Brooke Action for Working Horses and Donkeys grows to help equines with the Microsoft Cloud

Working in one of Pakistan’s thousands of brick kilns is tough for both people and animals. But the life of Meetu, a donkey that carries heavy loads of mud bricks every day, recently took a turn for the better. Rafia, who owns Meetu, learned to care for her donkey during women’s community meetings. Now she prioritizes watering, feeding, and bathing Meetu, as well as getting him shade, rest, and veterinary services. The care keeps the donkey healthy—and helps Rafia earn enough to support her family.

Providing community education and training animal healthcare workers are just a few ways Brooke Action for Working Horses and Donkeys helps create sustainable futures for families and their horses, donkeys, and mules. Brooke reaches more than 1.4 million working equines as well as the people whose livelihoods depend on them by preventing animal mistreatment, providing direct care, training animal health providers, and advocating for animal protection policies worldwide. 

“We want to make the lives of working equines as best as they possibly can be,” explains Enrico Tizzano, Chief Technology Officer at Brooke. Tizzano is overseeing an ongoing digital transformation of the United Kingdom-based charity, which works in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. “We were burdened with legacy systems and platforms. This transformation is an investment in our future. This investment gives us insights, tells us where our growth should be, and helps us work better and smarter."

Brooke recently embraced the Microsoft Cloud to improve security, lay the foundation for growth, and save money to maximize its programming budget. With the support of Microsoft partner Phoenix, the nonprofit shifted from roughly 100 on-premise servers to Microsoft Azure. It is also deploying the productivity and collaboration suite within Microsoft 365. 

“Technology enables us to do more with what we have,” Tizzano says. “That’s transformational for animal welfare and the communities we work with.”  

Saving costs to maximize funding for animals

Like most nonprofits, Brooke is acutely focused on directing the most possible funding to on-the-ground efforts. “In the past, investment in technology was difficult to justify. But with modern platforms, we can do so much to increase insights and services to our teams not just in head office but in the field, and help to drive efficiencies in processes,” Tizzano says.

In fact, saving money was a huge driver for the organization's digital transformation. Brooke will soon move out of its large office in the City of London, which no longer suits the needs of its remote-friendly staff. To do so, they needed to transition from their on-premise infrastructure to the cloud. In collaboration with internal Brooke teams, Phoenix completed the nonprofit’s lift-and-shift transition to Azure in just three months, significantly faster than Brooke could have done on its own. “With the right engagement and right partner, these transformations can happen at a pace that couldn’t be achieved previously,” Tizzano says. 

By moving to the cloud instead of replacing its end-of-life servers, Brooke saved six figures—and savings don’t stop there. “The tools we get in Azure provide powerful insights into what platforms, services, and applications cost,” Tizzano says. The visibility enables more accurate budgeting, capacity planning, and decisions on which platforms to phase out. He expects decommissioning platforms and apps and moving to other cloud-based services will make the cloud migration even more cost-effective. For example, Brooke plans to shut off its outdated legacy CRM when it moves to Dynamics 365 in the coming months, which will enhance fundraising activities and enable the organization to direct even more funds to animal welfare programming. 

“One of the really important things for charities is that we ensure that our money is well spent. Our donors expect us to be efficient in delivering the goals that they support us to achieve,” says Chris Wainwright, Chief Executive at Brooke. “Technology is at the heart of that.”

Enhancing security and disaster recovery capabilities

In addition to the challenges of upkeep and real estate, Brooke’s on-premise server room presented a security risk, Tizzano says. A power outage, leak, or other on-site problem would have proven catastrophic for the dispersed teams that depended on the servers housed in headquarters. He continues, “It was an easy decision to move into the cloud. It allows us to protect our environment better. The cloud also helps us with disaster recovery and business continuity.” Staying up and running enables Brooke to help horses, donkeys, and mules 365 days a year, including during natural disasters and ongoing crises such as drought or conflict. 

Azure’s multilayered, built-in security measures and threat detection capabilities safeguard Brooke’s workloads, apps, and confidential data, such as donor information. Data from global teams is all stored centrally in a secure, instantly accessible location. Staff can also tap into cloud-based resources and data from any device, which will help them access critical applications and services, wherever they are.

Further, Microsoft’s world-class security stance enables Brooke’s IT team to focus on other priorities, such as exploring how AI can support their care of working animals. “Now that we don’t have to manage physical infrastructure anymore, we can focus on the more exciting and interesting opportunities open to us with technology,” Tizzano says. He appreciates that the organization will automatically gain access to the latest features and updates as platforms are improved—a benefit they didn’t have with their hard-to-update legacy IT. He adds, “Working with Microsoft gives us comfort that we’re able to benefit from the investments they’ve made in products and security.” 

The cloud will also make Brooke more responsive to external crises, Tizzano adds. “We expect to see more global warming events and other emergencies over the coming years,” such as Pakistan’s devastating floods in 2022, when Brooke provided on-the-ground support for affected communities. “Technology will help us respond quickly. That way we can start to get engagement and donations as and when emergencies happen, so we can provide money to the front line as efficiently as we can,” he explains. 

Building a foundation for growth

Tizzano is quick to point out that Brooke’s digital transformation is still in the early stages. Nonetheless, the nonprofit’s vision of a healthy, supported life for the world’s working equines—and the 600 million people who depend on them for their livelihoods—is one step closer since moving to Azure and adopting Microsoft 365. “We’re now better positioned to take advantage of advances happening in the cloud. We can start to drive innovation faster than we would have in the past,” Tizzano says. 

Consolidating data in the cloud sets the stage for what comes next. Tizzano foresees deploying Microsoft Fabric, an AI-powered data analytics platform that unifies how organizations interpret and use their data. Brooke will be able to make evidence-backed decisions on where to grow, whether that means expanding to other countries or deepening their presence in regions where they already offer training, community education, and animal care. 

Microsoft 365 is poised to fuel that growth, too. Teams and other cloud-based productivity apps foster closer bonds between colleagues, enable real-time collaboration, and drive efficiency. “Replacing manual processes will enable us to grow our reach and not have to worry anymore about physical boundaries to our ambitions,” Tizzano says. 

Brooke could invest in any number of exciting directions, but one thing is clear, Tizzano says: “Technology sets us up for whichever direction we decide to go. It helps us be very clear about what growth means. We can start to offer a multitude of services to the business, ultimately becoming the team that says ‘yes’ to any question the business throws at us.”

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