Part of the ACT Alliance, Christian Aid UK works through 443 partners across Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East, with offices in 18 countries. Reliable systems are crucial, but their ageing partner, project and grant management system had become a barrier to efficient partner management, data use, and decision-making.
“Our legacy system was over-customised and incredibly rigid. It was very much a ‘computer says no’ situation,” says Marleen Hartkoorn, Digital Programme Systems Manager at Christian Aid UK. “You couldn’t easily pull out data. Even when you did, it was often unreliable so people didn’t trust it.”
Without fast, easy access to reliable, integrated data, reporting and planning became harder and more time-consuming.
“Before, we didn’t even know how many partners we were working with at any one time. It would take a week to run the reports and piece together the information.”
Staff relied on spreadsheets and manual workarounds to keep things moving. “Because the system was so rigid and unreliable, people developed all kinds of workarounds, which got complex and messy.”
Behind the scenes, errors took a long time to resolve, and security concerns grew.
“We were spending so much time on support — it wasn’t sustainable. Problems like exchange rate mix-ups created big issues and took us weeks to fix manually.”
The Challenge: Too Many Workarounds, Too Little Visibility
The Solution: A User-Focused System, Built with Flexibility in Mind
Christian Aid UK selected NGO Online from Precio Fishbone after a competitive tender, choosing it for its user-friendliness, cost, flexibility, and close fit with their needs. But it wasn’t just the platform that impressed: it was the people.
“It felt like a real partnership with Precio Fishbone from the start. They were very down to earth — not salesy like some other vendors. They showed straight away how NGO Online could meet our requirements, and were flexible and open to new ideas.”
Throughout the design and build process, Precio Fishbone provided tailored support and practical guidance. “The project manager was fantastic, always anticipating challenges and coming up with solutions. We felt in very safe hands.”
Christian Aid UK began rolling out iPIMS — their custom implementation of NGO Online — in October 2022. A standout feature is the tailored workflows they built internally to guide staff through project, funding, and partnership cycles. “They take users through every step of what they need to do, ensuring compliance with our policies.”
When workflow updates are needed, Christian Aid can manage them in-house. “There’s so much we can configure ourselves without needing to contact Precio Fishbone, which is fantastic.”
The system’s flexibility extends to custom integrations with Power BI for reporting and DocuSign for smoother contracting — all managed through an intuitive admin portal. “A lot of systems have clunky admin areas, but this one is incredibly user-friendly.”
“NGO Online’s user-friendliness was a big selling point for staff. It’s so intuitive, with a really clean layout that’s easy to navigate.“
iPIMS has transformed how Christian Aid UK manages partnerships, projects, and grants: saving time, speeding up tasks, improving reporting, and enabling more strategic decision-making. It consolidates 12 previously separate processes into one integrated system with centralised data and automated workflows, eliminating reliance on spreadsheets and manual workarounds.
“Tasks that previously took a very long time are now so quick. It used to take days to get a payment approved. Now, we can set up a new partner and project, and make a payment, in just 15 minutes.”
Data availability and quality have improved dramatically, with reliable, real-time information now at users’ fingertips. “Data that used to take us a week to pull together is now just there. We can easily run our own queries and use iPIMS data to build our own Power BI dashboards to enable better decision-making. iPIMS is a one-stop shop for all our data, policies, and processes. Having everything in one place makes it much quicker to access information.”
Crucially, the system has shifted staff focus from processing data to analysing and using it.
“The focus now is on outputs — the insights and decisions that come from the data — rather than just inputting data. That’s a fantastic transformation.”
The Outcome: Faster Processes, Better Insights, and Future-Readiness
The DocuSign integration has been another major time-saver. “Getting a partner contract signed used to take at least 3 hours’ work, spread over a month. Now it takes minutes — no printing, scanning, or emailing back and forth.”
Christian Aid can also adapt more easily to new compliance requirements. “All our work has to meet minimum requirements, linked to the Core Humanitarian Standard. When these change, we’ve been able to adjust our system workflows ourselves, without needing Precio Fishbone’s support.”
Looking ahead, Marleen feels confident iPIMS will keep pace with the sector’s demands, enabling Christian Aid UK to focus on their core mission.
“NGO Online is so flexible, with new functionality added regularly, that I can’t foresee any new sector challenges that would require a major rethink of how we do things, or changes that we couldn’t manage ourselves.”
Experience the Power of NGO Online for Your Organization
Christian Aid UK revolutionised its partner, project, and grant management with NGO Online—cutting approval times, boosting data reliability, and eliminating manual workarounds. Now, it’s your turn!
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!
Found this Case Study Insightful?
Share it with your network and help others discover valuable insights!