Sobell House Hospice was one of the first hospices in the UK and has been providing specialist palliative care in Oxfordshire since 1976.
In September 2021, Eproductive started installation of new Touch tills and digital Gift Aid sign up using tablets, rolling them out across Sobell’s 10 shops and donation warehouses. Stock processing was similarly automated using Eproductive’s Hubs, allowing volunteers to scan a barcode from a donated bag and simply press a button to print barcodes for the price tags.
Sarah Bradford, the charity’s Finance Accountant, has been amazed at the effect in just the first four months: “Switching from paper to digital has been brilliant for everything from donations to end of day processes. Everything is now so quick and simple, shop staff just love it. The effect on Gift Aid was immediate. The Gift Aid donor conversion jumped from 37% to 65% in the first 18 weeks vs. pre-pandemic 2019. Despite the number of bag donations to shops dropping by over a third relative to 2019, our Gift Aid claim for the same 8 shops has actually grown by 42% – all down to going digital!”
Sarah continued: “Added to that, around 99% of all repeat donations are now processed on a tablet or till, freeing up time for staff at the counter, and changing the whole mindset towards Gift Aid. The extra revenue means a lot to us and it’s going to make all the difference to a small local charity like ours – we’re delighted!”