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The Pelham is a community charity based in Bexhill-on-Sea, operating from a restored Victorian hotel that serves as a vibrant community hub. Their vision is to enrich lives in real and diverse ways by creating a welcoming space where people can find connection, support, and opportunity.
Each week, around 500 people engage with The Pelham through a mix of services delivered by the charity and by over 60 partner organisations that use the building as a base for their work.
The Pelham delivers six core projects designed to support wellbeing and community resilience:
Supported by 14 staff and around 40 volunteers, The Pelham brings together people from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences to build stronger, safer and more connected communities.
The Pelham partnered with CiviPlus to bring together data from across its projects into a single system. This allowed the charity to better track engagement across its services, strengthen reporting to funders, and significantly reduce administrative time.
Before implementing CiviPlus, The Pelham relied on a mixture of spreadsheets, manual processes, and disconnected systems to manage contacts, communications and reporting across the organisation.
Different projects maintained their own data, often using tools such as spreadsheets, small databases, and email marketing platforms. Much of the organisation’s knowledge was stored informally through staff familiarity with participants rather than through structured systems.
As the charity grew, this approach became increasingly difficult to sustain.
Administrative work was time-consuming, data could easily become inconsistent, and it was difficult to generate clear reports on the organisation’s activities and impact.
One of the biggest challenges was capturing how individuals engaged across multiple projects within the charity.
The Pelham’s community hub model means that people often access several services over time. Someone might first engage through RunningSpace, later volunteer in the Coffee Lounge, and eventually access counselling services or youth support.
However, without a central system, it was difficult to track these journeys or demonstrate how The Pelham’s different programmes worked together to support individuals and strengthen the community.
This also created challenges when applying for funding.
Without reliable, consolidated data, it was harder to clearly demonstrate the charity’s impact to funders, trustees and partners.
At the same time, the organisation was managing communications with 14 staff members, around 40 volunteers, over 60 partner organisations and hundreds of community participants each week.
The team needed a system that could bring together their data, communications and reporting in one place.
After researching several CRM platforms, The Pelham selected CiviPlus..
What stood out most to the team was the platform’s flexibility and the CiviPlus team’s understanding of the charity sector.
The Pelham’s work is complex and interconnected. Rather than delivering one type of service, the charity supports people in many different ways from informal social support to counselling, youth work and suicide prevention initiatives.
CiviPlus provided the flexibility needed to capture these relationships and reflect the real structure of the organisation.
The implementation process was designed to suit the capacity of The Pelham’s small team. The CiviPlus team worked closely with them to create a clear timeline and provided training and consultancy sessions to support the rollout.
Although learning the system initially required some adjustment, once the team understood the core concepts, they found implementation both manageable and rewarding.
“Once I’d grasped the initial concepts, implementation was actually a pleasure. The training and support were really tailored to what we needed.” Jacqueline Youldon, Senior Leadership Team
Today, project leaders and administrative staff all contribute data into one shared CRM system, replacing the fragmented tools previously used across the organisation.
The system also allows the team to segment mailing lists and send targeted communications to specific groups such as volunteers, programme participants or youth attendees.
Since implementing CiviPlus, The Pelham has significantly improved how it manages information, reports on impact and coordinates its programmes.
Faster reporting
Previously, compiling reports for trustees and funders could take several days.
Now that data is captured in one system on an ongoing basis, reports can be generated in minutes, providing accurate and repeatable figures whenever they are needed.
Better insight into engagement
CiviPlus allows the organisation to track how participants engage with different services across the charity.
This makes it possible to demonstrate the unique value of The Pelham’s community hub model where people often move between different types of support over time.
Understanding these journeys helps the organisation improve services while also providing compelling evidence of impact.
Stronger evidence for fundraising
The new system has enabled The Pelham to identify trends and measure changes across its programmes.
For example, the organisation has been able to report a 63% increase in RunningSpace participation this year, highlighting growing demand and supporting funding applications.
The charity can also now track volunteer hours across projects, allowing them to demonstrate the significant social value created through volunteering.
Improved communications
CiviPlus has also transformed how The Pelham manages communications.
Mailing lists can now be segmented easily, allowing the team to send targeted messages to specific groups such as recent participants, volunteers or youth programme attendees.
Supporting future growth
The Pelham has recently completed the final stage of a building development project, adding eight new rooms and expanding the organisation’s capacity.
With CiviPlus in place, the charity now has the infrastructure needed to support future growth across its programmes.
This includes expanding the RunningSpace suicide prevention model across East Sussex and Kent, growing the youth programme, and strengthening volunteer pathways from recruitment to leadership.
“Having an easy to use system has helped unify everything we do. We can now track all our projects and interactions and see how people benefit across the whole organisation. CiviPlus will help us create more impact and help more people” Jacqueline Youldon, Senior Leadership Team
Have a quick chat with one of our team to answer your questions!
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