How Wimbledon Guild used Beacon to transform their community support

Wimbledon Guild is a Merton-based community charity dedicated to making sure no one faces life's challenges alone. They offer a comprehensive range of support, from tackling loneliness and social isolation, to helping older people live full and active lives. They’ve helped thousands of people through their engaging activities programme, regular workshops, a vital befriending programme, welfare grants for those in need, a dedicated wellbeing team, and even a community garden that supplies their HomeFood café with fresh, organic produce. Wimbledon Guild is more than just a charity; it's a thriving community where everyone belongs.

Managing such a diverse range of support programmes is a complex undertaking, to say the least. Wimbledon Guild stored data in Donorfy, Charitylog, a mix of spreadsheets, and additional platforms used to run specific functions like fundraising events.

This fragmented approach presented several challenges. Data stored across multiple platforms that weren’t integrated lacked consistency, and a full view of each individual's interactions with the charity was almost impossible to see. Managing a large volunteer pool was equally tricky without a centralised system. They relied heavily on spreadsheets, paper and manual processes to collect volunteer applications and manage resources.

Grant applications were managed in a similar way. The absence of a grant management element within their existing systems meant welfare grants were difficult to administer, from the point of application, all the way to financial reconciliation and impact reporting.

Wimbledon Guild needed an integrated solution to streamline their operations and help boost their impact in the community. They chose Beacon, a CRM built specifically for charities, to consolidate their data and improve efficiency. Flash forward and Beacon now serves as their central hub for managing service users, donors, fundraisers, volunteers, events, and grant applications seamlessly, all in one place. Gone are the days of incompatible systems, siloed data and manually juggling data.

“It’s flexible enough to be configured to how we work, but structured enough to be supported by Beacon, rather than a custom-built solution we would have to maintain ourselves”

They tackled the manual volunteer application processes by embedding Beacon forms into their website to collect applications online. All of the data is now automatically piped into their CRM and linked to the relevant applications, saving a small tree’s worth of paper along the way. Not only is it now simple for people to apply to volunteer, it’s much quicker and easier for Wimbledon Guild to manage those applications internally with pipeline views. The end result being that people who want to help out in the community can hit the ground running, without being held back by manual paperwork.

They made the same improvements to welfare grant applications, online donations, even their events, streamlining processes across the whole organisation. This integrated approach gave them full insight into all of their interactions with people across the organisation. So if a service user becomes a volunteer, and then a donor, Wimbledon Guild has a full timeline of those interactions, and can always see the full picture.

“It’s made a massive difference. The richness of the data we can pull now is so much better”

But it’s not just external functions that have benefitted. They’ve made keen use of Beacon’s integration with Xero to make financial reconciliation a breeze. And Gift Aid-able donations are now automatically compiled into monthly claims, ready to submit directly to HMRC with a single click.

“The creation of Gift Aid claims and the integration with Xero have made a huge difference to our donation management and accounting.”

The Wimbledon Guild team are always looking for ways to better use technology in supporting the community. They’re regulars at Beacon’s weekly online learning webinars, and in-person events.

“The regular online webinars really help to broaden our knowledge of Beacon. Our Customer Success Manager and the Support Team have been invaluable during the implementation and day-to-day help”.

Next on their list is integrating BI tools with Beacon to greatly improve their reporting ability, and to shine a light on how they can continuously improve their community engagement efforts. They’re also planning on incorporating the Mailchimp integration and bring big improvements to the supporter journey.

Wimbledon Guild’s commitment to supporting their Merton-based community is steadfast. Their expansive, curious approach to technology, and how best to use it, has helped them build a stronger community where nobody faces life’s challenges alone. And we’d certainly recommend popping in for a coffee and a chat if you’re in the area!

Curious to see how Beacon could transform your charity? Get in touch or sign up for a free 30 day trial.