How the Trussell Trust is transforming its payment operations to support repeat donations
Last editedFeb 20212 min read
As part of our ongoing internal ‘Speaker Series’ events, I recently sat down and spoke to Celia Scott, Senior Supporter Care and Database Manager at the Trussell Trust.
The Speaker Series is a chance for the GoCardless team to chat with our customers, about the challenges and opportunities they face in the world of payments and beyond. And this particular edition of series was so timely and useful, I wanted to share a few of the most interesting insights beyond the (virtual) walls of GoCardless HQ.
The Trussell Trust supports a network of food banks to provide emergency food and practical support to people in crisis while campaigning for a hunger free future where everyone can afford the basics in life.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the need for food banks and related support is at an all-time high in the UK. According to the charity’s own data, between April 2019 and March 2020, food banks in its network provided a record 1.9 million food supplies to people in crisis, an 18% increase on the previous year.
A payment process that makes supporters feel part of the Trussell family
As Celia explains, a big part of her role at the Trussell Trust is to “make it as easy as possible for our donors to be able to make the donation in whatever form they want to do it, whether it's electronically, or by cheque.”
And while all donations are gratefully received by the charity, like many charitable organisations repeat donations (where a supporter gives a regular contribution on an ongoing basis) will be key going forward.
And it’s this desire to make recurring donations easy for supporters to set up and easy for the Trussell Trust to manage, forecast and reconcile, that led Celia and her team to move Direct Debit collections to GoCardless.
“[With GoCardless], we can plan with confidence knowing that every month, we've got a certain amount guaranteed coming in.”
A great customer experience above all else
The Trussell Trust, like millions of other businesses, use Salesforce as its CRM. It relies on powerful and easy-to-use integrations to get all manner of data into Salesforce. It was Asperato, the important connection between Salesforce and payment providers, who recommended using GoCardless.
And while the Trussell Trust is still in its early days as a GoCardless customer, the bulk change (the mass switching of mandates from one payment provider to another) not only went smoothly for the 15,000 or so supporters involved, but even prompted some supporters to set up a regular cadence of donations.
Now that the Trussell Trust is up-and-running with recurring payment collection via GoCardless, Celia can focus on making sure the supporter experience is as smooth as possible, no matter if a supporter wants to pay online or by phone. But it’s the on-hand support from the GoCardless team that makes Celia so confident in the recurring donation process. “We’ve received fantastic support from GoCardless. It’s very reassuring to know that if we have an issue we can pick up the phone and get support there and then.”
