The time has come all too soon for this annual tradition of mine to reflect on the last 12 months at Hyphen8.  Every December, I foolishly think that there is no way that this past year could be as challenging and fulfilling in equal measures as last year – but once again I was wrong!  So here are my highlights as we prepare to wind down for our annual extended break.  Huge THANK YOU to every single person that I am so grateful chooses to work for Hyphen8 for your hard work this year – you are all super stars.

Growth and team re-structure

By the end of December, we will have welcomed 14 new team members to our Hyphen8 family this year!  Bringing us to a total of 40 staff and rising (gulp…) Recently, we have taken the opportunity to step back and review our structure to ensure that we have a solid foundation for continued growth.

• Angela Murray was recently appointed as our third Director to work alongside me and Dan Probert to bring a fresh perspective to our strategic planning
• We are excited that our new Head of Customer Success will be starting in the New Year.  He brings a wealth of nonprofit sector knowledge and will increase our engagement with customers at a strategic level
• Our delivery team has been re-structured including a new role of dedicated Resource Manager to focus on the daily challenge of assigning people to work

I am very excited about our plans for a new mentoring programme to nurture the development of each of our team members to recognise their unique talents.

Celebrating our 10 year anniversary

2022 is a special year for us as we celebrated 10 years since Hyphen8 was started.  Quite an achievement and I am proud and grateful for the fantastic team of talented people that have contributed to where we are now.  In keeping with one of our values ‘Don’t forget to have fun‘ – we all spent 2 days at CenterParcs in September, a trip which had to be delayed due to lockdown.  We had such a great time bonding in laser quest, treetop climbing and in many cases were meeting each other in person for the first time.  Our in-house star baker Gemma made the amazing cake below which was filled with Hyphen8 branded chocolates!

Wellbeing and rewards

Team wellbeing is always at the top of our agenda at Hyphen8 so we are always looking for new ideas to ensure that we are happy and healthy.  During the summer, we continued with every Friday afternoon off to encourage work-life balance and more staff are working flexible hours to suit life commitments. We have introduced Vitality healthcare for all staff.  This year we have fortunately had the financial stability to increase all staff salaries by 11% to reflect the steep climb in the cost of living.  One of our most important values is to support each other and it makes me very happy that even as a 100% remote team all working in different parts of the UK, we manage to maintain a culture of caring.

Involvement in Nonprofit communities

One of our favourite pastimes is having a chance to rub shoulders with the grant-making community and in 2022, we had plenty of opportunities.

• In September we hosted an event at Salesforce Tower to discuss Flexible and user-led grantmaking with a remarkable group of people from funders of all shapes and sizes – some already using Salesforce and some not.  It was great to see such enthusiastic participation in breakout groups and networking!
• We are proud to have worked with the group of UK funders collaborating on the design of the DEI Data Standard to encourage consistency of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion data capture. Our new DEI solution accelerator is currently being piloted
• Our Service Designer team hosted another fantastic series of webinars including sessions with prominent guest speakers on Participatory grant-making and Modern grant-making

In 2023, we are planning to find more ways to participate in and initiate communities to share experiences and increase our impact.

Nonprofit consulting partner of the year

I was delighted to be presented with the prestigious Nonprofit Consulting Partner of the Year award at the Salesforce.org partner even in Lisbon in the Summer. What perfect timing in our 10th year to receive this recognition.

In an ever-growing ecosystem of Salesforce.org partners, we never rest on our laurels or take any of our success for granted.

Making a difference

One of the main reasons I love what we do (and am willing to put up with the odd challenge here and there…cough) is the difference that we make to the nonprofits we support.  In 2022, we have been in a position to provide additional support through our 8% social mission to a number of organisations whose missions warm our hearts.  I thought I would choose a few examples where we have designed, delivered and helped to fund Salesforce solutions to transform the way they work:

SOFEA – provide a wide range of initiatives for vulnerable children, and tackle food waste through their regional community larders

Designability – enables disabled people to live with greater independence including the magnificently-named Wizzybug, a fun wheelchair for small children

Merlin’s Magic Wand – provide magical experiences for children that need them most such as fun days out and bringing magic to kids in hospital

This year our HyphenEarth team was formed with the mission to make us a net zero carbon company and to do what we can to help save the planet.  We have a number of new projects kicking off in 2023 and I look forward to sharing stories of our impact.

Our 8 values are at the heart of everything we do at Hyphen8.  I am delighted that one of the team has also written a blog to give their perspective on how we have met our values this year which you can find here. I would say I am looking forward to looking back on 2023 but hope it goes a bit slower than 2022!