From Data to Decisions: Empowering NGO Operations with a Custom MEAL System

Helping a Mission-Driven NGO Scale with Data

At LeLaboDigital, we believe technology should serve purpose. In 2024, we partnered with Farah Social Foundation (FSF)—a Lebanese NGO rooted in sustainable development and human rights since 1988—to design and deliver a fully customized MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning) platform.

Client Snapshot

Farah Social Foundation is a national Lebanese NGO focused on empowering vulnerable communities through programs in agriculture, healthcare, education, humanitarian aid, youth and women empowerment, and protection. Operating across Beirut, Chouf, Aley, Zahle, Tripoli, and surrounding districts, FSF delivers impact through medical centers, mobile units, agricultural nurseries, vocational training centers, and community outreach.

With decades of field experience and a growing network of beneficiaries, FSF needed a better way to track, evaluate, and act on data across all their sectors.

The Challenge

By 2024, Farah Social Foundation had built a strong operational foundation across multiple sectors, delivering high-impact programs in healthcare, education, agriculture, protection, and humanitarian response. Their teams were experienced, their mission was expanding, and their reach was growing year over year.

But with scale came new ambitions.

To continue delivering at the level their communities deserved—and to stay responsive in a fast-moving landscape—FSF needed a more streamlined, data-driven approach to monitoring and evaluation. They were looking to:

• Consolidate project data spread across tools, teams, and formats

• Accelerate reporting workflows to free up more time for action

• Gain real-time visibility into performance and spending

• Strengthen data governance and access control

• Enable smarter decision-making across departments and leadership

They weren’t starting from zero—they were ready to take everything they had built and make it faster, more integrated, and future-ready.

Our Solution: A MEAL Platform Designed for NGOs

We partnered with FSF to build a MEAL system that would unify their data, automate their reporting, and bring clarity to every decision.

What We Built Together

🎯 KPI and Financial Tracking Across Sectors & Projects

We started by helping FSF define what performance looks like across their sectors—whether in food security, healthcare, education, or protection. Then we:

• Designed a modular system to track Project KPIs, sub-KPIs, budgets, budget lines, and expenses

• Linked performance data directly to funding and spending

• Enabled cross-sector comparisons and longitudinal views

📊 A Unified Data Layer with Visual Insights

FSF needed to see everything—without toggling between spreadsheets or tools. We:

• Consolidated data from multiple sources into one searchable, filterable dashboard

• Created a visualization layer with dynamic charts and graphs to spot trends instantly

• Enabled filtering by region, project, sector, and timeline

🔐 Enterprise-Grade Security

Given the sensitive nature of their data, we prioritized security by:

• Implementing Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

• Building a role-based access control system so the right people access the right data

• Supporting audit logs and user tracking for accountability

🔄 ETL Infrastructure That Handles Reality

Data came in from everywhere—Excel, APIs, manual entry, forms, even webhooks. So we:

• Built ETL pipelines that clean, structure, and normalize incoming data

• Stored data across both PostgreSQL (for structured queries) and MongoDB (for flexibility)

• Enabled both batch imports and real-time syncs

⚙️ Built for Now and Ready for What’s Next

Our tech stack included:

• React.js for a smooth, responsive front-end experience

• Express.js APIs to orchestrate backend operations

• Firebase for authentication and session security

• A microservices architecture that scaled efficiently, cutting cloud costs and improving performance

The Outcome

By the end of the engagement, Farah Social Foundation had a platform that worked as hard as they did.

• 🕒 Reporting time dropped from days to minutes

• 📈 Performance visibility increased across all sectors

• 🔐 Security and access control tightened, protecting sensitive data

• ⚙️ Workflows automated, freeing teams to focus on impact

• 💸 Operational and cloud costs reduced, thanks to microservices efficiency

Conclusion: Tech for Good, Built Right

This project wasn’t just about building software—it was about empowering a mission-driven NGO to act faster, smarter, and with full visibility.

At LeLaboDigital, we’re proud to have delivered a MEAL platform designed specifically for the realities of NGO work—flexible enough to support frontline teams, powerful enough for leadership, and secure enough for any donor audit.

Reflections

At LeLaboDigital, we don’t just build software—we solve problems that matter. This project wasn’t just about data. It was about making impact visible, operations more effective, and giving FSF the tools they need to act faster and smarter in a complex environment.

We’re proud to have helped bring clarity, accountability, and strategic insight to one of Lebanon’s most active and impactful NGOs.

Are you an NGO ready to make your data work for your mission?
Let’s build something meaningful—contact us today.