I still can’t quite believe it but Hyphen8 is 8 years old this year and we have come a long way during that time. In this blog, I reflect one some of our key achievements (and spookily there are 8 of them).

1. Our loyal customers

It is one of our core values to build up a high level of trust with our customers. I am so proud of how many of our customers continue to choose us to support their growth. We work in partnership with more than 100 nonprofit organisations of all sizes through our flexible evolve service. Over the past year we have had the privilege to deliver solutions for large organisation such as The National Lottery Community Fund and Comic Relief but it’s just as important to help smaller Foundations, Trusts and charities.

2. Growth of our team

Last month we recruited our 20th member of staff which was a major milestone and we have further growth plans this year. We have been deliberately cautious with the growth of our team – as a consultancy, it is a challenge to balance supply with demand and we have witnessed too many similar organisations growing too quickly. I am so proud of our amazing and quirky team who all bring something slightly different to our skillset.

3. Philanthropic values

Our social mission is SO important to me and every year we get closer to the ultimate goal to establish our own charitable foundation. Thanks to our success over the past 12 months, we have been able to give away more pro bono time and to donate more money to causes that mean something to us. Our Pledge 8% initiative is incorporated into every engagement with customers in the form of free time or solutions that reduce time to implement.

4. Broadened our proposition

When Hyphen8 was established in 2012, our knowledge of the grant-making sector was a niche specialism to make us stand out. Our expertise in this area has continued to grow and we are fortunate to work with an increasing number of funders – all recommended by word of mouth. But our expertise and solutions are not confined to grant-making – we are delivering innovative solutions for membership, fundraising, finance management, impact evaluation, marketing automation and external party engagement. Whatever their mission, our aim is to help any non-profit to challenge and transform the way they work.

5. Accelerator solutions

In 2018 we launched grantFlex, our free product designed for grant-makers on Salesforce nonprofit success pack. We have since then launched our full acceler8 range of solutions to fast-track the implementation process and share proven designs to benefit non-profits whatever their mission. These include our batch finance export solution, dynamic on-screen help guidance, tagging and criteria-based checklists to streamline workflow.

6. Knowledge-sharing

We always encourage organisations to become self-sufficient as internal ownership of the platform can hugely influence user adoption and return on investment. The types of training and education services that we deliver have expanded over the years in recognition of the equal importance of people to the success of new technology. In addition to tailored training programmes, we can help customers to recruit their own system administrators and provide coaching on agile project delivery.

7. Staff well-being

We are nothing without our people so it is vital that we keep our team happy and healthy. It is always busy at Hyphen8 and as we have always worked from home, work / life balance can be an issue. Every member of staff benefits from a package of well-being benefits including incremental holidays and quarterly learning days and a monthly well-being expenses allowance.

8. Fresh new brand identity

Last but not least, to celebrate our 8th birthday, we have updated our logo, injected more colour into our brand identity and templates and designed a new website. We recently recruited our very own Digital Marketing Consultant. Not only will he be kept busy with our own creatives but we can also offer creative services to customers to jazz up their email templates and community branding and Pardot campaigns.