Army Cadet Force Association choose Purple Vision to develop new membership services system

Situation

The Army Cadet Force Association (ACFA) were keen to improve the quality of the service they provide to their members.

Ian McGill, General Secretary of the ACFA, knew that investing in their membership services could bring a number of benefits:

“Not only would we benefit from an enhanced reputation”, said Ian, “but we also believed that there would be an immediate financial benefit – for instance, that this could be an opportunity to ensure that we were maximising our Gift Aid revenue.”

Having worked with the ACFA on a fundraising feasibility study, Purple Vision were asked to oversee the work on improving their membership services.

Challenges

ACFA felt that using specialist expertise to improve membership services would be the most cost –effective solution:

“The scope of what we wanted to achieve in a short time was quite ambitious. We wanted to overhaul our membership database, get up and running with Direct Debits, and improve our systems so we could realise more income through Gift Aid.” said Ian McGill.

“We needed some expertise – somebody who had done these sorts of projects before, somebody who had faced the sort of challenges that we had”.

Solution

The key task was to develop an effective database solution for ACFA.

ACFA had a membership database system that wasn’t really delivering for them. It wasn’t a very flexible tool, and getting information out of it was difficult.

They also had a number of other databases holding details about key contacts and stakeholders, whereas ACFA knew that a single system from where they could see a complete view of any supporter or member would be much more effective.

“Purple Vision helped us bring the data together into one simple, flexible solution based in Microsoft Access.” said Ian McGill.

“It’s given us an effective interim solution that can help us communicate with our members and where we can manage our Direct Debits and Gift Aid”.

Introducing the facility to donate by Direct Debit was also part of the project.  ACFA were keen to offer their members the opportunity to donate by Direct Debit. However, they were aware of the investment in time, money and technology that this can require.

Purple Vision worked with ACFA to investigate different ways of managing Direct Debits, and it soon became apparent that outsourcing was the best solution.

After a thorough procurement exercise, Rapidata Services were appointed to administer Direct Debits for the ACFA.

Systems were also developed to enable ACFA to maximise their Gift Aid revenue:

“Our staff learnt a lot about how Gift Aid works. We are already seeing increased income through Gift Aid as a result of our work with Purple Vision” said Ian McGill.

Benefits

• New membership database solution

• Direct Debit facility for donors, and increased access to donation solutions through Rapidata Services

• New Gift Aid processes – enabling Gift Aid revenue to be maximised

“Purple Vision’s approach was excellent. Our staff have developed through working with them, we are seeing a direct financial benefit, and our members will receive a better service.”

Ian McGill,

General Secretary