Survivors UK

Summary

White Box Digital provides corporate ICT project management and hosted services to globally recognised brands.

White Box Foundation works with small charities to create social business plans, focused on increasing the productivity of the charity to transform the lives of the people they represent

For 20 years Survivors UK has been helping survivors of childhood sexual abuse and male rape through counselling and helpline services.

Through its Foundation, White Box Digital worked with Survivors UK to:

  • Improve its ICT infrastructure 
  • Optimise use of the Internet 
  • Increase support, sponsors and ambassadors

What happened?

Improving ICT infrastructure – White Box Digital found that Survivors UK was not backing up its data, including a critical client database. Its computers were also not networked, hindering file sharing and remote access from home.

To increase security and reduce cost of ownership, White Box Digital:

  • installed Terminal Services and thin clients* (see below) at Survivors UK 
  • hosted their data

Optimise use of the Internet – Survivors UK website was hard to find and in need of a design overhaul.

Solutions included:

  • sponsored links on Google and MSN to increase traffic to the website 
  • redesigned website to warm, friendly and engaging 
  • implement analytics to track user activity 
  • site hosted by White Box Digital

Research by White Box Digital indicates that many corporate clients do not give to smaller charities because they lack the capacity to manage lots of smaller organisations. To increase support, sponsors and ambassadors, White Box Digital manages a portfolio of smaller charities on behalf of corporate sponsors, project managing funding bids, ICT projects and corporate relationships.

GLOSSARY

*Thin Client - http://www.ictknowledgebase.org.uk/thinclientnetworks

What difference has ICT made?

Survivors UK’s ICT is now on a more secure footing:

  • Reduced cost of ownership through use of Terminal Services and thin clients 
  • Increased security – data is hosted externally and backed-up daily 
  • Remote access to files from home through setting up VPN 
  • Search engine optimisation and use of sponsored links increased traffic driven to website by 44% in one year

What was learnt?

As an example of the corporate sector forming partnerships with voluntary and community sector organisations, this study has a number of pros and cons that VCOs should be aware of:

Pros: 

  • Survivors UK has some powerful stories of the work it does, but struggles with funding. Partnering with White Box Digital has made it easier for Survivors UK to forge new donor relationships. 
  • White Box Digital also gets credit for partnering with a smaller organisation and using its corporate social responsibility to improve the ICT and profile of Survivors UK.

Cons:

  • There is a clear conflict of interest in suppliers recommending their own products and services as solutions because it raises questions of impartiality. Even with the best of intentions, this creates an unhealthy dependent relationship between the charity and the supplier. 
  • VCOs should always seek independent and impartial advice from trusted sources, such as the Knowledgebase and Suppliers Directory, before entering into agreements like the one above.

Find out more

Organisation’s web address

Regional Champion

Miles Maier – London Region champion (Lasa)

Knowledgebase

 

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