Abaana

A values-led partnership transforming donor management and child sponsorship

About Abaana

Abaana is a UK charity dedicated to supporting vulnerable children in Uganda by improving access to education, healthcare and long-term opportunity.

For over 20 years, Abaana relied on a legacy database that increasingly limited their ability to adapt, grow and operate efficiently. As their team described it, they had been “stuck with a database for 20 years.”

They needed a modern, scalable system that would empower staff, streamline operations and better support their mission. You can find out more here:

Background:

Giveclarity’s relationship with Abaana extends beyond a traditional supplier–client engagement. Built on long-standing personal connections, shared values and a genuine commitment to social impact, the partnership was rooted in trust from the outset.

Prior to the Salesforce implementation, Abaana had benefited from Giveclarity’s charitable support, including a company donation that directly supported communities in Uganda. This early collaboration strengthened mutual respect and laid a strong foundation for the work that followed. You can find out more here.

The engagement initially began as a Pro Bono initiative, reflecting Giveclarity’s commitment to meaningful causes. As the scope evolved and the need for a more comprehensive transformation became clear, the project transitioned into a full implementation — while retaining additional Pro Bono contributions along the way.

The Challenge

Child Sponsorship sits at the heart of Abaana’s work. However, their legacy system made this core programme complex and inefficient to manage.

Key challenges included:

  • Lack of a single, reliable view of each sponsored child and other donor contributions
  • Manual processes for sponsor-to-child matching and general donor management
  • Limited visibility of sponsorship and donation availability/status
  • Complexity in tracking recurring sponsorship payments and other donations
  • No structured approach to managing sponsorship and broader fundraising lifecycle changes
  • Inconsistent historical data, reducing confidence in reporting across all fundraising

Abaana needed a system capable of managing the full sponsorship lifecycle — from initial sponsor matching to ongoing payment management and programme tracking — within one unified platform.

The Solution

Giveclarity implemented a modern Salesforce solution built on the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP), designed to unify sponsorship, fundraising and finance in one scalable platform.

A Complete Sponsorship Lifecycle

  • A dedicated record for every child, with clear sponsorship status and history
  • Structured relationships linking sponsors to children
  • Integrated recurring donations to track payments automatically
  • Real-time visibility of available, active and ended sponsorships

This replaced fragmented processes with a single, reliable source of truth.

Automation & Financial Integration

To reduce manual workload and improve financial control, we introduced:

  • Semi-automated Direct Debit processing
  • Streamlined data imports
  • Gift Aid tracking at fund level
  • Direct export of transactions to QuickBooks

Legacy data was carefully migrated and clearly identified to protect reporting accuracy.

The Results

Abaana now has a flexible, modern Salesforce system that empowers staff to manage donations, manage sponsored children, engage supporters, and run day-to-day operations with far more control and visibility.

Looking Ahead

With Salesforce embedded into everyday operations, Abaana is well positioned to continue scaling its impact. The strength of the partnership, combined with the project’s Pro Bono roots, has laid the groundwork for a long-term relationship focused on continuous improvement and meaningful social change.

This engagement stands as a powerful example of how technology, delivered with empathy and shared purpose, can enable charities to support more children — more effectively.

CEO

Scott Baxter

“It’s been a long process with plenty of challenges… Over the last few months, I’ve genuinely grown to enjoy the platform — and that’s largely down to the support, patience, and problem solving you’ve brought throughout… this is about empowering staff to support more children, more effectively. Now I have the ability to do some basic stuff (like add a new field) really simply and quickly — and this adds a lot of value.”