Action Against Hunger

Challenge

Deadly malnutrition claims the lives of 1 million children each year¹. But this crisis is preventable and treatable. Action Against Hunger strives to reach these undernourished children in time to save them. Unfortunately, Action Against Hunger receives very little funding for marketing, communication, and information technology. Although they’d like to invest in these areas, they don’t have the resources required to scale their programs.

As a global organization, communication is key. However, Action Against Hunger’s decentralized communication tools proved to be a challenge. Different teams used different methods for messaging each other and each time someone wanted to talk to a fellow colleague, they first needed to find out what their individual username was and then add them on the relevant messaging app.

Action Against Hunger’s lifesaving work means being operational 24/7. However, they struggled with constantly maintaining their servers. Coupled with threats of natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy in New York that could cut off their servers’ power, they were at risk of losing everything.

By using Google’s tools, Action Against Hunger was able to overcome these challenges and focus on saving lives.

Story

Action Against Hunger relies on the revolutionary approach to treating malnutrition called Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM). A parent is able to bring nutrient-dense, protein- and calorie-packed peanut-based paste home with them to treat their child. These ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) resemble protein bars and don’t need any preparation or refrigeration. Treating the children at home removes the need for long distance travel to health centers, so parents can ensure the rest of the family stays healthy.

To aid in the fight against malnutrition, Action Against Hunger uses Google tools. AdWords, One Today and Youtube help enable Action Against Hunger to raise more money for programs and dramatically increase their reach with new audiences.

Action Against Hunger uses Ad Grants as part of their emergency action plan when disaster strikes. For example, when the famine was announced in South Sudan, they quickly launched ads to target relevant search terms and empower people to take lifesaving action. When Ebola became front page news, Action Against Hunger instantly targeted keywords using their Ad Grants account to convert people searching for information into people taking action. The organization then uses Google Analytics to make data-driven decisions to improve fundraising and optimize user engagement. In fact, they have nearly doubled year-over-year revenue, thanks to Ad Grants, and predict they will do so again this year.

Since migrating to G Suite in 2013, Action Against Hunger’s communication and collaboration methods have been revolutionized. For example, Google Hangouts became their single messaging app across the organization, providing an instant way for everyone to talk across their global network. Now someone in the London office can quickly check in with their colleague in New York, either through instant messaging or hopping on a Google Hangout (video conference call). Gmail and Google Drive became essential components to increasing productivity. G Suite has now become the backbone of their organization, allowing them to be more productive in communicating and collaborating globally. Not having multiple versions of documents and being able to collaborate on documents in real time across different timezones has proven to be essential for them.

Action Against Hunger also uses One Today to reach new audiences and garner lifesaving donations. As a resource-scarce nonprofit, the team was able to quickly and easily understand how to use the app and create new projects. This was particularly successful for Action Against Hunger on World Food Day, where they raised over $1,000 in one day. While other donation platforms allow existing donors to give, One Today is unique because it brings new audiences directly to your organization to donate. By tapping into the audience that One Today provides, Action Against Hunger doesn’t have to be limited by their small acquisition budget. Furthermore, One Today passes 100% of the donations to the nonprofit unlike other donation platforms that charge processing fees so Action Against Hunger can get the full impact from their donation.

In the near future, Action Against Hunger is looking at growing their video presence on YouTube, a powerful tool for video storytelling, by growing their channel’s content and reach.Additionally, they will leverage donation cards to support their fundraising efforts and continue using subtitles and captions for simple translations for international audiences.

“In the past 20 years, the proportion of undernourished people in the world’s least developed places has fallen by almost half. That is something to celebrate. And it’s thanks to the support of organizations like Google. Our partnership with Google has helped us to make great strides. In Cambodia, we use Google technology to implement sustainable solutions to undernutrition. In the US, we also utilize Google Ad Grants and Google Analytics. These tools help drive valuable insights into our online performance.”

Andrea Tamburini, CEO Action Against Hunger

Impact

Last year Action Against Hunger’s nutrition programs reached 1.5 million people¹. Over the past 10 years, the number of children receiving treatment for severe acute malnutrition has tripled¹. Investment in nutrition is one of the world’s most cost effective and impactful interventions. New research shows that every $1 invested in a child’s nutrition in the first 1,000 days yields an average of $16 in benefits². Investing in nutrition gives children the foundation for a healthy, productive life and establishes a foundation for sustainable global progress in health and development.

Ad Grants brought 158,000 people to their website in the last 12 months and raised over $66,000. Because it costs just $45 dollars to treat a child with malnutrition, 1,466 children will now have a chance to live.

One Today has also been an invaluable asset to their online fundraising. In the last year, Action Against Hunger has raised over $1,200 from an entirely new audience. They have also raised over $20,000 from Google+ and YouTube website referrals, which they were able to track through Google Analytics eCommerce tracking. Google for Nonprofits has freed Action Against Hunger from many resource challenges, and ultimately, helped them save more lives.

1. Source: http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/impact/nutrition
2. Source: http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/sites/default/files/publications/Action-Against-Hunger-2015-Annual-Report-web.pdf