, Compassion’s IT principal of monitoring and automation. In their initial proof of concept, Edom’s team found that by using Splunk, they could find far more bad actors — in a fraction of the time.

 

"Getting approval from our leaders was easy because we had the data to prove we needed to address this issue so we could protect and help more children.”

 

— John Edom, Principal of Monitoring & Automation at Compassion International

 

The previous screening process took about a week to clear after the sponsor signed up. With the help of the Splunk platform, Compassion International has been able to reduce this process to five minutes or less.

 

PATCH also any communications between sponsors and children, flagging out-of-channel communications like social media and letters for potential grooming language. Thanks to the Splunk platform’s machine learning capabilities, the PATCH team and their dedicated investigator have been able to train the Splunk platform to prioritise high-risk matches, such as letters mailed from known prisons and motel addresses.

 

This helps PATCH’s dedicated investigator to work more productively, by automating time-consuming tasks and channelling their efforts into more skilled work.

 

 

Technology helps Rise Against Hunger to work in a crisis

 

International humanitarian hunger relief organisation Rise Against Hunger distributes food and other critical aid to some of the world’s most vulnerable populations. In 2018, it delivered 76.9 million meals to 794,000 people in 31 countries.

 

“Splunk is helping us work toward a full roadmap to gain visibility across the entire supply chain. The technology and partnership will help to drive the organisation forward."

 

— Sheryl Gustafson, Director of Technology Solutions and Services at Rise Against Hunger

 

Like many charities that work in the field, Rise Against Hunger faces several technology challenges when it comes to data privacy, security, and compliance.

 

The organisation has several key needs. For one, they require an effective electronic registration system for volunteer information. They also need the ability to rationalise and prioritise disparate systems in its IT environment, and a solution capable of enhancing and optimising their existing data privacy and regulation compliance measures.

 

Splunk’s flexible platform enabled the organisation to embrace the power of data-driven insights to identify those service users in the greatest need of life-saving meals.

 

“The interactive value of Splunking the data is a fantastic addition to the organisation. The ability to see insights like that from technology can really energise the organisation.”

 

— Sheryl Gustafson, Director of Technology Solutions and Services at Rise Against Hunger

 

 

Splunk helps NetHope communicate in critical situations

 

Communication is essential in a crisis. When hurricanes, earthquakes or other humanitarian crises strike, time is of the essence. Relief agencies must coordinate efforts to quickly direct aid to where it’s needed most.

 

Organisations must work quickly to restore the communications networks that enable leaders to make informed decisions. That’s where NetHope come in. This consortium of nearly 60 leading global nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) delivers more than 60% of all annual, international, non-governmental aid.

 

NetHope connects its member NGOs with more than 60 technology companies to solve humanitarian, development and conservation challenges. Splunk for Good is one of these initiatives.

 

Coordinating communications among one global team presents a lot of challenges. Working across multiple relief organisations with diverse budgets, IT infrastructures, and levels of participation in a disaster zone is extremely complex.

 

Spreadsheets emailed in broadcast list remain the lingua franca of humanitarian information management. As a result, NetHope found it challenging to keep track of all its connectivity projects and how they contributed to overall relief efforts.

 

“I remember trying to explain why our spreadsheets were so limited. We sometimes sent people JPEG files of data sets to explain their complexity.”

 

— Jennifer Chan, Humanitarian Advisor

 

Through Splunk for Good, Splunk provides technology and expertise that help NetHope better manage and understand its data and communicate valuable insights. It helped the organisation keep track of all its networks worldwide.

 

When NetHope implemented Splunk, they could only estimate how many networks the organisation was managing. The number turned out to be almost 300. With Splunk’s help, they are able to monitor and maintain those networks, and let the agencies that rely on them understand how they’re being used.

 

Charities and NGOS are also able to benefit from the Splunk for Nonprofit programme. The programme offers free software and complimentary eLearning to NGOs who have received technology donations, ensuring that all beneficiaries can use the donation to its full potential.

 

And, importantly, registration with Splunk for Nonprofit allows charitable organisations to access special discount pricing on a variety of Splunk products, including Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Cloud, and Splunk premium apps such as Enterprise Security and IT Service Intelligence.