Wiltshire and Swindon Community Foundation

Building a Flexible, Future-Proof Platform for Impact

About Wiltshire and Swindon Community Foundation

Wiltshire and Swindon Community Foundation was the first of its kind in the UK, established 50 years ago to connect people who care with causes that matter. Today, with a team of 18, the Foundation supports grassroots organisations and individuals making a lasting difference across Wiltshire and Swindon.

When their inherited Salesforce system became a barrier to progress, the Foundation took a bold step forward. With Hyphen8 as their trusted partner, they moved away from a one-size-fits-all setup and built a fully independent platform- flexible enough to evolve with them and powerful enough to drive cultural change across the organisation.

The Challenge

Wiltshire and Swindon Community Foundation had been operating within a shared, network-wide Salesforce instance that was no longer fit for purpose. It didn’t reflect their unique working style, their goals for the future, or their need for agility and independence

“We weren’t confident in the direction of the main platform, and we wanted a system that would grow and evolve with us. This was about flexibility, ownership, and enabling our team to lead the way. Having known Hyphen8 for a while, we knew they were the partner for us, as they’d worked with so many grantmakers that they were going to think of things we would never have considered!”

– Megan Pitman, Operations Manager,

Wiltshire and Swindon Community Foundation

Pain Points

The team wanted a solution that would serve their team better, to enable them to spend more time with people in their area they funded.

Stuck in a rigid system:

The inherited Salesforce setup was too rigid and lacked customisation. Updates were slow, and panel, finance, and grant systems were disconnected.
Heavy reliance on manual workarounds:

Teams were bridging gaps with spreadsheets. Panel volunteers reviewed grants across multiple disconnected systems, while reporting lacked real-time visibility.
Low digital confidence:

Change management was a barrier, with staff unsure of what digital could offer. Culture needed to shift from coping to creating.
“Our team were spending so much time trying to work out how to work around the system, that it meant we weren’t using the team to the best of our ability.”

The Solution: A Future-Proof Salesforce System Built with Hyphen8

Wiltshire and Swindon Community Foundation partnered with Hyphen8 to design and launch a standalone Salesforce instance, tailored to their strategy, built for flexibility, and fully owned by their internal team.

Independence & Flexibility
- Their own Salesforce platform gives them full control and adaptability.
- Internal teams now make admin changes, update fields, and build dashboards themselves.
- The platform evolves alongside the Foundation, not outside of it.
Seamless Panel Portal Integration
- Volunteers assess applications, vote, and access grantee data directly in Salesforce.
- No more crashes or clunky workarounds- documents are shared with one click.
- Reviews are smoother, faster, and more transparent.
Finance & Donations Transformation
- Mass adjustment uploads replace slow, error-prone manual changes.
- A new donation flow enables gifts to be split across multiple funds with pre-set contributions, ensuring accuracy and saving huge amounts of time.
- A BACS report now converts Salesforce grant payment runs directly into bank-ready data, eliminating manual entry errors.
Smarter Donor and Grantee Engagement
- Gift Aid forms link directly into Salesforce rather than being scanned and saved manually. Historic status changes are preserved for compliance.
- Tags segment accounts for campaigns and events, making targeting quick and accurate.
- Automated grant flows calculate instalments, start and end dates, and allow for changes when needed.

The Impact of working with Hyphen8

The team now manage their own Salesforce platform confidently, making changes, building dashboards, and adapting the system without external dependency.

All grant, donor, volunteer, finance, and communication data is now in one place, giving leaders instant insight and a full audit trail in seconds.

18-person team empowered
A small team can now manage, adapt, and grow their own Salesforce system independently, increasing digital confidence across the organisation.

The Impact

Culture Shift: From Constraint to Possibility
- Team members now lean into digital change instead of resisting it.
- “Can we build a flow for this?” and “Could this be easier?” are now common questions.
- “We went from drowning in process to discussing data insights. That’s revolutionary.”
Operational Efficiency & Improved Grantmaking
- Grantee communication; award letters, T&C forms and monitoring that once took hours are now sent in minutes via templates. Every message is logged in Salesforce and tracked in real time.
- Reports replace endless spreadsheet work, giving staff instant insights into grants, donors, and responses.
- Outlook integration allows emails to be filed straight into Salesforce, creating a complete audit trail and saving hours. As well is the ‘activity logging’ the team has created - so they can see a timeline of event invites, last interactions, and phone calls. calls/meetings - so anyone can pick up where we left off
Finance and Compliance Confidence
- Automated BACS reporting ensures every grant payment run aligns with bank uploads.
- All grant information is now in Salesforce, making annual audits stress-free. Screenshots can evidence full grant journeys instantly.
Increased Donor and Grantee Engagement
- The donor stewardship team have more access to real time information
- Grantees upload everything in one go such as applications, reports, and documents in one place, cutting down on their time.
- Volunteers access clear, consistent panel packs with no risk of system crashes, which allows the team to have greater control over sensitive data.
- Volunteers access is decided upon by how long they need access and what they need to see in permission sets, easily set by the team.
- The team are able to manage what is shared EDI purposes eg showing an application but removing name/protected characteristic info.
Strategic Readiness
- A five-year digital roadmap enables smarter hiring and planning.
- An improvement in diversity - the system now attracts younger, talented staff are attracted by the modern systems and opportunities to innovate, which offers additional career development.
- Leaders now track all reports in one place saving them time.

Making an impact

“Hyphen8 made the process so interesting - the team started thinking about using the technology in ways we’d never done before! We could finally create a system for our amazing team, but also improve the grantee experience.”

– Megan Pitman, Operations Manager

Rethink of new technology to hit their goals

What's Been The Biggest Shift Since Working With Us?

“Salesforce and Hyphen8 have changed the mindset of our team. They now come to me with ideas, not frustrations. They see what’s possible, and they know we can build it.”

– Megan Pitman, Operations Manager