The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF)
The African Women's Development Fund (AWDF)
The African Women's Development Fund (AWDF) is a grant-making organisation that supports women's rights organisations across Africa. AWDF provides funding to empower grassroots initiatives, amplify women's voices, and drive meaningful change.
As the demand for funding grew, AWDF needed a more efficient way to manage grants, track applications, and generate impactful reports.
The Challenge - Overcoming Manual Processes to Scale Impact
AWDF's grant management process was slow and resource-intensive, making it difficult to scale and track impact. Their team manually processed up to 1,000 applications per cycle, relying on spreadsheets to manage approvals, payments, and reporting.
Extracting data for case studies and donor reports was a major challenge, limiting their ability to tell the story of their impact.
"Grant applications came in through emails, and we had to spend two weeks going through them manually.
It was hugely time-consuming, and we had to bring in extra staff just to handle the admin load."
- Belinda Amankwah, Operations Manager
Pain Points
AWDF struggled with inefficiencies that hindered their ability to focus on impact. The team wanted a system that would automate lots of their issues, so they didn't have to hire extra staff every time they opened their application process.
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Time-consuming manual processes
- Each application cycle involved manually reviewing and entering up to 1,000 applications.
Grant officers had to track applications using personal notes, making real-time visibility impossible.
- Each application cycle involved manually reviewing and entering up to 1,000 applications.
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Reporting inefficiencies
AWDF relied on Excel to track grants and overdue reports, slowing down donor reporting.
Funders requested detailed impact data, but manual processes made this nearly impossible.
- Reports had to be created manually every time the team wanted to look at trends, analyse data, and look at their information at a high level.
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Scalability limitations
The team needed a solution that could handle multi-year grants and scale with demand.
The existing system required temporary staff to manage workload peaks, leading to increased operational costs.
Each application cycle demanded additional hires, stretching the budget to cover temporary staff salaries and training. This not only resulted in higher staff costs but also required AWDF to manually manage short-term employees, adding another layer of administrative burden.
The reliance on temporary staff made it difficult to maintain consistency and institutional knowledge, further complicating the grant management process.
The Solution:
Hyphen8 implemented a tailored Salesforce system that automated processes, centralised data, and improved reporting.
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Automated grant application management
- Applications now flow directly into Salesforce, eliminating manual data entry and saving weeks of admin time.
The system automatically assigns applications to the right team members, improving workflow efficiency.
- Applications now flow directly into Salesforce, eliminating manual data entry and saving weeks of admin time.
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Seamless feedback and communication
AWDF can now send automated application feedback to all applicants with a single click, replacing a process that previously took days.
The system tracks all communications, ensuring clear, consistent messaging with applicants and grantees.
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Real-time data and reporting
AWDF can instantly generate reports on grant statuses, overdue reports, and impact data to meet funder requirements.
Custom dashboards provide instant insights, allowing leadership to make informed decisions based on live data.
Automated alerts help AWDF track reporting deadlines, ensuring compliance with funder requirements.
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Integrated financial tracking
- The system automates payment tracking and ensures that multi-year grant disbursements are managed efficiently.
AWDF can now quickly reconcile financial data, reducing errors and improving financial transparency.
- The system automates payment tracking and ensures that multi-year grant disbursements are managed efficiently.
The Impact of working with Hyphen8
The Impact
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Increased efficiency and transparency
The team can now easily manage the high application volume without additional staff.
AWDF can generate real-time reports that track grant statuses and overdue reports, critical for meeting donor obligations and providing timely updates to funders.
Detailed impact indicators are now accessible instantly, allowing AWDF to demonstrate the effectiveness of their grants with data-backed insights.
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Better storytelling and donor engagement
- Having all data in one place allows AWDF to track grant impact more effectively, helping them communicate their success stories to donors and stakeholders.
AWDF has been able to automate its processes, save time, and focus more on the impact of its grants.
The ability to scale efficiently ensures that AWDF can continue improving their processes and maximising their impact in the future.
- Having all data in one place allows AWDF to track grant impact more effectively, helping them communicate their success stories to donors and stakeholders.
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Time-saving automation
The application process was automated, significantly reducing the time needed to manage each cycle.
All applications now flow directly into Salesforce, eliminating the need for manual data entry and allowing staff to focus on higher-value tasks.
"Before Salesforce, we needed extra staff to help with data entry during busy periods. Now, that's no longer necessary," said Belinda. "We've saved a lot of time."
Feedback to applicants, which was previously difficult due to the volume of submissions, is now automated.
"With just a click of a button, we can provide feedback to all applicants. This used to take days, but now it's instantaneous," - Belinda added.
Salesforce, implemented by Hyphen8, addressed all the pain points AWDF had been struggling with. The application process was automated, significantly reducing the time needed to manage each cycle. The team have shared various benefits with us, including;
Making an impact
"With just a click of a button, we can provide feedback to all applicants.
This used to take days, but now it's instantaneous."
- Belinda, AWDF
Why Did You Choose Salesforce and Hyphen8?
AWDF sought advice from other grant-making organisations, many of which we had worked with and, after recommendations from the Global Fund for Women and Comic Relief, chose Salesforce.
"We knew that Salesforce was the right choice, but it was the recommendation from Comic Relief that showed us the value Hyphen8 could bring.
Their deep knowledge of grant-making and nonprofits made all the difference."
- Gertrude Bibi Annoh-Quarshie, Operations Lead
Advice for other charities
If you're a charity or foundation considering a digital transformation, start by speaking to others in the sector who have made similar changes.
Learn from their experiences, ask about what worked well, and what challenges they faced. Organisations like the Global Fund for Women and Comic Relief provided valuable insights to AWDF before they moved to Salesforce. Reach out to peers, consult trusted technology partners, and don't hesitate to contact us at Hyphen8 for expert advice.
We'd love to chat about your challenges and explore how the right technology can help you scale your impact-book a call with us today!
