"Our Automation Bill Just Jumped to £900 a Month!" - A Nonprofit's Journey to Smart Automation
Picture this: You're running a successful nonprofit in the UK, processing thousands of donations a year, when suddenly your automation software vendor drops a bombshell - your monthly bill is about to skyrocket from £80 to £900. That's exactly what happened to one of our clients earlier this year.
The Wake-Up Call
"We just don't know how to get certain fields we need," their Operations Manager told us during our first call. Their team had been using a solid enterprise automation platform, but when the pricing changed, they knew they needed a better solution. The challenge? They couldn't just stop their operations - they had thousands of donations to process, events to manage, and member data to keep in sync between QuickBooks and Salesforce.
Finding a Better Way
Here's where it gets interesting. While many organizations might panic and either pay up or revert to manual processes, this team took a smarter approach. They reached out to us to explore modern automation alternatives like Zapier and Make.com.
What did they need? Nothing too fancy, but everything had to work flawlessly:
- Processing payments from Stripe into QuickBooks
- Getting donation receipts from QuickBooks into Salesforce
- Keeping track of event registrations and cancellations
- Managing member subscriptions
Rolling Up Our Sleeves
Instead of throwing together a quick fix, we sat down with their team over Zoom and mapped out exactly how their processes worked. The beauty of our approach? We work by the hour, on Zoom, so they could see exactly what they were getting and how it was built.
"Technology is great when it works," as our consultant mentioned during the discovery call. And we made sure it worked. Every automation session was recorded, so their team could always go back and see how things were set up or make tweaks themselves.
The Results? Better Than Expected
Not only did we help them slash their automation costs by £820 every month (that's nearly £10,000 a year!), but we actually improved their workflows. Everything that used to work in their expensive platform now runs smoothly on more cost-effective tools.
The best part? Their team now has:
- Clear visibility into how everything works
- Recordings of all setup sessions for future reference
- The flexibility to make changes themselves
- Access to our team when they need expert help
What We Learned Along the Way
This project taught us some valuable lessons that might help if you're in a similar boat:
- Don't Panic When Prices Change There's almost always a more cost-effective solution - you just need to know where to look.
- Start Small, Think Big We began with their most critical automation (donation processing) and built from there. No need to boil the ocean on day one.
- Keep It Simple Sometimes the simplest solution is the most reliable. We didn't need fancy enterprise features to get the job done right.
A Different Kind of Partnership
What made this project special wasn't just the cost savings - it was how we worked together. Instead of locking them into a long-term contract or charging hefty project fees, we:
- Worked by the hour (with a nonprofit discount!)
- Recorded everything for future reference
- Built automations they could understand and maintain
- Stayed available for questions and updates
Thinking About Your Own Automation?
If you're looking at your automation costs and wondering if there's a better way, you're probably right. Whether you're using an expensive enterprise platform or struggling with manual processes, there's usually a smarter approach available.
We're certified partners with Zapier, Make.com, and Pipedream, but more importantly, we're problem solvers who understand that every pound saved on software is a pound that can go toward your mission.
Want to explore how much you could save on your automation costs? Let's chat. We promise to keep it real, keep it simple, and focus on what actually matters to your organization.
P.S. Fun fact: The entire project took just 6 hours of consulting time. Sometimes the biggest savings come from the smallest changes.
