The Carnegie Trust for The Universities of Scotland
About The Carnegie Trust for The Universities of Scotland
Founded in 1901 by American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, The Carnegie Trust for The Universities of Scotland is a historic grantmaking organisation dedicated to supporting education and research across Scotland's universities. The Trust provides grants for tuition fees, academic research, and educational projects, ensuring that students and researchers receive the funding they need to succeed.
With a century-long legacy of impact, the Trust needed to modernise its processes to better serve its grantees and ensure funding decisions could be made efficiently and accurately.
The Challenge: Manual Processes Slowing Down Operations
Before implementing Salesforce, The Carnegie Trust relied on paper-based processes, spreadsheets, and a small Access database to manage applications and grants.
These outdated methods slowed down approvals, increased errors, and made data tracking difficult.
"Our processes were incredibly time-consuming and prone to errors.We were completely paper-based, and even after moving applications to email, we still had to manually input data into spreadsheets and databases.
It was clear we needed a better solution to improve grantee experiences."
- Patricia Krus, Director of Programmes, The Carnegie Trust
Pain Points
The Trust required a modern, automated system to reduce inefficiencies and improve grant management. The team were completely paper based and it was a nightmare to track everything due to manual imput.
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Manual Data Entry & Human Errors
- Applications had to be manually entered into spreadsheets, increasing the risk of mistakes.
- Data was scattered across multiple systems, requiring time-consuming cross-referencing.
- Applications had to be manually entered into spreadsheets, increasing the risk of mistakes.
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Slow Turnaround for Grant Approvals
- Tuition fee support applications took a month to process.
- Research funding approvals could take 3-4 months, delaying critical funding for researchers.
- Tuition fee support applications took a month to process.
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Limited Reporting & Financial Tracking
- No real-time insights into funding commitments.
- Financial projections required manual calculations, making budgeting less efficient.
- No real-time insights into funding commitments.
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Time Poor Team
- Everything was manual, so if a team member was off sick or on leave it made it difficult to speed up workloads.
- Things had to be manually sought through because there was nothing automatically added to the system.
- Human error could cause issues for the team, and also post offices sometimes delayed processing applications which were held up.
- Everything was manual, so if a team member was off sick or on leave it made it difficult to speed up workloads.
The Solution: A Customised Salesforce System Designed by Hyphen8
To revolutionise operations, The Carnegie Trust partnered with Hyphen8 to design a tailored Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud system. The solution provided automation, improved tracking, and real-time insights, eliminating manual processes and errors.
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Automated Grantmaking Workflows
- Applications are acknowledged automatically, replacing the need for manual confirmations.
- Award letters are generated instantly upon grant approval, eliminating delays.
- Applications are acknowledged automatically, replacing the need for manual confirmations.
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Enhanced Reporting & Financial Tracking
- Live dashboards provide real-time insights into financial commitments.
- Cash flow projections are more accurate, helping with fund allocations.
- Live dashboards provide real-time insights into financial commitments.
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Peer Review & Application Scoring
- Real-time tracking of peer reviews ensures high-quality feedback.
- Underperforming reviewers can be identified and replaced, improving decision-making.
- Real-time tracking of peer reviews ensures high-quality feedback.
The Impact of working with Hyphen8
The Impact
With Salesforce and Hyphen8's expertise, The Carnegie Trust has transformed grant management, improving efficiency, accuracy, and decision-making.
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Faster & More Accurate Grant Processing
- Reduced manual workload, allowing staff to focus on impact rather than admin.
- Researchers and students receive funding decisions much faster, improving planning.
- Reduced manual workload, allowing staff to focus on impact rather than admin.
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Improved Financial Oversight & Budget Management
- Live dashboards provide real-time tracking of financial commitments.
- Cash drawdowns and investment planning are now data-driven.
- Live dashboards provide real-time tracking of financial commitments.
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Scalability & Future-Proofing
- The system is built to scale, allowing for future expansion.
- Data-driven decision-making ensures continued improvement in grant distribution.
- The system is built to scale, allowing for future expansion.
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Instant Reporting
- Teams can pull instant reports because all data in Salesforce provide instant insights.
- Dashboards provide teams with everything on one screen for easier insights
- Data-driven decision making is easy as all data can be tailored to any report needed
- Leadership now have everyone's data in one place.
- Teams can pull instant reports because all data in Salesforce provide instant insights.
Making an impact
"Salesforce and Hyphen8 have saved our staff weeks per month.
We now use this time to dig deeper into the impact of our grants and showcase success stories to our board, which is hugely rewarding!"
- Patricia Krus
Why Did You Choose Salesforce and Hyphen8?
Choosing the right Salesforce partner was critical to The Carnegie Trust's success. Hyphen8's deep understanding of the grantmaking sector ensured that the system was built to meet the Trust's unique needs.
"The partnership with Hyphen8 was instrumental in the successful implementation of Salesforce. They brought creativity and technical expertise to the table.
They understood our needs and worked closely with us to build a system that truly supports our mission.
Their honesty and professionalism were key reasons we chose them."
- Patricia Krus
Final Thoughts From Patricia
"Implementing Salesforce at The Carnegie Trust has been transformative. We've automated critical milestones in our grantmaking lifecycle, significantly reducing manual effort and errors.
Applications are now acknowledged automatically, and award letters are sent immediately upon approval. Peer review status is tracked in real time, allowing us to measure quality and ensure high standards.
Financial reporting is now live and dynamic, helping us manage funds more effectively. This has completely changed how we operate for the better." - Patricia Krus
By partnering with Hyphen8, The Carnegie Trust has modernised its operations, allowing them to better serve students, researchers, and the Scottish education sector.
