Mendip Community Support are a charity who give advice to other charities and voluntary organisations. They provide a wealth of information on funding, financial matters, governance and anything that may be of concern to charitable organisations. They also organise DBS checks (Disclosure and Barring Service), formerly known as CRB checks (Criminal Records Bureau) here in the UK.
The challenges facing Mendip Community Support are those which are prevalent in many charities:
Lack of funds, requiring therefore a cost-conscious solution
A largely part-time workforce, meaning that information needed to be centralised and readily available
Multiple clients, so the data needed careful collation
Security to protect potentially sensitive information
In short, a central CRM/store of data was required, accessible by many. That’s a database!
The software we wrote allowed MCS to:
- Make a record of all contact between parties, by email, phone or other means
- Record the progress of DBS checks
- Store details of funding and governance
- Compile bulletins and allow features to be added by separate contacts
- Organise regional charitable forums
- Log-in attendees to those forums using iPad registration software
- Publish and email minutes of proceedings
- Collate monthly reports
