United Way Mumbai works with communities, broadly in the areas of health, education and income to improve their lives and partnered with Dataogram to efficiently track the distribution of ration kits for their COVID-19 relief initiative.
Results:
- Highly streamlined process of data collection and tracking
- Real-time data for informed decision-making
- Easy-to-use interface for partner organizations
United Way is a global non-profit organization that works with around 1800 communities across 41 countries in the areas of education, health, and income to improve their quality of life. Their mission is to leverage the caring power of communities to steer social change. United Way Mumbai is a part of this 130+ year old global movement and has been in existence for the last 17 years. They work with urban and rural communities in the priority areas of health, education, social inclusion, environment, public safety, and income.
Their work spans multiple verticals- working with corporates and NGOs to design and implement effective CSR programs, conducting needs assessments of communities to determine the extent of resources at their disposal, helping companies identify relevant NGO partners for their programs, conducting workplace giving campaigns, managing grants, auditing CSR programs, and assessing the community development programs of NGOs. Their flagship programs are in the areas of civic awareness, health, safety, and the environment.
In light of the lockdown declared due to COVID-19, the livelihoods of thousands of communities came to a standstill, causing great economic distress and uncertainty. As the relief efforts began, United Way Mumbai was approached by many companies looking to contribute to these efforts by working with NGOs.
Hence, United Way launched an initiative to raise funds to provide relief during COVID-19 and support other organizations and the government in their efforts.
Our ration distribution initiative focused on at-risk and vulnerable community groups severely affected by the lockdown and loss of livelihoods including Daily Wage Earners, Commercial Sex Workers, LGBTQ communities, Persons with disabilities, Tribal communities, etc
One of the forms in which support is being extended is through ration and essentials kits, which include food items and toiletries. “Our ration distribution initiative focused on at-risk and vulnerable community groups severely affected by the lockdown and loss of livelihoods including Daily Wage Earners, Commercial Sex Workers, LGBTQ communities, Persons with disabilities, Tribal communities, etc”, says George J Aikara, Chief Operating Officer, United Way Mumbai.
As the initiative grew in scale and more organizations became involved, the scale of the distribution activities to be monitored was also expected to grow. There were multiple aspects of a distribution drive to track in order to understand the overall reach and impact. United was looking for a solution that would enable them to track these metrics in a streamlined way.
“Under the lockdown and with on-ground restrictions for the team, there was a great need to bridge the information and coordination gap between organizations collaborating with the relief work. Dataogram offered to step in pro bono by creating an easy-to-use app which would aid the collection of data related to the kit distribution by various partners.”, says George Aikara, COO.
Dataogram’s resource tracking application which was launched as a pro bono initiative helped them achieve the key objectives of the program.
Under the lockdown and with on-ground restrictions for the team, there was a great need to bridge the information and coordination gap between organizations collaborating with the relief work. Dataogram offered to step in pro bono by creating an easy-to-use app which would aid the collection of data related to the kit distribution by various partners
Centralized view of the distribution efforts
United collaborated with multiple corporate partners and NGOs to distribute ration and essentials kits and the relief work was carried out in different areas on a daily basis. Additionally, the funds were raised from various sources- individuals, companies, and foundations. Hence, tracking the activity of every participating NGO to understand the progress and reporting the same to the various stakeholders was no small task.
The solution has greatly reduced the effort behind consolidating data, tracking progress, and reporting on the same. The consolidated view of distribution efforts greatly helps management oversight on the program, flags off issues, reduces dependency on the communication chain between teams and partners, allows comprehensive analysis of efforts, distribution, and efficiency of partners.
The solution helped track important data such as the date completed, location, the number of kits distributed, and the organization name. This feature was particularly useful because there were many partner organizations spread across multiple geographies and distribution efforts happened simultaneously.
“The solution has greatly reduced the effort behind consolidating data, tracking progress, and reporting on the same. Additionally, it greatly helps management oversight on the program, flags off issues, reduces dependency on the communication chain between teams and partners, allows comprehensive analysis of efforts, distribution, and efficiency of partners.”, says George Aikara, COO.
Real-time dashboard with rich insights
In the current unprecedented situation, efforts to reach maximum people from the affected communities are very crucial. To work towards this, it was important to accurately and continuously measure progress. The application has a dashboard that shows real-time data on the number of kits distributed over a period of time and a map with the partner organizations’ work across different locations and beneficiary types. The data can also be filtered by pin code and date to gain deeper insights.
Instant export of data for accurate reporting
The data in the real-time dashboard could be instantly downloaded, helping create meaningful reports in less time. This helped the team monitor and report on the progress of the initiative to stakeholders regularly.
Simple user interface for partner organizations
The initiative required the NGO partners to create a record of the distribution activity on a particular day. The interface allows teams to sign in and create an entry wherein they can add a geotag (optional), photo of themselves, location of the drive, pin code, area code, beneficiary type and photos, and other details.
The solution makes the whole process very user-friendly and our partners have appreciated the simple form and prompt support
George Aikara, COO, United Way Mumbai
This feature also allowed teams to upload photos of the actual distribution and related Excel or PDF files. There is also an optional field of a description, which allows teams to add further context to the data.
COO, George Aikara says, “The solution makes the whole process very user-friendly and our partners have appreciated the simple form and prompt support.”
Improves transparency
The solution enabled all the stakeholders in the initiative to stay in loop on the status of the relief efforts and get a sense of the larger picture. “The data collected allows for the verification of beneficiaries and removes the dependency on intermediary inputs for the same.”, says George Aikara, COO.