Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust

The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) works to protect and restore wetlands across the UK, with memberships, donations and adoptions forming a vital part of their income. But the digital systems behind those processes were unreliable and difficult for visitors to navigate. Transactions frequently failed, staff spent hours hunting for missing data, and on-site teams often had no dependable way to sign up new members in the field.

WWT needed a solution they could trust — one that would make joining simple for supporters, relieve pressure on staff across ten wetland centres, and guarantee that no membership or donation ever disappeared into the ether.

The existing CRM integration dropped data without warning, and there was no way to identify which transactions had succeeded, failed, or vanished. Visitors were often left unsure whether they had joined successfully, while the membership team faced a daily backlog of manual fixes. For a charity spread across large outdoor sites with patchy mobile reception, the lack of a reliable on-site signup process meant many opportunities to welcome new members were missed.

This wasn’t a problem that could be solved by adjusting the existing website. WWT needed a dedicated platform specifically designed to handle high-volume transactions, variable connectivity, and the complex data logic of modern membership schemes.

We built a completely new membership portal on a separate subdomain, with custom middleware at its core. Every transaction is first captured safely in its own database before being passed to Access Charity CRM. Even if the CRM is slow to respond or temporarily offline, no data is lost, and staff can see the full history of every step, from creating a customer to sending the confirmation email. If something fails, the system shows exactly where and why, and a single “Try again” button restarts the process from the point of failure.

Restoring confidence and cutting admin

This approach has transformed confidence in the system. Transactions that once vanished without trace now have a clear, auditable path, and staff can resolve issues in minutes rather than hours.

Alongside the new technical infrastructure, we redesigned the entire user journey. Instead of a long, rigid form, the membership purchase path is now a single dynamic page that adapts to each user’s choices. Family memberships reveal different questions to individual ones; “In Memory” gifts open up space for personal details; and payment frequency updates the cost instantly.

Visitors can pay by Direct Debit, card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, and a gentle prompt encourages those who can to round up their contribution. More recently, we added Tesco Clubcard integration, allowing supporters to convert loyalty points directly into WWT memberships.

A similar interface works seamlessly for staff on-site. Instead of handing out paper forms or redirecting visitors to the main website, teams can now complete the process with visitors standing right beside them, confident that the transaction will be captured safely.

The same level of improvement has also been applied to donations and adoptions, capturing more income, more smoothly, more frequently.

Behind the scenes, we added practical features that remove friction:

• Gift memberships now generate a downloadable certificate automatically.
• Membership types and prices sync from the CRM overnight, eliminating manual updates.
• Staff can adjust on-page text and imagery throughout the year to support seasonal campaigns or changing benefits.

These improvements mean WWT’s team spends far less time firefighting and far more time focusing on strategic work.

The results are clear. Transactions that once failed around 30% of the time now succeed at a rate of 99% or more. Helpdesk tickets have dropped so dramatically that WWT cancelled a planned hire for additional support staff. And with the burden of manual processing lifted, the membership team has begun exploring new ways to automate renewals and supporter communications — something that was unthinkable before we freed up their time.

Perhaps the most significant change is cultural. What was once seen as a fragile and unreliable system is now regarded as a dependable foundation for future digital investment.

Supporting conservation through better digital systems

For an organisation built around protecting nature, sustainability was integral to the project. The platform is lightweight, energy-efficient and hosted on renewable-powered servers, and it has dramatically reduced the amount of paper previously required for membership processing.

Though this wasn’t a full website rebuild, the new platform has become a key part of how WWT welcomes visitors, supporters and families. It ensures the charity receives the income it relies on, gives staff a reliable tool to do their work, and makes it easier for people to support conservation at any of WWT’s sites.

For visitor attractions with complex operations, diverse audiences and mission-critical income streams, it offers a compelling model for how thoughtful digital design can make a measurable difference, both to day-to-day operations and to the wider mission they serve.

Our work for Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust was recognised with trophies in two categories at the 2024 BIMA Awards.

• GOLD in Digital Transformation
• GOLD in Digital Product Development