SupporterHub Helping small charities evolve during lockdown.
When you meet Clementine Hartson, you instantly know you’re in the presence of a giving heart who lives to put others first.
Project Kindness was built on a mission to brighten the lives of those less fortunate through the selfless acts of others.
With a background in child protection and adult mental health, Clementine saw time and time again that those less fortunate than her were living in bleak surroundings that were having a detrimental impact on their already poor mental health.
Determined to give those less fortunate than herself a brighter future, Clementine took matters into her own hands and Project Kindness was launched from Clem’s kitchen bench.
Clementine is most comfortable using a pen and paper and communicating with supporters face to face. And those processes served Project Kindness well until March 2020 when COVID-19 hit.
With all her supporter details in a folder and with minimal contact allowed between her, the supporters and the rest of the Project Kindness volunteers, Clem knew she had to urgently assess her systems and processes if she were to make it through the economic uncertainty that was to follow.
Clem’s biggest issues were:
- Lack of systems during COVID-19 lockdown
- Lack of technical savviness
- Budgetary restraints due to limited funding
- Lack of consistency during lockdown
The search for a cost-effective, integrated system that would benefit the whole team began. Clem knew she needed a central point to hold supporter information and build critical relationships at such a crucial economic time.
As many charities buckled under the pressure of the impact of the pandemic, we’re so proud to say that Project Kindness instead focussed on innovation. Clem looked into how she could improve her systems and processes to enhance the donor experience and help supporters reach their giving capacity in the new-founded remote working environment.
Project Kindness receives no funding from the government and is completely reliant on fundraising. Cost was a huge consideration for Clem. When she realised the affordable monthly subscription charge for SupporterHub, one of her major objections was answered.
As something personal to her, her second objection was one she thought would be harder to overcome.
Clem is a self-confessed technophobe.
She was currently paying way over budget for a payment platform. While she knew it had the potential to serve her charity well, the features were far too complex so it was only ever used to its most basic capacity.
She was disheartened to spend hard-earnt donations on a platform that potentially had the functionality she needed but didn’t include the support that would help the Project Kindness team use the platform to its full capacity.
From the outset, Clem was instantly attracted to the support given by SupporterHub. “The SupporterHub team goes above and beyond to help me and my team reach our goals. From the moment of signing up for a free trial, we felt fully supported in every area.”
“From setting up the back end, integrating with the website, data transfer and utilising SupporterHub capacity to its fullest potential, we know that the platform will help Project Kindness grow to its maximum capacity.”
Clem finds SupporterHub extremely intuitive. “As someone who isn’t very confident using different platforms and systems, SupporterHub is actually very easy to use. Setting up the fully branded fundraising pages only takes a few minutes and gives various options to personalise your content for the donors.”
The COVID lockdowns have given Clem the time she needs to learn about the system and understand how the functions can help her grow Project Kindness. As a small organisation, she’s confident that as she grows, she won’t need to look for another platform to help Project Kindness meet its short and long-term goals for the future.
“SupporterHub is our forever platform”
It has been the SupporterHub mission from the outset to build relationships with our customers rather than treating them as a transaction. As Clem explains every time we speak to her; “I feel like part of the family”.