The Code

Violence against children happens everywhere, in every country and across all social groups. Sexual exploitation of children has links to the travel and tourism industry, specifically the prostitution of children and child sex tourism.

The Code is an industry-driven initiative to provide tourism businesses with the tools, knowledge, and support they need to prevent the sexual exploitation of children. An internationally recognized tool, supported by the UNWTO and UNICEF, The Code has received numerous awards for its innovative approach towards responsible, sustainable tourism and CSR.

Created over fifteen years ago with one staff to coordinate, The Code has steadily grown its member base through word of mouth. However, as memberships have increased so too has the difficulty of managing them.

From pens to clicks

Today with more than twelve hundred members, The Code remains lean – just three full-time staff in its Bangkok head office and 40 regionally dispersed local representatives across 45 countries. However, tracking member activity is a whole new story owing to a recent transition to cloud based systems. The not-for-profit has re-engineered its entire member management process around its website with Salesforce as the engine.

The result is a far cry from the Excel spreadsheets and Word lists of early days. Engaging members now happens through a “join now” button on the home page of The Code.org, turning a ten-page application that once took two weeks to complete into a two-minute task.

Mobile adds yet another dimension, providing an opportunity to conduct on-the-spot iPad signups at conferences.

Taking the pain out of invoicing

With the signup process simplified, The Code has also turned its attention to renewals and member support. Pre-Salesforce, it took one person two to three weeks to generate annual paper membership fee invoices for the 1,200 members – chasing payments sometimes extending into the following year. The system was fraught with inaccuracy and frustrated both The Code team and their members.

Now in Salesforce, the chances of non-payment or missing an invoice are virtually non-existent.

Measured growth via analytics

Salesforce dashboards surface valuable member information in easy-to-view charts for steering growth. Regional statistics feed Google Adwords campaigns and support decisions on where to commit advertising dollars. The campaign object in Salesforce helps with monitoring Google spend, keeping it safely below membership income.

Moreover, the latest initiative is a Partner Portal for sharing information with partner NGOs in countries where The Code does not have a physical presence of its own.

Self-perpetuating Success

With this cloud transformation, The Code has moved from a position of “running just to keep up” with the existing member base to being unafraid to open the door to new markets. A recent coup is the influx of new memberships from countries not yet targeted – proof that word of mouth travels faster in the cloud!