Case study: Brian Mitchell Charitable Trust
Turning paper-based processes
into a secure online system
https://www.bmcharity.co.uk/
The Brian Mitchell Charitable Trust has been supporting arts and social causes across southeast England for around 20 years. Following the death of its founder, the trustees were committed to continuing his legacy – but the processes behind the charity hadn’t moved on at quite the same pace. There was virtually no web presence and much of the administration still relied on letters, email, post and the knowledge of the people involved.
This wasn’t just a project about creating a prettier website. It was about making the charity easier, safer and more efficient to run.
Funding applications were arriving by handwritten letter – sometimes at an outdated address – and trustees were spending valuable time dealing with applications from outside the geographical area they actually support. Confidential documents were being circulated by email or post and, following previous concerns around financial controls, improving security, transparency and governance was particularly important.
The challenge was to take all of those disconnected processes and bring them together – without lumbering a small charity with a complicated system nobody wanted to use.
We started with what the trustees actually needed the website to do.
A structured online application form replaces the old paper process, gathering the right information from the outset and helping to filter out-of-area, incomplete or unsuitable applications before they take up valuable trustee time.
Behind the scenes, a secure trustees’ area brings applications, meeting minutes, reports and confidential documents together in one place. Trustees have a clearer way to review applications and monitor approved funding against available budgets, without sensitive information flying backwards and forwards by email.
The real value is the work the website can now take off the trustees’ desks. Less manual administration, more consistent applications, stronger security and governance, and a clearer audit trail – while giving applicants a much simpler route to the funding they need.
“We are so happy with the website and how the requests for funding are now being handled. we are so glad and grateful to have such a super functioning website! ”
