Scalable Impact Reporting

Scalable Impact Reporting

NGOs do incredible work around the world. But behind every donation lies a challenge: documenting how funds are used. 

1. Vision

Our idea is to develop a simple, AI-driven reporting tool. This tool will help NGOs around the world to document donations correctly and transparently. With an intuitive and data-efficient mobile application, receipts can be easily recorded – even in areas with poor internet connectivity. The receipts will be allocated to projects und budget lines automatically. The tool reduces paperwork significantly and ensures that donated funds have a greater impact. At the same time, it creates transparency, therefore builds trust and enables NGOs to raise more donations for more impact! 

2. The Problem

Donors - whether individuals, companies, or government agencies - want to know more and more precisely how their donations are being used. Such documentation is not only mandatory, but also very important for maintaining trust in the organization and encouraging continued donations. 

However, in many countries where NGOs operate, the infrastructure is poor. Receipts are often written by hand, digital devices are rare, and processing invoices and receipts is very time-consuming. Especially handwritten receipts lead to inefficient processes, a lot of administrative work, and high efforts and costs for NGOs or their partners. Reports are delayed and, in the worst case, donors lose confidence. 

In a project where our partner the Stay Foundation empowers local farmers how to increase their crop yields, expense management and documentation is one of the biggest administrative blocks. Like in any other NGO the time needed for administration cannot be used for the core business, in Stay’s case transferring knowledge and empowering farmers.

3. The Solution

Our Reporting Tool solves these problems with a clever combination of ease of use and powerful technology. Beneficiaries (recipients of support) or project staff can submit receipts directly via an easy-to-use mobile application. Handwritten receipts in particular are automatically recognized, read, and assigned to the correct projects and expenses using artificial intelligence (AI). This process replaces tedious, error-prone, and repetitive manual work. 

The recorded data is then automatically collected and processed in a dashboard showing amongst others a budget vs. actual expenditures comparison. 

This system not only reduces administrative costs and helps to use existing funds more efficiently, it also creates trust through transparency – and thus the basis for continued willingness to donate. 

4. Impact & Added Value

The Reporting Tool works on several levels.  

It makes work more efficient by significantly reducing the administrative burden on NGOs and project staff. At the same time, the tool enables donations to be used in a more targeted manner. Funds no longer flow into costly administrative processes, but directly into project work. This means that the available resources have a greater impact – both in the daily operations of NGOs and in public perception.  

In numbers: With this tool we can reduce our administrative efforts by 80 to 90%, which means up to 500 hours in a project with a budget of 250.000 Euros (= exemplary project  budget for our partner the Stay Foundation).  That means that – using the tool – the NGOs could invest those working hours helping people instead of manually doing administrative processes. This means a partner like the Stay Foundation could invest an additional 3 months in empowering farmers. If a NGO has a budget of 1 million EUR, the saved time will equal about 1 full time year of work – incredible.  

In addition, the Reporting Tool builds trust among donors and funders through clear and fast reports, i.e. transparency. This trust is very important for future donations and commitments. 

5. Target Groups & Advantages 

Project staff & beneficiaries (e.g., small farmers) 

• Easy document entry with existing devices (smartphones) 
• Automatic help with allocation 
• Less effort required for documentation 

NGOs 

• Less administrative work thanks to automatic processes and messenger reminders 
• Better planning and control thanks to organized data 
• Greater impact because you can concentrate on core tasks 

Donors (foundations, authorities, private donors) 

• Clear, traceable use of funds 
• Trust through individual reports 
• Greater willingness to donate through real-time insights 

6. Outlook

In the further technical development phases, the tool will be expanded with additional functions. These include the advancement of the dashboard for real-time analysis and impact measurement. Further, reports tailored to the respective target group, whether it is internal management or external donors, will be developed. In the future, proof of the use of funds can be created and sent to each individual donor, it will even be possible to inform donors in real time about how their funds are being used. Interfaces to existing systems of NGOs and donors are also planned to enable smooth integration into existing workflows. 

Further we intend to train and adjust the system with the requirements of institutional donors and NGOs and strive to make it the standard for these organizations and support hundreds of NGOs.  

Picture this: With our tool supporting only 10 NGOs, each with a budget of one million Euro, we could relieve 10 full-time staff members from administrative duties, enabling them to dedicate their efforts to directly helping people. 

7. Team

Scalable Impact (by ReFrastructure gGmbH):  

Scalable Impact itself is an NGO. It’s goal is to support NGOs in their daily operational business, driving their efficiency and enabling them to raise more donations.

Stay Foundation:

The Stay Foundation is pioneering income generation for the extreme poor especially in Uganda since 2014.

Stefan Weber:

Stefan Weber is an OutSystems expert and host of the “without.systems” blog.