Save the Children Spain Cuts Costs and Improves Campaigns with Devoteam’s AWS-Powered Data Solution

Save the Children, a leading international non-governmental organization, has been at the forefront of protecting children’s rights for over a century. Operating in more than 120 countries, the organization reaches over 55 million children annually, focusing on humanitarian emergency aid, education, health, and nutrition. In Spain alone, Save the Children serves more than 5,000 children and families across six regions, striving to break the cycle of poverty through education. Despite its significant impact, Save the Children Spain faced challenges in managing its vast data resources. An on-premises solution with limited scalability hindered the organization’s ability to process and integrate information from multiple sources effectively. With data scattered across various platforms, including Salesforce CRM, Marketing Cloud, Google Analytics, and numerous websites, Save the Children Spain lacked a unified view of its operations and donor base.

This fragmentation of data posed a critical obstacle to the organization’s mission. It limited its ability to gain comprehensive insights into donor behavior, personalize outreach efforts, and optimize fundraising campaigns. The need for a more robust, scalable, and integrated data solution became increasingly apparent as Save the Children Spain sought to enhance its operational efficiency and maximize its impact on children’s lives worldwide.

To address its challenges, Save the Children Spain partnered with AWS Premier Consulting Partner Devoteam to design and implement a cutting-edge data-lake solution using AWS services. AWS introduced Save the Children to Devoteam, selecting the partner for its expertise in data integration solutions and proven track record of delivering scalable and efficient data platforms. “The proof-of-concept Devoteam provided was impressive—we quickly realized how our capabilities could be transformed,” said Raúl González García, application area manager at Save the Children Spain. Aiming to centralize data, enhance analytics capabilities, and streamline operations, the solution architecture incorporated a suite of AWS services, each playing a crucial role in the data integration and processing pipeline.

At the heart of the solution, a data-extraction process using Amazon AppFlow automated the ingestion of information from Salesforce and other sources to ensure a constant flow of up-to-date data. This raw data found a secure home in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), which provided a scalable repository capable of handling information from various sources. To process and transform this data efficiently, the solution leveraged serverless compute capabilities from AWS Lambda, eliminating the need for infrastructure management. The system’s reliability was further enhanced by incorporating Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) and Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS), which orchestrated message queuing and notifications, creating an event-driven architecture that ensured smooth data flow.

For complex queries and reporting needs, Amazon Aurora for MySQL served as the central database, offering high performance and scalability. The solution incorporated intelligent automation through Amazon EventBridge, which managed various processes, including cost-saving measures such as automatic shutdown of services during non-operational hours. To facilitate the transition from the existing on-premises infrastructure, AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) and its schema conversion tool played a critical role. These solutions ensured a smooth migration of data from the on-premises SQL Server to Aurora, maintaining data integrity and compatibility throughout the process. Implementation took approximately five months, during which Devoteam worked closely with Save the Children Spain to transfer over 147 million records, each containing up to 400 fields. “The massive data migration required careful planning and execution to ensure data accuracy,” noted González. “Devoteam made the process simple for us.”

A key feature of the Devoteam solution was its ability to automatically create and rename tables and fields, allowing for the seamless integration of new data sources. This flexibility was crucial for Save the Children Spain, enabling it to adapt quickly to changing data needs and incorporate new information streams effortlessly. Throughout the implementation, Devoteam prioritized cost-efficiency, leveraging serverless technologies like AWS Lambda to minimize operational expenses while maintaining high performance. This approach aligned perfectly with Save the Children Spain’s mission to maximize resources for humanitarian efforts.

The implementation of this AWS-powered data-lake solution revolutionized Save the Children Spain’s data management and analytics capabilities, yielding significant benefits across the organization. The centralized data warehouse now provides comprehensive views of donor behavior and preferences, enabling more targeted and effective fundraising campaigns. The automation of data ingestion and processing has dramatically reduced manual effort, freeing staff to focus on strategic initiatives rather than data management tasks. And with AWS managing the database infrastructure, the IT team can shift its energies from routine maintenance and system update tasks to more impactful projects.

By migrating from on-premises infrastructure to AWS, Save the Children Spain has achieved substantial cost reductions. The organization has realized annual cost savings of approximately €12,000, which encompasses both maintenance cost savings and decreased expenses from reduced Salesforce storage requirements. Furthermore, Save the Children Spain has experienced a 10 percent improvement in campaign performance, demonstrating significant enhancements in email campaign effectiveness due to better targeting and personalization. The new solution also allows Save the Children Spain to easily incorporate new data sources and adapt to changing needs, ensuring the long-term sustainability of its data strategy. And the move to AWS strengthened data protection measures by implementing features like multi-factor authentication and VPN access, which were challenging to maintain in the organization’s on-premises environment.

Perhaps most importantly, the cost savings and operational efficiencies gained through this digital transformation directly translate to increased resources for humanitarian projects. Every euro saved on technology and operations is a euro that can be redirected to Save the Children Spain’s mission of providing aid and support to children around the world. Looking ahead, Save the Children Spain will continue to work with AWS and use its services to develop innovative tools for social workers. These tools will simplify access to information about social benefits, potentially expanding the organization’s impact on families in need. As Save the Children Spain continues to evolve its data strategy with Devoteam and AWS, the organization is poised to make an even greater impact, turning data into actionable insights that will help improve the lives of millions.