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How NPOs and NGOs embrace digital transformation for sustainability with AWS

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Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) focusing on sustainability are dedicated to fostering a healthy environment, preserving our planet, and providing a livable future for upcoming generations. These organizations play a pivotal role in promoting environmental sustainability through advocacy, conservation projects, community engagement, and research. Embracing digital transformation is crucial for NPOs and NGOs to enhance their efficiency, effectiveness, and overall impact. This post highlights how NPOs and NGOs across the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to drive their missions. It also addresses the challenges they face in digital transformation and offers resources to navigate those challenges.

The role of NPOs and NGOs in environmental sustainability

NPOs and NGOs are crucial in advocating for environmental policies and raising public awareness about environmental issues. They often lead and implement projects aimed at conserving natural habitats and restoring degraded ecosystems. Working closely with local communities, they foster sustainable practices and build capacity for environmental stewardship. Additionally, these organizations contribute to environmental sustainability through research and innovation, providing data and developing new solutions.

Embracing digital transformation

Digital transformation enables NPOs and NGOs to optimize internal management, automate and improve programs and services, and increase productivity. This transformation enhances their impact and communication and diversifies income sources, making them more effective in successfully driving towards their missions.

For example, Zero Emissions World (ZEW) is a global philanthropic organization dedicated to improving funding for social and environmental projects. For its crowdsourcing solution, ZEW envisioned a game-like experience where social projects are “missions” to encourage global engagement. Transparency and scalability were crucial in providing donor insights and supported increasing involvement, such as attracting celebrities and brands. To achieve this, ZEW built its solution natively on AWS, using services such as Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB) and AWS Fargate. This approach optimized costs and provided full transparency for donors, which is crucial for maintaining trust and engagement. ZEW estimates a 40 percent reduction in infrastructure costs by building on AWS.

Fostering research and innovation with digital technology

NPOs and NGOs focused on scientific research play a key role in understanding environmental issues and developing evidence-based solutions. They promote innovative practices and technologies that enhance sustainability and collect data to monitor environmental changes. This research is essential in informing policy and guiding action towards sustainability.

UK Biobank, a nonprofit biomedical database, faced the challenge of managing massive amounts of data—about 30 petabytes—from 500,000 participants. This data includes lifestyle information, electronic health records (EHR), genetic sequencing, biomarker data, and full-body scan images. To accommodate this data and meet researchers’ needs, UK Biobank built a custom data platform with compute and storage capabilities on AWS, allowing centralized data analysis and flexibility for growing data quantities. Since its database opened in 2012, more than 30,000 researchers from 90 countries have registered to use UK Biobank, resulting in more than 10,000 scientific publications, including significant discoveries about various diseases.

Conservation and restoration projects

NPOs and NGOs lead conservation and restoration projects aimed at preserving natural habitats and restoring degraded ecosystems. These initiatives include protecting forests, wetlands, and oceans, conserving endangered species, and undertaking reforestation and ecosystem rehabilitation projects. Their efforts are crucial in mitigating the impact of human activities on the environment and enabling the survival of various species and ecosystems. Utilizing cloud technology facilitates extensive research and data analysis, which is crucial for evidence-based solutions and policy guidance.

WWF Netherlands developed Forest Foresight, a predictive tool on AWS that identifies potential illegal deforestation before it occurs. By integrating big data, such as satellite imagery and human activity indicators, the tool alerts stakeholders about risks, enabling preemptive action. This system has been tested successfully in Suriname, Gabon, and Kalimantan, preventing deforestation and illegal activities like gold mining. Local stakeholder involvement is crucial, with communities benefiting from better protection of their environments. WWF plans to scale Forest Foresight to 15 landscapes across 12 countries by 2027, aiming to reduce illegal deforestation by 30 percent in high-risk areas.

Challenges in digital transformation

The journey towards digital transformation for NPOs and NGOs presents unique challenges. Achieving a successful digital transformation requires strong leadership and well-structured decision-making processes. While the lack of skills and information and communications technology (ICT) resources among field staff and participants, along with limited financial resources, can slow progress, many organizations are finding ways to overcome these hurdles. Adopting digital technologies may be more straightforward for some functions than others, and financial justification varies across different areas of an organization. NGOs often approach ICT investments cautiously due to the potential for high costs and perceived risks associated with technology adoption. Additionally, concerns about data privacy, especially when serving vulnerable communities, can influence decision-making.

Achieving scalability and cost-efficiency with the AWS Cloud

Despite these considerations, innovative efforts continue to thrive as organizations navigate these complexities. The AWS Cloud offers secure, scalable infrastructure, cost-effective solutions, and advanced analytics capabilities, which can drive substantial improvements in environmental sustainability initiatives. Strong leadership, strategic ICT investments, and a focus on data privacy are essential for successful digital transformation.

Nonprofits of all sizes are using AWS to increase support, expand awareness, and advance mission impact locally and globally. AWS can aid in better understanding the needs of supporters and members by using, visualizing, and analyzing data to generate actionable insights. By adopting cloud technology, NPOs and NGOs can transform their program delivery, amplify their impact, and enhance their mission experiences, enabling a healthier environment and a sustainable future for generations to come.

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