How Data Friendly Space stays compliant across 12 countries with Deel

Data Friendly Space is a global NGO that supports humanitarian, environmental, and development organizations with data science and AI. The team behind that work is fully remote, with 12 people spread across 12 different countries, working as EOR employees, contractors, or direct employees.

Before adopting a global work platform, the organization’s early operations ran on ad hoc tools: an executive director paying staff through PayPal, HR tracked across spreadsheets, and project work split between various project management tools. Managing it all took two full-time staff members whose entire job was HR administration.

Data Friendly Space was one of Deel’s earliest customers. It later left for a competitor, a decision the team came to regret.

“When we left Deel, we felt like we needed something more than we were getting, almost immediately, we realized that what we had was the best platform for us.” —Doug Smith, Chief of Staff, Data Friendly Space

The competitor’s platform couldn’t keep pace with the organization’s compliance needs. When an EOR employee in Estonia went on maternity leave, the provider didn’t understand Estonian labor law or tax requirements. Response times stretched to three days or more, billing was unclear, and the organization found itself training its own vendor on basic compliance questions

“In no way did they understand Estonian law, or how Estonia taxes worked. When you threw the wrinkle of maternity leave into the middle of it, they just seized up.” —Doug Smith, Chief of Staff, Data Friendly Space

After evaluating seven competing platforms, Data Friendly Space returned to Deel a little over a year ago. The decision came down to familiarity with the platform, the ability to manage EOR employees, contractors, and a direct US employee in one place, and what Smith called “fantastic” customer support—now backed by an AI layer that wasn’t there the first time around.

“We just simply put the updated contracts in, added new staff, took out old staff, and it just works,” Smith said of the transition back. The rollout happened in the middle of a significant fiscal challenge for the organization, which made having payroll and HR already handled even more valuable.

Smith now uses Deel AI to manage the day-to-day realities of running a flexible, project-funded organization, including adjusting contractor invoices and payments as available project funding shifts.

“Being able to ask the AI agent in Deel how to go about changing the nuances that come with a very flexible, global organization makes things easy. We spent less time wondering and waiting on support and more time getting an answer to the question we wanted, and then being able to implement that change almost immediately.” — Doug Smith, Chief of Staff, Data Friendly Space

Today, contracting and onboarding a new employee or contractor takes Smith about 10 minutes, with no back-and-forth required to make adjustments. Contractors and employees can see exactly where their money is at any point, and several choose to pull funds into their own accounts only as needed, giving them more control over currency timing and tax planning.

“Mostly they appreciate the transparency, being able to centrally see where the money’s flowing. They’re able to address changes within the currency markets, and they can manage their tax implications based on when the money comes into their bank account. It gives them autonomy, and we love that.” —Doug Smith, Chief of Staff, Data Friendly Space

For Smith, the clearest sign of success is how little he now thinks about payroll and HR at all.

“I’m embarrassed to say I don’t think about Deel that often. Mostly because when I thought about other companies we’ve used in the past, I thought about them a lot, because they didn't function very well. Now, Deel is working in the background, and it just works. That creates the kind of efficiencies that allow us to be very lean and nimble.” —Doug Smith, Chief of Staff, Data Friendly Space

Room to grow, whenever the moment’s right

Smith also noted that Data Friendly Space hasn’t tapped into everything that platform offers, and that added functionality hasn’t come with added cost.

As Data Friendly Space looks toward rebuilding its team, Smith is already thinking about how that mix of worker types could shift. More of the organization’s contractors could move to EOR employment in the future, as people increasingly look for the stability that comes with formal employment.

That kind of shift would have once meant renegotiating contracts, researching new labor laws, and adding headcount just to manage the transition. With Deel, it’s a change Smith is confident the organization could make without disrupting how the rest of the team gets paid.