Enabling more lives to be supported through a digital transformation journey

Dorothy House Hospice Care offers specialist and compassionate care and support for people in Wiltshire and Somerset with a life-limiting illness.

The charity’s services are provided whenever and wherever they are needed, aiding quality of life at home, in the hospice, or out in the local community. Offering services such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy and bereavement support. Patients and their families are empowered to choose the right type of care for them.

The long-established charity recognised that, in order to grow and develop, it needed to fill some essential organisational gaps to be able to positively strengthen its operational capabilities and communications and prepare for the future.

The challenge

The UK has the fastest-growing population in Europe, resulting in more people with life-limiting illnesses requiring vital support. To meet this ever-expanding need, Dorothy House had to evolve the way in which the charity operated and communicated across the organisation.

Their aim is to support 3,000 patients and families per year. To achieve this the charity had to increase its visibility, join up processes, enhance efficiencies and, ultimately, bolster its fundraising efforts.

Dorothy House required a panoramic view of their supporters, clients and partners - to reach the right people, in the right way, at the right time.

“We worked across the whole organisation from a relationship management point of view to understand their key stakeholders’ perspective, to identify how their income generation and services could be reworked to be more efficient. We essentially identified a way to bring this all together under one solution.”

Nathan Baranowski, CEO, Digital Wonderlab

The solution

We worked in close partnership with Dorothy House to review the charity’s clinical environment, contact centre, fundraising and retail areas. At all times, we were fiercely curious to seek out any potential efficiency gains.

We undertook a detailed assessment of existing processes, working across the whole organisation from a relationship management point of view to understand key stakeholders’ perspectives and explore how the charity’s income generation and services could be reworked with future ambitions in mind. Our plan was simple: to find a way to bring everything together under one cohesive tech solution, taking the charity on a relationship-focused, cohesive and progressive digital journey.

“We recognised that a cohesive approach was essential to ensuring we are to have full scope of our relationship with a person. There’s no question that we have a better understanding of what we need [digitally], rooting our requirements in reality.”

Claire Newton, Head of Information Management, Dorothy House

To achieve the charity’s ambitious seven-year-plan, it soon became clear that Dorothy House needed to place data at its centre: an effective strategy was needed to link all various elements together. A CRM system, beginning with the charity’s crucial retail and fundraising operations, became the strategy for delivering essential change.

Impact

Dorothy House is much more than just a hospice. It’s a place full of energy and love; a place where people live well and die well. In short, it’s a people-centred charity.

The successful implementation of a CRM system and full integration with the charity’s operations has enabled Dorothy House to now focus firmly on people: the technology provides a better understanding of the charity’s customers, increases the effectiveness of messaging to them, and allows Dorothy House to make informed, data-led strategic decisions to improve services across the Hospice.

The results

“We have a road to walk down where one previously wasn’t visible. We had an idea about what we wanted - Nathan came in and helped us quantify that and provide a clear perspective of what we need to enable us to achieve our goals.”

David Badger, Director of Income Generation and Communications, Dorothy House Hospice Care

Intensifying the charity’s income generation efforts in the short term, Dorothy House’s digital transformation aims to link joined-up thinking to care provision. Ultimately, the more funds that Dorothy House can raise, the greater its scope to deliver essential care to more people, whilst pushing the boundaries of the charity’s future growth ambitions.