Ascend doing good with Help to Help

Help to Help is a Swedish crowdfunding charity organization founded in 2010 by Malin Cronqvist. The organization focus on funding higher education for young African changemakers. The idea is that a doctor sent from Sweden will treat a few hundred people in the time spent on the field, while a regional doctor can treat thousands of people during their professional life. It applies to all sorts of occupations and educations – where funded educations create a ripple effect as these people will give back to society and provide for their families.

Getting an external perspective on our way of working and the challenges but also the possibilities we have, was very valuable. Ascend were professional, structured, relevant, and fun to work with. Being a small start-up minded organization, we value the fast pace, the hands-on methodology and the “no bullshit” straightforward, delivered analysis from Ascend. We have already started to transform our operations in line with their recommendations.

Malin Cronqvist, Founder of Help to Help

Being a charity organization, Help to Help emphasizes low administrative costs and efficient internal processes. Since its foundation ten years ago, the organization has become a well-known organization with philanthropists and companies supporting and donating money. However, with growth comes complexity and for Help to Help, a need to develop internal processes.

Ascend was brought in to analyze and refine Help to Help’s internal processes pro bono. Analysis covered areas such as growing the number of donors, delivering value to donors, and making donors donate again. The main objective was to streamline the use of internal resources and, at the same time, ensure successful and valuable deliveries to existing donors. Through interviews and joint workshops together with Help to Help, Ascend presented three focus areas for improvement:

• Customer segmentation: Ascend proposed a way to classify and structure different donor segments to enable Help to Help to tailor value propositions and optimize time spent on customer management
• Value Proposition: Ascend also proposed new guidelines on how to adjust the offering depending on the size of the donation and the time frame of the commitment clarifying differences and value received for different types of donations
• Ways of Working: By mapping and prioritizing activities based on value-creation for donors, Ascend suggested ways to increase the internal time and resource efficiency

With less time spent on administrative tasks, Malin and the other committed people at Help to Help can spend more time on what matters – promoting positive development and creating ripple effects by providing funds to higher education for young adults.