Heart Research UK Case Study

Heart Research UK has a bold mission: "Until there are no more deaths from heart diseases". Established in 1967, the charity has been at the forefront of heart health, pioneering research, training the next generation of clinicians, and running community programmes to improve public health. They have ploughed over £34 million into leading research projects and helped countless people live healthier lives.

With such a vital mission, and plans to scale dramatically, Heart Research UK needed a platform that could keep pace with their ambitions. We sat down with Laure Rigal, Director of Projects, Data and Insights, to chat about their move to Beacon and how it's helping them to scale their mission.

Before Beacon, Heart Research UK was struggling with a legacy system that had low user adoption. It was clunky, old-fashioned, difficult to use, and as a result, many of the team's processes were still being done manually.

"The previous database was not well liked. It was quite manual and lacked the ability to automate tasks and manage supporter journeys."

They knew a change was needed, and Laure was brought in to lead the project. After exploring their options, Beacon stood out.

"The interface was what first attracted me to it. It's so intuitive, and to bring people on-board, that's what we needed. The ability to customise everything, to re-label all of the fields, makes things feel really familiar."

Initially, the plan was to use Beacon for fundraising, but they quickly realised its potential for more. "The team started saying 'I'm sure we could do that in Beacon,' and nine times out of ten, we could". Today, Heart Research UK runs a huge portion of their operations through Beacon, from income generation, to service delivery, internal operations and impact reporting.

They track the progress of grants they apply for, manage interactions with supporters for better stewardship, and oversee all donations and fundraising campaigns. In service delivery, they manage the grants they award to research institutions, run health check programmes and events, and distribute educational materials. They also handle internal operations, from managing the team’s day-to-day tasks, to their network of patients who assess funding projects, and maintain a repository of case studies.

Everything is fully connected and visible under one roof. With their old system, none of this was possible. "It didn't have any forms, no automation, no way to get data in without keying it in manually". They’ve been able to decommission a number of other platforms in the process, saving buckets of time and money.

When asked about her favourite feature, Laure didn’t hesitate: "Workflows, definitely. It helps speed everything up and reduces so much of the manual work needed."

The team uses Workflows to automate a whole host of previously manual processes. They’re used for supporter stewardship, assigning follow-up tasks and automating thank-you messages, ensuring everyone has a consistent and timely experience. They’ve got the same set up for fundraisers based on specific milestones achieved and particular supporter actions.

"We used to have to do everything manually. Now if someone is on holiday, their tasks can be automatically reassigned. It's much more scalable, and it ensures a consistent brand voice and supporter experience."

Since implementing Beacon, the charity has doubled in size - growth which wouldn't have been possible without more formalised and reliable processes to enable it.

For Laure, the Beacon support team has been a major highlight. "They’re fab. It wasn't something I expected when we bought Beacon. They're super responsive and helpful. With other systems I've used, we've had to pay for premium support to get even a basic level of service, so I think the Beacon support team does a really great job."

A clear sign of the project's success, Laure is now looking to implement Beacon at another charity where she is a trustee. By equipping the team with modern technology, Laure has ensured that Heart Research UK can focus on achieving their vital mission: a world without deaths from heart diseases.

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