In the heart of eManzana, South Africa, a beacon of hope now shines brighter. Discover how Luminaire™ breathed new life into Lydia's Mission, transforming their ability to uplift the women and children of their community.
At FlyForm, we believe in the power of technology to drive meaningful change. When we learned about Lydia's Mission – a non-profit in eManzana, South Africa, dedicated to supporting women, children and the elderly – we saw an opportunity to help them increase their impact.
Since 2017, Lydia’s Mission has been a lifeline for the community, offering jobs, meals and safe spaces through their Hope Centres for children and Gogo Centres for elderly residents. Every day, over 1,800 children and 400 elders receive not just food, but holistic care – social connection, health checks and a sense of belonging.
However, as Lydia’s Mission has grown, so has the challenge of operating efficiently and tracking their impact. That’s where we stepped in with Luminaire, our innovative ServiceNow® solution designed to transform and empower nonprofits.
In a nutshell: Luminaire and Lydia's Mission
The Challenge
Manual processes and limited digital tools made it difficult for Lydia’s Mission to track impact, manage resources and scale their support for vulnerable children and elders.
The Solution
FlyForm implemented Luminaire, a tailored ServiceNow solution that digitised operations, streamlined data tracking and empowered staff with intuitive, easy-to-use tools.
The Outcome
- 82,000+ meals tracked and delivered.
- 1,824 children and 416 elderly seamlessly accounted for.
- $2,005/month saved, the equivalent of 8 staff salaries.
- 33% reduction in admin time – saving 12 hours per person, every week.
- Staff empowered with digital tools, reducing paperwork and increasing time spent with beneficiaries.
- A scalable, sustainable system that supports future growth and deeper impact.
Battling inefficiency – and the struggle to scale
Lydia’s Mission had quickly outgrown their manual processes. Wanting to expand and scale their services to surrounding communities, Lydia’s reliance on paper forms to track attendance across their centres was time-consuming, prone to human error and made it difficult to assess programme effectiveness.
We saw the result these inefficiencies had on the staff – spending hours on administration instead of furthering their mission.
"It was really hard to see the impact we were having and the hours it took to [track] 1800 kids per day was incredibly time-consuming."
A key part of the organisation’s day-to-day activity is tracking how many meals have been served in its Hope and Gogo centres. This involved a painful process of collecting paper slips for every meal and counting them by hand.
Unsurprisingly, tracking the number of meals became almost impossible, hampering accurate reporting and ordering of supplies.
“We were using paper registration slips, but when we would get those back, we would spend hours in the office hand tallying each of those kids to do a cumulative count per month or per year,” says Claire Brown-Kriel, founder and director of Lydia’s Mission.
“It was really hard to see the impact we were having and the hours it took to do that across 1800 kids per day was incredibly time-consuming.”
Imagine preparing hundreds of meals a day, not knowing if every child was fed, or if tomorrow’s supplies would be enough. That uncertainty weighed heavily without a solution to provide clarity and peace of mind.
Terry Brown, a Lydia’s Mission board member and former US Area Vice President of Alliances at ServiceNow, recognised the potential of our Luminaire solution. Inspired by our success with the Ndlovu Care Group, another NGO in South Africa, he connected us with Lydia’s Mission to explore how we could bring similar benefits to their work.
Lighting the way with Luminaire
Luminaire is our market-first ServiceNow solution, designed specifically for nonprofits and social impact organisations, to help them run better programmes, track their outcomes and clearly show the difference they’re making.
For Lydia’s Mission, this was an opportunity to replace their manual meal tracking processes with a centralised, digital solution that gave them the data and reporting they needed.
We began by hosting a workshop to map their workflows and find the areas that would benefit most from digitisation. Prioritising the Hope Centres, we worked closely with Lydia’s Mission to refine Luminaire to meet their specific requirements.
"With the right tools to capture and use data, organisations like Lydia’s Mission can make their work visible, share their story, and sustain their efforts long-term.”
No two nonprofits’ needs are exactly the same, but we’ve designed Luminaire to achieve that sweet spot of providing structure without sacrificing flexibility.
Using Luminaire’s pre-built data models and workflows, we massively reduced the time to deployment by getting Lydia’s Mission 90% of the way there before adding the finishing touches with minimal – and controlled – customisation.
Steven Williams, FlyForm’s Product Lead, explains our approach to developing and implementing Luminaire: “Real impact starts with the people doing the work. Our job was to listen, understand their challenges, and build something that genuinely supports them.
"Frontline work changes lives, but it’s complex, human, and often delivered in high-pressure environments. These teams don’t want to be preoccupied with systems or data entry; they want to stay focused on their mission. Data plays a vital role, but capturing it should never get in the way of the work itself.
"For Luminaire, we set out with a clear vision: to design solutions that support frontline workers and embed data collection into their workflow in a way that feels natural, not burdensome. With the right tools to capture and use data, organisations like Lydia’s Mission can make their work visible, share their story, and sustain their efforts long-term.”
The phased go-live in January 2025 marked a significant milestone, ushering in a new era of efficiency and effectiveness for Lydia’s Mission.
