Nearly 20 years ago, MCC developed software in house to manage their programs, projects and grants.
While it served them well for many years, gaps eventually emerged in its ability to handle program processes and workflows effectively
Emma Smith Cain, MCC’s Associate International Program Director, explains:
“Our previous solution primarily functioned as a data repository. We wanted something that could also facilitate processes such as reviewing and approving project proposals, reporting, and financial processes.”
Manual project and grant management processes meant MCC staff spent considerable time copying and pasting data between different sources, and sharing documents via email. It was time-consuming and inefficient. Data quality suffered due to these manual processes and the use of multiple unconnected storage locations for program and grant information. Reporting and information sharing were also more difficult because of this fragmented system.
“We needed a single source of truth to eliminate discrepancies between data stored in different places and time spent resolving these. We also wanted to be able to track and report on metrics like funding by project type or country.”
Additionally, the English-only system didn’t reflect MCC’s multilingual program portfolio, limiting full and equitable use by staff worldwide.These challenges, combined with an organisation-wide digital transformation initiative, led MCC to search for a new, non-custom software solution that could better support their program and grant management needs, and integrate with their other digital systems.
The Challenge: Manual Program Management Processes Caused Inefficiencies and Data Quality Issues
About MCC
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is a worldwide ministry of Anabaptist churches, working in 45 countries on humanitarian relief, community development, and peacebuilding. Established over 100 years ago, today MCC works with 393 partners, including NGOs and church- and community-based organisations. As well as managing its own programs, MCC also acts as a donor for projects implemented by local partners.
The Solution: A customisable Program and Grant Management System with Integrated Workflows
After evaluating 15 vendors against more than 80 specifications, MCC selected NGO Online as their new program, project and grant management system. NGO Online offered the process management and data integration capabilities MCC needed, in a centralised platform with a user-friendly interface, standardised templates and workflows, and customisable features. Crucially, NGO Online is built on SharePoint, which MCC were already familiar with, and supports multiple languages.
Implementation began with a week-long design workshop involving multiple global MCC stakeholders, followed by several months of iterative development and testing.
MCC worked closely with Precio Fishbone to tailor NGO Online to their needs. For example, one custom feature enables exporting logframes and documents for partners to input reporting data, which MCC can then upload directly into the system, rather than manually entering data from spreadsheets.
Throughout the design and implementation process, MCC appreciated Precio Fishbone’s strong support and expertise. “Precio Fishbone’s change management support was invaluable. Their careful attention to detail, expert advice, and guidance on transitioning between systems were so helpful. They consistently delivered on their promises, always on time.”
“Precio Fishbone’s change management support was invaluable. Their careful attention to detail, expert advice, and guidance on transitioning between systems were so helpful. They consistently delivered on their promises, always on time.”
Although MCC are still in the early stages of using NGO Online, they are already experiencing improvements in project, program, and grant management. Staff are excited to take advantage of even more efficient processes, stronger data quality and visibility, and workload management once they are fully familiar with the system. Integrated workflows, centralised data, and easily accessible templates in NGO Online’s resource
library have reduced manual data aggregation and increased transparency.
“NGO Online has significantly streamlined our proposal review and approval processes, as well as the way we request and track fund transfers to country offices.” Data quality has greatly improved now that all program and grant-related workflows, aided by NGO Online’s SharePoint capabilities, have been centralised. Reporting at the system level is faster and simpler, with more sophisticated and flexible data analysis options.
“Having all program, project and grant data in one place makes it much easier to create reports that visualise data in various ways for different stakeholders, from partners to staff to the Board,” Emma says.
The Outcome: Improved Process Management, Data Quality, Accountability, and Collaboration
“NGO Online has reduced the back-and-forth of emails with attachments. Instead, multiple people have visibility into the process in one centralised place. We really like how this transparency promotes accountability and collaboration across functions, programs, and departments.”
MCC staff find NGO Online intuitive and straightforward to navigate, leading to high user adoption rates. “Our staff want to use NGO Online because it’s user-friendly, visually appealing, and provides the information they need to do their work.” By reducing time-consuming manual data processing, staff now have more time for higher-value, strategic activities.
“NGO Online helps free up staff members’ valuable time from copying and pasting data so they can focus
more on our partner relationships.” NGO Online’s multilingual capabilities have also been a major benefit: “Being able to use NGO Online in French and Spanish from the beginning has bee invaluable. It has significantly increased staff’s ability to interact with the platform, and we’re working to improve that further. Another benefit of using NGO Online is because it’s web-based, we can use browser-based translators to further enhance its multilingual capabilities.”
MCC are still exploring all the ways NGO Online can help them work more efficiently and effectively. They anticipate further benefits in areas like data analysis, program oversight, compliance, and cross-program collaboration and learning.
Experience the Power of NGO Online for Your Organization
By centralizing data, automating workflows, and providing a user-friendly interface, NGO Online has empowered MCC to more efficiently manage its humanitarian projects worldwide.
See firsthand how NGO Online can help your NGO operate more efficiently. Request a Demo Today and take the first step toward a smarter, more effective project management system!
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