Hampshire & Isle of Wight Community Foundation
About Hampshire & Isle of Wight Community Foundation
Hampshire & Isle of Wight Community Foundation (HIWCF) is a place based funder focused on tackling local needs through grassroots funding. Each year, they award around 300 grants to small charities and community organisations, most with annual incomes under £100,000.
Their funding is aligned to six key impact themes: poverty &b inequality, health & wellbeing, employability & skills, flourishing communities, the environment and crime & safety. Each grant is aimed t helping build stronger, healthier, and more resilient communities.
The Challenge
HIWCF wanted to shift from being admin heavy to impact driven. Their legacy shared platform, used by several community foundations, meant they weren’t able to control their data or processes in the nimble, agile way this aspirational organisation wanted to .
Grantmaking involved thousands of documents uploaded manually every year, and took two staff members four days a week just to keep up. They needed to work smarter, not harder, and to free up funds through automation to invest in the role they really needed: a Grants Manager.
The goal was clear to Jacqui their CEO – make the process easier for the Trustees of the “kitchen table” groups they mainly fund and empower the team to be more responsive and efficient.
“We had two staff each spending four days a week just managing grants admin. It was soul-destroying.We spoke to other community foundations using Salesforce, including Foundation Scotland and Community Foundation Wales, which helped us see what was possible.
They recommended Hyphen8 really highly. We wanted to empower our team, not be reliant on an inflexible shared platform.”
- Jacqui Scott, Chief Executive, HIWCF
HIWCF’s Key Pain Points
Inspired by conversations with other funders, the HIWCF team knew it was time to transform the way they worked.
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Manual, Complex and Time Intensive Processes
- Their grantmaking process involved up to 50 manual steps
- Each of the nearly 1,000 applications required seven documents uploaded by hand, resulting in more than 7,000 files processed every year
- Application data had to be imported manually into the database
- Their grantmaking process involved up to 50 manual steps
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Inefficient and Unscalable Reporting
- There was no automation for reminders or monitoring reports
- Staff had to manually chase organisations for overdue reports
- Follow ups were so far behind, they were a KPI for Board-level monitoring
- There was no automation for reminders or monitoring reports
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Limited Control and Visibility
- Their shared platform limited flexibility and responsiveness
- Impact data wasn’t easily accessible or useable
- Fund criteria were often misunderstood by applicants, leading to ineligible applications
- Their shared platform limited flexibility and responsiveness
The Solution - A Salesforce Platform Designed for Community Foundations
Hyphen8 built a bespoke Salesforce grants management platform that gave HIWCF complete control, full visibility, and transformed the grantmaking process through powerful automation and smart data design.
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Automating the Unmanageable
- Manual uploads were replaced with FormAssembly forms that automatically feed data and documents into Salesforce
- Reminders for reporting deadlines are now fully automated and triggered at key points in the grant lifecycle
- Board and KPI reports are now able to focus on what should really matter – the strategic development and delivery of grant making
- Manual uploads were replaced with FormAssembly forms that automatically feed data and documents into Salesforce
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Designing Smarter Grant Processes
- Funder requirements were easily translated into already automated workflows, reducing confusion and increasing alignment with other funding programmes
- Fewer ineligible applications meant a better service for community groups applying
- Funder requirements were easily translated into already automated workflows, reducing confusion and increasing alignment with other funding programmes
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Making Impact Data Work
- Impact themes were streamlined from 26 down to a clear, meaningful set of six that matches HIWCF’s funding priorities
- Grantees can now upload quotes, photos and videos to bring their impact stories to life
- Grant decisions can now be informed by postcode level social deprivation mapping, helping HIWCF target funds where they’re needed most
- Impact themes were streamlined from 26 down to a clear, meaningful set of six that matches HIWCF’s funding priorities
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Strategic Resourcing Without Increasing Headcount
- By automating manual tasks, HIWCF were able to replace their admin focused roles with a dedicated Grants Manager, working to build a more strategic approach to grant making
- This shift enabled the team to offer more support to grantees, improve programme delivery, and become far more responsive
- The change gave HIWCF more strategic capacity without significantly increasing overheads
- By automating manual tasks, HIWCF were able to replace their admin focused roles with a dedicated Grants Manager, working to build a more strategic approach to grant making
The Impact of working with Hyphen8
Turning Admin Into Insight and Effort Into Impact
The partnership with Hyphen8 and the switch to Salesforce didn’t just make HIWCF more efficient. It gave the team back their purpose. Admin has been slashed. Decisions are faster. Data is now a strategic tool. Most importantly, the process is simpler and more supportive for the small organisations they fund.
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A More Efficient, Empowered Team
- The admin burden has been halved, giving time back to focus on strategy and relationships
- Confidence in data quality has soared, thanks to automation reducing human error
- The team feels more energised, doing meaningful work rather than drowning in documents
- The admin burden has been halved, giving time back to focus on strategy and relationships
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Better Grants, Better Relationships
- Clearer fund criteria have cut down the number of ineligible applications
- Grantees now provide richer updates through photos and videos, telling their stories with impact
- Funders feel more engaged and assured that their criteria are being met effectively
- Clearer fund criteria have cut down the number of ineligible applications
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Smarter, Place-Based Funding
- Grant impacts are more visible and trackable across local areas and themes
- The team can explore data by postcode to target the areas of greatest need
- Insight is now baked into their decision-making, giving HIWCF a strategic edge
- Grant impacts are more visible and trackable across local areas and themes
Making an impact
"Our grantmaking is more human, our systems smarter, and our team far more fulfilled.”
Jacqui Scott, Chief Executive, HIWCF
Why Did You Choose Salesforce and Hyphen8?
After speaking to Wiltshire Community Foundation, Foundation Scotland and Community Foundation Wales, HIWCF saw how Salesforce could deliver the autonomy and visibility they were craving.
“Hyphen8 came highly recommended and they delivered.
Their expertise helped HIWCF avoid costly mistakes and design a system that was future ready.
We’d come up with an idea, and they’d provide really great guidance, sometimes challenging what we thought might work - and they were always right.
They helped us do what works, not just what’s easy.”
Advice for other Community Foundations
"I'd recommend speaking to Hyphen8 if you are a foundation, as they understand every aspect of your work!"
