English Speaking Union

About English Speaking Union

The English-Speaking Union (ESU) in the UK works with young people and their teachers to improve oracy skills and cross-cultural understanding, particularly in areas of disadvantage. ESU relies on efficient CRM systems to manage members, competitions, and events that provide young people the speaking and listening skills and cultural understanding they need to thrive.

Challenges and needs

After a Microsoft Dynamics project failed to deliver measurable benefits the ESU implemented a temporary quick fix to be able continue with their business. This led to a fragmented landscape with 2 CRM systems and multiple disconnected data silos. This was not only a costly situation, but time-consuming, inefficient and risked data security. This resulted in the need to look for a future-proof solution that could not only support the membership activities of ESU but also the education division with their competitions and events. To reduce the further administrative burden, and provide a single source of the truth within their Salesforce CRM, ESU recognised the need to include payments as well.

Solution

After an evaluation and comparing several systems as a replacement for their current CRM systems, ESU trusted Salesforce as a solution to solve their challenges. After selecting Salesforce as a platform they were confident enough to be one of the early adopters of Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud. After they were advised by implementation partner Cirrico, they selected NPC over NPSP because it’s a future-proof platform at the center of Salesforce innovation that supports their business strategy.

Because the out-of-the-box functionalities of NPC are so extensive, ESU was able to make significant improvements to several operational areas using standard Salesforce functionality, augmented by some effective automations & engaging screen flows. On top of this they selected FinDock to manage all of their membership subscriptions, event invoicing and donations in their Salesforce CRM. Because of this ESU is now able to keep all data in one single system instead of the need to manage multiple systems and sources of data.

• Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud: Selected for its future-proof capabilities, alignment with ESU’s growth strategy, and expert advice from their implementation partner Cirrico.
• FinDock Integration: As an ISV solution that’s fully compatible with Nonprofit Cloud, FinDock enables comprehensive management of members, donors, payments, transactions, and mandates.
• Standardized Implementation: The project was executed using an off-the-shelf approach to ensure simplicity and efficiency for their membership, education & fundraising workstreams.