Charity

PROJECT SUMMARY

The project was to review and make recommendations for improvement of internal processes within the Charity's fundraising organisation. It was started in June and was completed in November 1998, on schedule. As a result of the project, significant changes were made to the methods by which potential donors are contacted and donations are processed.

Key changes implemented included the multi-skilling of staff and the redesign of some processes to remove duplication and inefficiencies caused predominantly by the use of several individual databases.

The project resulted in the complete removal of the backlog of unprocessed donations and the ability to plan the exact number of staff required each day to process the donations received. Staff are now able to cope with the busy Christmas period and keep up with the donations received. Spare capacity in some areas of the charity was identified and utilised to help other areas. Staff attitudes to the project have been evaluated and show that staff are much happier with the new methods of working and that there is a real sense of teamwork.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the project were to advise and assist the organisation to:

	identify process improvements which would help to reduce errors and duplication of effort, increase efficiency and improve internal communications
	agree a detailed action plan for implementation of the identified improvements
	help with the implementation of the action plan

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Review of existing processes

The consultant reviewed all processes by allowing each member of staff to explain their job in detail.

Following the review, a schematic of the processes used for raising, receiving and processing donations was produced and presented to management. The current processing capacity, in terms of the number of donations per hour, was identified. Areas of duplication and inefficiency were identified.

Agreement of action plan

A detailed action plan was agreed with management, with responsibilities and timescales.

Training

Most staff were multi-skilled in all the processes.

Staff evaluation survey

Two months after the implementation of the new, multi-skilled team, an evaluation survey was carried out to establish staff attitudes to the changes and the impact of the changes on their jobs. The survey was carried out by the consultant interviewing staff individually, in private.

PROJECT OUTCOMES

The target of processing around 6 donations per person per hour has been met. The office manager is now able to plan the exact number of people required each day to process all the donations. The backlog of donations waiting to be processed onto the database has been reduced to zero. Thank you letters are sent on the same day, directly off the database without transferring to Microsoft Word, further improving customer perception. The generation of the personalised thank you letter is easier, since the donation history is instantly available on the database. Staff are able to keep up with the Christmas rush of donations. Many areas of duplication of effort and inefficiencies have been removed, i.e. now using only one database, no longer photocopying donation documentation, no double handling and double thinking since one person deals with the donation from start to finish. In terms of customer service, when donors phone up to ask if their donation has been received, any member of staff can access the database and give an immediate answer – it is no longer necessary to search through months of backlog donations. In terms of accuracy of donation entry, after processing around 3,000 donations onto the database in one month, the discrepancy with the figure banked was only 11 pence!

In terms of staff attitudes, all staff interviewed feel that the project has been a big success. They feel that the process is better for them and better for their customers. The manager and the staff have enjoyed the challenge and are very proud of their achievements, especially since it was all planned to happen around the busiest time of the year. They all enjoy carrying out much more varied work (doing the whole process as opposed to only one little part of the job). The frustration of carrying out some of the ‘horrible’ jobs has been removed by sharing these across the team. Staff can see a definitive target to achieve at the end of each day – i.e. a desk clear of donations. Staff even stay behind at the end of the day voluntarily to finish their batch of work and hit their target. There is a real sense of teamwork. They have enjoyed Christmas for the first time.