How Chiswick House & Gardens Trust boosted member renewals by 30% with Beacon

The team at Chiswick House & Gardens Trust are responsible for the diligent upkeep and maintenance of its historical Grade 1 listed house and grounds. More than an award winning heritage site, the Trust are working tirelessly to build on the vital role that the gardens play in the local community. They support local health and wellbeing, working with community and school groups from across Hounslow and share the beautiful spaces with wider audiences through weddings and events. Their efforts ensure that three hundred years of exceptional design are shared with as many people as possible, and preserved for future generations to enjoy. 

The Trust are supported in their mission by English Heritage and the London Borough of Hounslow, who provide just under 25% of the annual income. They raise the rest of their income through ticketed events, trusts and foundations and individual giving, primarily memberships.Their existing platform initially did the trick for ticketed events however overtime, growing pains emerged. Supporters found the platform difficult to interact with meaning that their journey with the Trust often began in frustration, before even receiving a welcome email. 

On top of that, very little data was being collected and stored about supporters, making it difficult to get any real visibility over the supporter journey. Knowing that you can’t improve what you can’t track, the team started to look for a more versatile and flexible platform. After exploring their options and deciding on Beacon, the first step was to pull all of their data under one roof. 

It was a revelation switching over, having the data and the capacity to suddenly have a better relationship with our members

For the first time, the Trust had full oversight of their supporter’s journey. Each touchpoint they had, from newsletter sign ups to event attendances, was now linked to each contact’s record within Beacon. 

The help that we’ve had from Beacon with that transfer was absolutely amazing. That level of customer service and the help we got was such a stark contrast … it’s just been phenomenal

This visibility enabled them to personalise their outreach and greatly improve the supporter experience. Having more data about each contact, and better access to it, the Trust set about building deeper connections with their supporters. 

Since moving our memberships to Beacon our number of members has grown 15% and our renewal rate has increased by 30%

Using the Smart Bcc functionality, they automatically log every email conversation against the person record within Beacon so all team members have full oversight of each supporter’s history. 

The team leveraged Beacon’s flexibility to take their data security to the next level, without compromising usability. The Roles & Permissions functionality allows organisations to choose who can see what data, who can edit, and who should be restricted entirely from certain areas within the database. 

Chiswick House and Gardens Trust made full use of this feature, allowing the Visitor Experience and Events teams to view member information, but restricting editing privileges to the admin teams. Not only were the management team confident that their data wasn’t at risk of any mishaps, but the Visitor Experience Team were empowered to do their jobs without any unnecessary oversight. 

Since implementing Beacon, Chiswick House and Gardens Trust have brought most of their operations under one roof. From volunteer and patron management, to memberships, grants, donations, member event management and even assigning tasks to team members internally. This has given them much deeper insights into, and control over, their internal operations and reporting. 

We don’t have the complaints anymore … it’s just so beautifully straight-forward

In the end, the Trust’s stellar outcomes are not a result of technology, but of their continual commitment to enriching the lives of their community, and the preservation of English heritage for all to enjoy. If you feel that Beacon could help enable your organisation to do the same, we’d love to hear from you! Click here to chat with a member of our team or try Beacon for yourself for free.