The Power of Automation and Shared Learning with Salesforce: Insights from Duchenne UK, Merlin’s Magic Wand, and Calum’s Cabin

The Power of Automation and Shared Learning with Salesforce: Insights from Duchenne UK, Merlin's Magic Wand, and Calum’s Cabin

One of the main benefits we have at Hyphen8, working across 200+ charity and foundation implementations over the past 12 years, is learning from so many organisations.

This allows us to gather and refine solutions that can help streamline processes, save time, and enable charities to scale their impact.

Three charities—Duchenne UK, Merlin's Magic Wand, and Calum's Cabin—have harnessed the power of Salesforce to transform their operations.

In this blog, we’ll explore how these organisations have embraced automation to accelerate their missions and share insights on what has worked for them.

Duchenne UK: Scaling Fundraising and Managing Complexity

Duchenne UK, a charity focused on finding a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), faced challenges managing its growing fundraising efforts and numerous family funds. Relying on manual processes and multiple spreadsheets, the organisation struggled to keep up as it expanded. By adopting Salesforce, Duchenne UK was able to streamline their operations in significant ways.

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Impact Highlights:

  • Automation Saves Time on Grants: Before Salesforce, reallocating funds across multiple spreadsheets took half a day. Now, with Salesforce, this process takes just 2-3 minutes, freeing up time for the team to focus on strategic initiatives. This has saved the organisation days of time across the year​.
  • Efficient Reallocation of Funds: The process of reallocating grants, which previously took up significant time and effort, can now be completed in just minutes thanks to Salesforce’s automation capabilities

  • Gift Aid Automation: One of the key challenges Duchenne UK faced was manually processing Gift Aid. By integrating Salesforce with FinDock, they automated this process, maximising claims and improving efficiency.

The lesson from Duchenne UK is clear: as nonprofits grow, automating complex and repetitive tasks enables teams to focus on their mission and scale their impact without being bogged down by administrative work.

Merlin’s Magic Wand: Creating More Magical Experiences with Automation

Merlin's Magic Wand, a charity that provides magical experiences for children facing adversity, was struggling with manual processes that slowed down their ability to serve more children. Using Excel and Outlook to manage 20,000 applications per year was inefficient, leading to delays and administrative strain. Salesforce provided a much-needed solution, enabling them to centralise and automate their operations.

Impact Highlights:

  • Time Saved Equals More Impact: Automation saved Merlin's Magic Wand 20,000 hours of manual work annually, allowing the team to process more applications and reach more children​.

  • Streamlined Application Management: With Salesforce, applications are now submitted via FormAssembly, and data flows directly into the system, ensuring seamless processing and efficient tracking. 
  • This has reduced manual data entry, improved accuracy, and significantly speed up the process​.
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For Merlin's Magic Wand, the lesson is about the transformative power of automation: reducing admin time not only improves operational efficiency but directly translates into more time for impact.

Calum’s Cabin: Saving Time and Providing Hope

Calum’s Cabin, a charity providing holiday experiences for families of children with cancer, faced similar challenges with time-consuming, paper-based processes. The team relied on spreadsheets, paper calendars, and manual communication by post, which often delayed bookings and added stress for families already in difficult situations. Salesforce helped them radically improve these processes.

Impact Highlights:

  • Ease for Families: Families who are often in and out of hospital don’t have time to print forms, buy stamps, and post applications. With Salesforce, families can complete the booking process online in minutes, providing a faster and more accessible way to secure their holidays.
  • Ninety Days Saved in Admin Time: By automating their booking system, Calum's Cabin saved 90 days a year in admin time, freeing the team to focus on expanding their reach and helping more families​.
  • Speed and Flexibility for Families: What used to take days or even weeks—such as processing bookings, managing waiting lists, and handling cancellations—can now be done in minutes. This has allowed Calum’s Cabin to fill 19 additional holiday spots that would have otherwise gone unused due to cancellations​.
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Calum’s Cabin has demonstrated how automation can do more than save time— it can make the process more compassionate and responsive, ensuring families in need get timely support when they need it most.

Shared Learnings: How Automation Can Help You Scale

All three organisations demonstrate that automation through Salesforce doesn’t just streamline operations—it fundamentally changes how nonprofits can deliver their services and grow their impact. Here are the key takeaways that any organisation can apply:

  • Save Time for What Matters: Automation drastically reduces manual tasks, freeing up teams to focus on strategy and mission-critical work. Whether it’s reallocating funds, processing applications, or handling donor data, automation helps you get back to what’s important.

  • Ensure Accuracy and Accountability: By centralising data in Salesforce, these organisations improved the accuracy of their records and created clear audit trails. This transparency not only helps with compliance but also builds trust with donors, funders, and beneficiaries.

  • Enhance Responsiveness: Automation allows nonprofits to respond faster to urgent needs, whether it’s speeding up the booking process for Calum’s Cabin or processing a surge of applications for Merlin’s Magic Wand. This flexibility ensures that resources are allocated efficiently and beneficiaries receive timely support.

  • Scalable Solutions for Growing Impact: As nonprofits grow, their operations become more complex. Salesforce’s scalable platform allows organisations like Duchenne UK to handle increasing project and fundraising complexities without sacrificing efficiency or quality.

 

Why Automation is Key to Scaling Impact.

For nonprofits looking to scale whether that be raising more funds, or offering more support to their mission, automation is not just a convenience—it’s a necessity.

As these stories from Duchenne UK, Merlin’s Magic Wand, and Calum’s Cabin show, automating processes through Salesforce allows organisations to save time, reduce administrative burdens, and focus on expanding their impact which we think is amazing.

If your organisation is ready to scale and achieve more, consider how automation through Salesforce can unlock new levels of efficiency and effectiveness, please get in contact, we can run you through the various options available and create a solution to your budget. 

Continue learning from amazing charities and foundations.

To find out more about the work we've done with Calum's Cabin, Duchenne UK and Merlin's Magic Wand, have a read of their Success Stories where they share their stories in full.

We love hearing how our clients thrive using Salesforce!