Streamlined processes at Kidney Research UK
Charities
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Results & ROI
- Capacity savings of approximately 2 FTE
- Significantly reduced number of hand-offs required to process cheques reduced – e.g. processing an in-memoriam cheque was reduced from 13 to 2, reducing touch-time from approximately 2 hours to a few minutes
The client
Kidney Research UK is the leading UK charity dedicated to research leading to better treatments and cures for kidney disease. The charity’s mission is to “fund and deliver research into kidney diseases, improving treatments and quality of life for people with kidney disorders and increasing awareness of kidney health”. Supporters are crucial to the charity as they raise the vital income needed and raise awareness.
The challenge
With a need to drive efficiency, the charity underwent a restructure of its team of 42 FTEs. To increase the focus on supporters, this included the creation of a Supporter Care Team. The team’s purpose was to deliver a consistently high quality supporter experience. There was an understanding of inconsistent focus on the care and development of existing supporters. Reasons for this however, were less obvious. It was thought that some processes were complex and had in-built waste, errors and failure points. Kidney Research UK wanted to develop a better understanding of supporter, to reduce waste in their processes and to establish a greater platform from which to deliver better supporter development.
The approach
The project was split into 3 distinct phases:
Diagnostic
Diagnostic activity established what supporter interactions were about and where staff time was spent. Service blueprinting was then used to map processes operated as a result of these interactions. The key finding was supporter development was restricted due to donations processing consuming so much time.
Redesign
We worked with teams involved in processing donations to develop a quicker, simpler process that was more effective in processing payments and identifying supporter development opportunities.
Implementation
To implement the new process the organisation’s structure had to be reconsidered. The current organisational structure was categorised into three core aspects – Organising and fulfilling ‘products’, supporting the charity to function and dealing with supporter contact and engagement. This led the way to a new structure that enabled more focus on supporter development.
The benefits
The drive for this project was to improve the supporter experience. Things being dealt with more accurately, in a timelier manner means this is achieved. Less time spent on back-office processing meant time and effort can be spent on more value-adding processes. The new structure and clarity on roles means staff are better placed to focus on the right activities and has created capacity for growth.
“The Ad Esse team have helped us to think differently about how we do things at Kidney Research UK. Now we are starting to act differently and to deliver differently. The ripples of positive impact are felt every day across all areas of our work. Sometimes in small and almost unnoticeable ways, and sometimes in very obvious and significant ways.”
Sandra Currie | Chief Executive