IFAW’S Treasury Complexity Grows but Their Technology Remains the Same
IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) is a global non-profit helping animals and people thrive together. IFAW’s team works internationally in more than 40 countries, many of which are located in developing regions and areas with limited technology capabilities.
From ~2010 to 2020, the small treasury team at IFAW operated with virtually the exact same technology infrastructure, despite a substantial increase in global complexity and expansion that had occurred during that timeframe as a result of its growing programmatic initiatives. When Group Treasurer for IFAW, John Kluza, first began evaluating a new framework for their treasury technology stack, the team had been using the same TMS for nearly a decade. In addition to a variety of spreadsheets and bank portals, 20 banks, 100 accounts, and a locally hosted ERP that was critical for IFAW’s other internal departments, the rapidly expanding non-profit used a donor management system that stored records for hundreds of thousands of their
trusted supporters.
Due to the breadth and range of its global animal welfare and conservation work, IFAW is comprised of a family of global organizations with numerous affiliates and entities that operate in multiple regions across the world including Africa, Asia, and South America.
Given the global disparity in payment standards, settlement systems, and compliance requirements across these regions, IFAW’s collections, disbursements, and liquidity needs are quite complex. IFAW also operates under a shared services model that improves procurement, systems, and operations to provide the best possible support for their ~20 global affiliates in a cost-effective manner. This structure results in many different types of stakeholders that each require various degrees of access and control over financial data and operations. And with the prior legacy systems they had in place, it was becoming more challenging to provide visibility to relevant cash inflows and outflows so that all stakeholders could properly manage their operations in a secure and controlled environment.
Explore the full success story to see how:
- IFAW developed a unified process for managing bank connectivity across all their global relationships and accounts.
- IFAW perfected their methods for achieving same-day visibility to worldwide cash positions and payment statuses.
- IFAW’s new technology stack provides 85%+ automation of their global payments activity.
