The Hygiene Bank

The Hygiene Bank: Empowering Volunteers and Scaling National Impact with Salesforce

About The Hygiene Bank

The Hygiene Bank believes no one should suffer the indignity of hygiene poverty. Operating through 159 volunteer-led projects across the UK, supported by 654 volunteers and 1,563 community partners, including schools, food banks, and hostels, the charity redistributes essential hygiene products to people in crisis.

With major brand partners such as Boots and Unilever, The Hygiene Bank collects and distributes around 500,000 kilograms of donated products every year, reaching approximately 60,000 people each week.

Outgrowing Systems and Struggling to Scale

As The Hygiene Bank expanded nationally to ensure that their vital work could scale providing people with essential items to stay clean, managing operations through spreadsheets became unsustainable due to their team’s incredible growth. Hundreds of projects, thousands of volunteers, and nationwide brand donations were all tracked manually, creating inefficiencies, data gaps, and reporting challenges which their team wanted to solve with.

“We’d grown far beyond what our system could handle. Every project and donation was tracked on separate sheets that didn’t talk to each other. It was creating more work than it saved.”

Georgina Loom, Head of Operations, The Hygiene Bank

Pain Points

A national network powered by spreadsheets could no longer keep up with the scale of the charity’s operations. The team needed a connected system to manage volunteers, partners, and brand donations efficiently.

Systems Couldn’t Scale
- Smartsheets couldn’t support 159 projects or 654 volunteers as the charity grew.
- Linked spreadsheets frequently let the team down when formulas failed, creating manual rework.
- Extracting data for reports or audits required hours of sorting and filtering.
- The system lacked the capability to manage brand donations, funding pipelines, or donor journeys.
Lack of Visibility & Transparency
- Volunteers and local projects were unable to view their own data once the forms were submitted.
- Teams had to export and email information to each project manually.
Volunteer Frustration & Manual Workload
- Volunteers relied on a series of forms to log collections and distributions and often do so in the evening and on weekends.
- Queries took days to resolve, increasing admin pressure on the central team.
- Growing project numbers made this model unmanageable.
Inefficient Brand Donation Process
- Corporate donations from brands such as Boots and Unilever were tracked across multiple sheets and emails.
- Each approval went through several manual checks with no automation or alerts.
- Lack of standardisation increased manual work across the tea.
Compliance & Audit Enhancements
- Donation and stock records were on multiple spreadsheets, making a complete 360-degree view harder than it should be for their hardworking teams.
- The team wanted to reduce the time required for reporting by eliminating manual data reconciliation across dozens of sheets.
- The leadership wanted reporting and information at their fingertips via a cloud-based solution.

The Solution:

Hyphen8 implemented Salesforce to connect every aspect of The Hygiene Bank’s operations – from volunteer management and brand donations to community partnerships and national impact reporting – on one secure, scalable platform.

Connected Volunteer Portal
- Volunteers can log in, view projects, track donations, and access contact details instantly.
- Self-service access reduces dependency on the head office team.
End-to-End Donation Management
- Brand donations now move through automated workflows for approval and allocation.
- Notifications and audit trails ensure transparency and compliance at every stage.
Unified Data & Reporting
- Dashboards bring together data on volunteers, donations, and funding.
- Leadership and finance teams can see real-time progress, pipelines, and national reach.
Operational Clarity
- Volunteer onboarding, brand partnerships, and community partner applications are now largely automated, reducing the need for manual intervention.
- All data is captured in one place, accessible to relevant teams.
Built for Growth
- Designed to scale with the charity’s national expansion, the system supports over 1,500 community partners and 650+ volunteers.
- Ready for future integrations as new funding and partnership models develop.

The Impact of working with Hyphen8

Volunteer-led projects managed across the UK

Volunteers using Salesforce to log collections and distributions

500,000 KG of donated hygiene products are distributed annually

The Impact

Salesforce has fundamentally changed how The Hygiene Bank operates – uniting data, empowering volunteers, and allowing the small operations team to manage a national movement at scale.

Empowered Volunteers, Nationwide Visibility
- Volunteers can see all their submissions, impact data, and partner details in one portal.
- Self-service access has reduced email volumes and admin time for staff.
- Feedback from the first 80 volunteers onboarded was 100% positive, describing it as “game-changing”.
Streamlined Brand Donation Management
- Donations from major partners like Boots and Unilever are tracked from offer to delivery.
- Automation replaced dozens of manual approval emails and spreadsheets.
- Every donation is now traceable with clear audit trails.
Centralised Operations and Data Access
- A single system provides full oversight of projects, partners, and funding.
- Dashboards show live data on product movement, volunteers, and donations.
- Leadership and finance teams can instantly access national-level insights for decision-making.
Informed Decision-Making & Strategy
- Reports now drive team appraisals, planning, and future funding discussions.
- Real-time visibility helps leadership prioritise resources and measure progress.
- Data quality and consistency have improved organisation-wide.
Future-Proofed Growth
- Salesforce provides a secure, scalable foundation for long-term expansion.
- The system ensures continuity and resilience as new projects and partners join.
- Processes no longer depend on individual knowledge or manual intervention.

Making an impact

“The new volunteer portal has been a gamechanger. Volunteers are saving hours each week and feel much more connected to the impact they’re creating.”

– Georgina Loom, Head of Operations, The Hygiene Bank

Individuals reached each week through community partners

Why The Hygiene Bank Chose Salesforce and Hyphen8

The Hygiene Bank chose Hyphen8 for their deep understanding of the nonprofit sector and their ability to translate operational challenges into practical Salesforce solutions. Working closely through every stage of discovery and rollout, the Hyphen8 team ensured the system was built for growth, simplicity, and impact. Both project phases went live smoothly, with enthusiastic volunteer adoption and no disruption to service delivery – a reflection of Hyphen8’s thoughtful, people-first approach.

“Salesforce has greatly improved how we manage corporate and brand relationships. It gives us a central, clear view of every interaction and opportunity, strengthens collaboration across teams, and saves valuable time.

With better insights and reporting, we can engage partners more strategically and deliver consistent, high-quality relationship management. Overall, it has made our partnership work more efficient, professional, and impactful, and that is just in the short term that we have been using it. We are looking forward to seeing how we can drive even more impact through leads and campaigns.”

- Amy Harris, Head of Brand and Corporate Partnerships