Overcoming adoption hurdles together
Like any transformation, this one came with challenges. As is the case for most social impact organisations, Lydia’s Mission runs on a tight budget, and we knew affordability was key.
That’s why we implemented Luminaire strategically, working with Lydia’s Mission to target where it would have the most tangible impact and deliver the most value.
"Luminaire is giving us the tools and resources we need to grow and expand. [...] Almost every day we run into new areas that we haven’t been able to help or touch. But ServiceNow, and our work with FlyForm, have made it possible, whereas before it had seemed impossible.”
Additionally, many of their processes were undocumented, requiring us to conduct extensive process mapping to ensure the new system would meet their needs.
“We’ve had a significant amount of growth over the past two years, and how we operated ran mostly out of my head,” explains Claire Brown-Kriel.
“As we continue to grow, we need to be able to store and share that knowledge so in the years to come we can have 15, 20, maybe 30, Hope Centres. Luminaire is giving us the tools and resources we need to grow and expand because the demand is growing. Almost every day we run into new areas that we haven’t been able to help or touch. But ServiceNow, and our work with FlyForm, have made it possible, whereas before it had seemed impossible.”
User adoption was another critical hurdle. Several staff had little to no experience with technology, and literacy was limited. To address this, we designed an intuitive interface, developed comprehensive training materials and selected familiar hardware, such as tablets, to ease the transition.
Phindile Ndwandwa, a facilitator at one of Lydia’s Mission’s Hope Centres, says the use of a tablet has made a huge difference: “I’m very happy to have use of the tablet. Sometimes it’s forgotten to give us the register, but now there’s no need because it’s all done on the tablet. There’s no need to submit something by hand – it’s all done from the tablet, and everything works and can be done much faster.”
Through hands-on training and ongoing support, we made sure the whole team could confidently use the new system from day one.
"With Luminaire, we’re seeing the ability to scale whilst also tracking the depth of what we’re doing and expanding the breadth of our reach. That is a game changer and we’re so grateful for it."
A profound transformation and trackable impact
Since implementing Luminaire, Lydia’s Mission has seen a profound transformation. Attendance tracking and data management for 1,824 children at Hope Centres and 416 elderly attendees at Gogo Centres is now seamless.
Thousands of meals are accurately recorded and distributed, and instant tracking means no one slips through the cracks. Between January and May 2025, Lydia’s Mission has tracked the delivery of over 82,000 meals through Luminaire – each one representing a full belly, a brighter day.
Gone are the paper slips and guesswork. What once took hours now happens in seconds. Hard numbers, live data and tangible proof are now at the fingertips of Lydia’s Mission and its staff.
Mitch Hildebrant, Executive Director for Lydia’s Mission in the United States, explains why having that visibility matters: “People want to know two things if they’re supporting a non-profit: how far is your reach and how big is the impact? Is it just surface level or is it changing lives?
"By having a platform, we’re not only able to capture the data of how many people we’re serving but the events in their life that bring further impact and change to their community. By having that data and information at my fingertips, I’m able to quickly give reports and updates to those that are supporting this organisation.
"Without that, it’s a lot of paper, it’s a lot of mistakes, and I just can’t be as thorough as I need to be without complete and accurate data sets. With Luminaire, we’re seeing the ability to scale whilst also tracking the depth of what we’re doing and expanding the breadth of our reach. That is a game changer and we’re so grateful for it.”
In addition to the increased visibility and reporting, one of the most striking outcomes has been the cost savings.
By eliminating nearly 1,000 pieces of paper and reducing manual data entry errors, Lydia’s Mission now saves an estimated $2,005 per month – which would cover the salaries of eight additional minimum-wage workers. That’s potentially eight more people to help, more meals served, and more lives improved.
"People want to know two things if they’re supporting a non-profit: how far is your reach and how big is the impact? [...] By having that data and information at my fingertips, I’m able to quickly give reports and updates to those that are supporting this organisation."
Continuing the journey towards a better tomorrow
The success of this initial project has paved the way for further collaboration. We’re already planning a second phase to expand Luminaire’s capabilities and help Lydia’s Mission digitise their supply management.
With continued innovation and partnership, we’re excited to see how Luminaire can further enhance these much-needed services and positively impact more lives.
“The problem of generational poverty and chronic food insecurity is not getting better on its own,” says Terry Brown.
“We know we need to change the technology, change the strategy, change the analytics, maybe add in some generative AI so we can reach more people. We’re so grateful to our partners in FlyForm and the technology in ServiceNow to allow Lydia’s Mission to scale and help more people.”
Empowering change through technology
Our partnership with Lydia’s Mission is a testament to how technology can empower non-profit organisations to do more good.
By modernising and digitising their operations, we’ve enabled them to focus on what truly matters – serving women, children and the elderly in need. This impact goes beyond efficiency; it’s about transforming lives, optimising resources and creating a brighter future for their people.
As Lydia’s Mission continues to grow, we’re proud to stand beside them, ensuring that hope and opportunity remain within reach for all in eManzana. This collaboration showcases how innovation, when paired with compassion, can create lasting change in communities that need it most.
To see how Luminaire could benefit your non-profit, book your no-obligation 30-minute demo now.