When we think about customer experience innovation, nonprofit organizations rarely lead the conversation. Yet Unbound, an international development organization operating in 17 countries across Africa, Asia, India, and Latin America, is challenging this perception by creating what their Chief Operating Officer Andy Ewing calls “the ultimate radical customer experience.”
What makes Unbound’s approach revolutionary isn’t just their dedication to customer satisfaction, but how they’ve integrated their mission of poverty elimination directly into their customer service operations. Unlike traditional contact centers focused primarily on efficiency metrics like average handle time (AHT), Unbound has established global contact centers in Medellin, Colombia and Quezon City, Philippines with a different priority: creating career opportunities for the very families they serve through their programs.
The organization operates on a remarkable 10% administrative margin, dedicating more than 90% of expenses to program support to benefit families in need. This financial reality makes their investment in customer experience all the more significant. For Unbound, excellent customer service isn’t just a business strategy—it’s their competitive differentiator and mission accelerator.
Unbound’s holistic approach to poverty elimination is structured around five core pillars: eliminating poverty through goal-setting and direct cash transfers; empowering women through community-led mothers’ groups; advancing education to keep children in school; building community through collaborative problem-solving; and promoting well-being across all age groups, including a unique elderly sponsorship program. This comprehensive framework addresses poverty at multiple levels, from individual empowerment to community development.
What’s particularly innovative about Unbound’s contact center strategy is how it completes a virtuous cycle of impact. In many developing countries, contact center positions are highly sought after but often require educational credentials that effectively exclude those living in poverty. Unbound breaks this barrier by specifically recruiting from the communities they serve, providing valuable employment opportunities that can transform lives. As one employee shared, his job at Unbound now allows him to provide a secure home for his mother after growing up in precarious living conditions himself.
The impact extends beyond individual employees. When these contact center workers return to their communities, they’re celebrated as inspirational success stories. During one ribbon-cutting ceremony in the Philippines, local social workers expressed immense pride in seeing community members working at the call center, describing them as “local heroes” who inspire hope throughout the entire community. 
This approach also creates an authentic connection between sponsors and the communities they support. When donors call Unbound, they speak directly with representatives from the regions where their sponsored children or elderly individuals live, creating a more meaningful and transparent relationship that strengthens donor commitment. The results speak for themselves: a 95% first-call resolution rate, 92% customer satisfaction, and only a 7.2% sponsor discontinuance rate.
Unbound’s vision extends beyond their current operations. They’re exploring how to offer their contact center services to other nonprofits at low margins, reinvesting any earnings back into development programs. This model represents a significant innovation in how mission and operational excellence can reinforce each other—creating both better customer experiences and greater social impact.
For customer experience professionals across sectors, Unbound’s approach offers valuable lessons about aligning values with operations, focusing on relationship-building over transactional efficiency, and creating meaningful work environments that prioritize employee development. It challenges us to consider how customer experience strategies can serve broader social goals while still delivering exceptional service outcomes.
