Sue Ryder
6 min
Sue Ryder provides compassionate care to people with end-of-life and long-term needs. As a national charity, they deliver health and social care services providing person-centred hospice and neurological care.
What our client needed
Sue Ryder receives a significant amount of Gift Aid through declaration forms that donors bring directly to the charity’s retail shops. With each shop having its own responsibility for their own forms, they were being kept at each store’s premises within multiple filing cabinets. By only having access to hard copy forms, Sue Ryder were exposed to any Gift Aid requests made by HMRC as they simply couldn’t access the relevant data easily and quickly enough. Their only option was to physically search through numerous forms to try and satisfy requirements.
What we gave them
We were appointed by Sue Ryder in June 2015 to deliver a major back-scan project designed to create a complete end-to-end Gift Aid audit trail. The project began with the receipt and coordination of documentation, with Sue Ryder establishing a central hub to collate and organise all forms by shop number to ensure accurate identification and tracking throughout the process. Working closely with the client, we managed the secure receipt of more than one million forms, delivered in a single courier shipment containing 209 boxes.
Once received, all documentation was prepared for scanning, including the removal of staples, paper clips and plastic ties. We then scanned, batched and indexed all donor Gift Aid declaration forms, capturing seven-character donor ID numbers using OCR technology. Validation processes were implemented to verify both shop numbers and donor IDs, alongside donor verification against Sue Ryder’s existing database through data lookup procedures.
To ensure complete accuracy and accountability, we carried out full reconciliation and validation checks to confirm that all documents had been successfully scanned and processed. Advanced Digital Image Repository (ADIR) files were then created, making every form fully searchable and accessible via digital image. An agreed exceptions handling process was also established and adhered to throughout the project, with all physical documents securely destroyed once processing was complete. In addition to the initial back-scan exercise, we also continue to process ongoing donor declaration forms as part of the wider solution.
What was the impact
This project was a complete success and provided Sue Ryder with total visibility and accessibility of over 1 million Gift Aid declarations, putting them in a far better position with HMRC. We continue to operate as an expert partner for our client, and have now scanned, batched and indexed over 1.8 million forms.