Grantmaking with Vouchers

Case Study

May 21, 2025

Transforming Sutton Coldfield Charitable Trust’s School Clothing Programme

 

Overview

Sutton Coldfield Charitable Trust (SCCT) provides housing (Almshouses) for older people of limited means and makes monetary grants to individuals and organisations. They also have a long-running annual School Clothing Grant Vouchers programme.

The voucher programme operates annually from March to October and, until recently, involved distributing pre-printed £100 vouchers to eligible applicants within the borough. These vouchers could be redeemed at two school uniform shops in Sutton Coldfield.

The charity was looking for a way to streamline their voucher programme, which was very resource-intensive using physically distributed applications forms and pre-printed vouchers. This labour-intensive approach also required time-consuming due diligence.

Over time as demand grew, their manual processes became increasingly unmanageable and prone to delays and errors. SCCT needed a digital solution to streamline their voucher process, improve transparency, and provide faster support to families.

Challenges

  • Inefficient Processing: Applications were completed on paper, distributed and collected manually by SCCT from schools, then entered into spreadsheets.  
  • Calculating Spend: The vouchers could be underspent and there was significant processing involved in calculating and recovering the voucher balances.
  • Data Inaccuracy: High risk of human error and duplicated records.
  • Limited Visibility: Trustees lacked real-time insight into application status and fund allocation.
  • Poor User Experience: Families faced long wait times and unclear communication.

Solution

SCCT initially looked at third party online voucher platforms from which they could generate and email vouchers to grantees. Voucher credits would be purchased by loading a large sum of money onto the online platform. Grantee details would then be uploaded periodically to create the vouchers, and later, data would be downloaded for reconciliation in Salesforce. Negotiations with the voucher platform were advanced but the cost overheads were growing, and the platform couldn’t commit to a long-term contract.

In response, Issimo devised a system which allowed the whole process of application, approval, voucher generation, distribution and redemption to be undertaken entirely within the Salesforce platform.

We had already implemented online forms and a backend Salesforce grants management system for SCCT’s grant to individuals and organisations, so we utilised the same processes to create the School Clothing Grants vouchers programme.

At the point of grant approval, instead of a financial award and offer letter being produced, we generated a PDF voucher. Using Opero Documents we were able to create vouchers in Salesforce which were directly tied to the individual.

SCCT Voucher Example

 

These vouchers were emailed directly from Salesforce to the grantee and could be any multiple of £100 depending on the number of children in need of clothing assistance.

A Shopkeeper Application was then created to run on Salesforce Mobile at the Point of Sale in the school uniform shops. When used on a phone or tablet, the application waits for a barcode to be presented to the device’s camera. The screen then displays the balance of the voucher as well as certain details about the individual (e.g. postcode, last name) so that identity verification can take place. The amount to be redeemed is entered by the counter staff and the value is immediately deducted from the voucher balance in Salesforce.

                

 

Some of the benefits of the system are:

  • SCCT can see in real-time the amount that is spent across all vouchers.
  • Fraud is prevented as the voucher can’t be used once it is spent.
  • No cash changes hand, the shopkeepers are reimbursed weekly for all vouchers spent.
  • The use of an e-voucher decreases the risk of vouchers being lost or stolen.
  • Till receipts can be uploaded by the shopkeeper as part of the barcode scanning process and these are transferred to Salesforce to allow easy verification of the transaction.

Costs

Issimo charged SCCT for development time. SCCT already had Opero documents subscriptions for generating their board papers, offer letters etc. and this was leveraged to create the barcoded vouchers. Two additional licenses were needed to allow the shopkeeper devices to login to Salesforce. Limited Salesforce Platform Licences were used for this, secured at a discounted rate of approximately £80 per licence per year.

Conclusion

By leveraging Salesforce and Salesforce Mobile, Issimo modernised SCCT’s School Clothing Grants operations, empowered families through faster access to support, and positioned them for scalable growth. The custom application now serves as a blueprint for other charitable voucher programs in the sector.

If you think that Issimo could help with your grantmaking operations, please get in touch via ian@issimo.co.uk.