How Doncaster Alcohol Services use Beacon to manage volunteers and deliver measurable impact for beneficiaries

Doncaster Alcohol Services's vision is that every individual in Doncaster has the awareness, skills, and confidence to make effective choices about their usage of alcohol and other drugs.

Doncaster Alcohol Services has been helping the people of Doncaster for 35 years, but like most forward thinking organisations they know that change is innevitable and often brings opportunity.

During a period of change and with the launch of a new strategy the team knew that undstanding their impact was key.

We wanted to be able to better report to funders and potential donors about the work we do without it taking up too much time.

Having previously used an integrated system provided by the NHS the team was facing the return to spreadsheets and pen and paper. Making it easy to collect important data about volunteers and registering beneficiaries was crucial to ensuring they could accurately measure their impact. Also, since the team provides services to vulnerable people security was an important factor in choosing a CRM.

We knew that a solid CRM system was the way to go in terms of becoming more slick about data capture and analysis

Doncaster Alcohol Services started using Beacon to capture information about their volunteers (including their application forms) and about their beneficiaries. This includes assessment forms and registering people for our service. People that attend each of our events are also registered on Beacon so we can track engagement.

Configuring their systems in exactly the way they want has made their processes considerably more efficient. Their favourite Beacon feature is the ease of customisation.

For me an absolutely essential part of a good CRM system is the ability to customise aspects of it for your personal needs and requirements. Beacon offers this customisation which means I can build forms and records on it that fit our specific needs.

Customising Beacon doesn't just stop with the database. The Doncaster team make extensive use of customisable Beacon forms to input registration data into Beacon from a simple and easy to use web form.

Once the database is customised and processes are streamlined using Beacon forms the real value of Beacon becomes apparent. It's now straightforward for the team to evaluate their impact.

We are now able to report in granular detail about the progress of our beneficiaries through our services and map this against the number of interventions we have with them, this enables us to demonstrate the value of the work we are doing on improving the mental health of our beneficiaries.

With a robust system in place and with ongoing support from the Beacon team Doncaster Alcohol Services are well set up to keep having a huge positive impact for their next 35 years.

The Beacon team are amazing and so supportive – they’re really quick to respond to queries and ideas for development and really, that’s half of what makes the product so much value for money.

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