To support its continued growth, Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust has implemented Harlequin Software for CRM, fundraising and membership management.
Buglife is the only organisation in Europe devoted to the conservation of all invertebrates – from bees to beetles, spiders to snails. It manages national campaigns including ‘Get Britain Buzzing’ along with many brownfield projects across the UK and habitat surveys.
Buglife is a growing membership-based charity with 1200 members, 20 staff, 12 volunteers and 17.2K Twitter followers. In four years it has tripled its income to £1.6 million. Investing in charity management software was a key business objective for the charity as it looks to modernise its back-end operations, integrate information and further widen its reach.
Paul Hetherington, Director of Fundraising and Communications at Buglife explains: “We needed software that is easily accessible for all staff so we can finally use one system for all contacts, which will wean us away from filing cabinets stuffed with ancient correspondence. Harlequin will support our CRM strategy, campaign management, membership process and fundraising activity.”
Tom Ellis, Managing Director of Harlequin adds: “Like many expanding charities, Buglife had got to the tipping point where they needed robust software to facilitate more efficient ways of working. They are an incredibly enthusiastic team and everyone is keen to make the most of the system.”
Paul Hetherington concludes: “We chose Harlequin because they have a proven track record of delivering high quality software at an affordable price. During the system roll-out, they provided friendly, personal support, ongoing hand-holding and informative training. We are looking forward to a new era for the charity, where Harlequin will serve as our IT backbone.”
The switch to Harlequin was smoothed by Buglife being awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund Catalyst Grant to support the process of choosing and embedding a new CRM system within the charity.
