Ireland’s leading international development charity Trócaire has transformed lives across many countries. The organization manages nearly 20 offices across three working languages and a patchwork of local servers. Until recently, its data was scattered across local servers, USB sticks, and personal inboxes. Sharing documents meant endless emails and, often, slowdowns.
This wasn’t just inefficient. As data protection obligations evolved rapidly, it was becoming a compliance challenge. “We’d reached a point where our old way of working just couldn’t keep up with our needs,” explains Lucy Greaney, Enterprise System Analyst at Trócaire.
Key wins for Trócaire
- Trócaire prioritized cultural transformation as well as technology adoption,investing heavily in changing mindsets across global offices
- Humanitarian impact is directly affected by improved content management, with fragmented local servers consolidated onto a single cloud platform, eliminating version conflicts and delays
- The Box for Salesforce integration now manages 1.5 TB of donor-related content with full compliance traceability
- By selecting Box for its security, compliance certifications, and seamless integrations, Trócaire built a foundation that solved immediate collaboration challenges and positioned the organization to leverage emerging technologies like AI and advanced security features through Box Shield
Global collaboration made easier with Box
For an organization operating across some of the world’s most challenging environments, from conflict zones to areas hit by natural disasters, the ability to share information efficiently is a necessity for humanitarian impact. Every delay in document sharing, every version control error, and every security vulnerability could impact Trócaire’s ability to deliver aid where it was needed most.
The organization’s broader IT strategy had evolved toward becoming cloud-first, but its fragmented infrastructure was anchoring it to the past. “Managing unstructured data across so many fragmented systems made it difficult to maintain proper governance, let alone meet our data protection and donor-accountability requirements,” Greaney notes.
Managing unstructured data across so many fragmented systems made it difficult to maintain proper governance, let alone meet our data protection and donor-accountability requirements.
It was time for a fundamental shift in content management, but with growing information security needs and stricter donor accountability requirements, Trócaire sought more than just a file storage solution. The organization needed a secure, modern, centralized platform that could unite its global workforce while meeting stringent compliance standards.
The tipping point of Salesforce integration
When Trócaire began evaluating content platforms, Box stood out for three reasons: security, the powerful Salesforce integration, and device flexibility.
At the top of the list, Box offered the governance tools, access controls, audit trails, and certifications to give the organization confidence from day one. But as a Salesforce-heavy organization, Trócaire also needed a content solution that could seamlessly plug into existing Salesforce-dependent workflows. Today, the Box for Salesforce integration manages over 1.5 TB of content.
“The Box-Salesforce integration was honestly one of the tipping points for us,” Greaney reveals. “It’s been especially important for maintaining compliance with our donor obligations, because every document lives exactly where it should — securely stored, consistently managed, and always linked to the correct donor account.”
The platform’s accessibility across devices (including the web app, mobile app, and Box Drive) meant teams could work from anywhere, whether in an office in Dublin, one of our field offices, or while traveling between countries. This flexibility proved especially valuable in regions where internet connectivity remains unreliable, with Box Drive’s offline access eliminating the delays and frustrations that previously plagued field operations.
More than just a technology shift — a cultural transformation
Implementing Box wasn’t simply about deploying new software. The change required a fundamental cultural shift across the organization. Moving from siloed servers to a single shared platform demanded a new way of working.
“People were used to ‘their’ drives and ‘their’ folders,” Greaney explains.
Moving to a single, shared content platform required not just a new system, but a new mindset across the organization.
Her team invested significant time in listening, training, supporting, and reassuring staff so that Box became not just another tool, but the trusted place where everyone felt confident storing, sharing, and working on content.
This cultural transformation has paid dividends. Box now touches every aspect of Trócaire’s operations, from donor collaboration and partner coordination to governance materials and operational workflows. The platform has become so integral that when security concerns or external events require remote work, the transition is seamless. Everyone simply continues working from the same platform as if nothing has changed.
Travel time is now productive time
For the first time, Trócaire has achieved a true single source of truth for all organizational content. Version-control conflicts have become a thing of the past, and teams can confidently access the latest information regardless of their location.
Box Sign has streamlined approval processes by keeping signatures within the same secure environment, providing clear audit trails that simply didn’t exist before. This capability has proven invaluable during audits, allowing Trócaire to demonstrate compliance with full traceability from start to finish.
The platform’s impact on mobile productivity has been particularly striking. “We have a relatively mobile workforce visiting partners in-country, supporting program delivery, or travelling between offices,” Greaney notes. “In the past, travel time often became ‘dead time’ simply because people couldn’t get to the content they needed. With Box, that has changed completely.
We now have 24/7 access to our content, which means travel time has become productive time.
Looking ahead at AI and the future of humanitarian work
As Trócaire solidifies its cloud-first foundation, the organization is beginning to explore how emerging technologies like AI can further enhance their impact. Trócaire recently launched a pilot program with Box AI, recognizing that their centralized content platform provides the perfect foundation for AI-driven insights and automation.
“We’re only at the beginning of our Box AI journey,” Greaney shares. “Because Box is our sole content platform, it makes perfect sense for us to explore AI directly within Box, especially when it comes to accessing and making sense of the huge amount of unstructured data we work with every day.”
The organization has also begun implementing Box Shield, using its alert features to gain clearer visibility into how content is accessed and shared across the organization. This proactive approach to security works quietly in the background, adding oversight without interrupting workflows — crucial for an organization handling sensitive humanitarian data.
Building the foundation for a resilient, innovative future of work
Trócaire’s transformation has built resilience that extends beyond collaboration. The ability to maintain operations seamlessly regardless of location, connectivity challenges, or global disruptions has proven invaluable. When circumstances demand rapid adaptation, whether due to security concerns, natural disasters, or global pandemics, Trócaire’s teams can continue their vital work without missing a beat.
“Box aligns with where we’re going as an organization: modern, connected, collaborative, and ready to make smarter use of our information,” Greaney concludes. The ongoing support from Box’s team has been instrumental in this success, helping Trócaire optimize integrations, implement best practices, and continuously expand how it leverages the platform.
For humanitarian organizations facing similar challenges of global coordination, compliance requirements, and the need to do more with less, Trócaire’s journey offers a compelling blueprint. By embracing a cloud-first strategy and choosing the right technology partner, Trócaire has transformed how effectively it delivers on its mission to support vulnerable communities worldwide.
Read more about how Box supports nonprofits of all sizes through discounts and donations at Box.org.
