We're delighted to welcome Cardiomyopathy UK to Makerble.

Cardiomyopathy UK is the national charity for people affected by cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle that affects the heart's ability to pump blood around the body. They support people across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland through a wide range of services: a genetics and nurse helpline, telephone peer support, a youth hub, a national conference, a podcast, and a network of around 40 volunteer-led support groups. Those groups range from regional in-person groups to condition-specific online groups.

The challenge: a network that had outgrown its systems

Cardiomyopathy UK came to Makerble at a specific moment in their growth. Their support group network was extremely working well; attendance was being tracked, data was being captured and the team had built a carefully maintained spreadsheet that gave them a picture of activity across their services. But the process behind it was intensive: volunteer group leaders took registers manually, submitted them to a member of staff by email and then that data was typed into the spreadsheet by hand. With over forty groups, five services and a growing ambition to demonstrate impact more clearly, the spreadsheet was reaching its limit and as good as it was, it wasn't able to tell the full story of the impact Cardiomyopathy UK was making.

The team needed a system that could automate the administrative work around that practice, disaggregate their data in ways a spreadsheet couldn't and give them the kind of evidence that funders and commissioners increasingly expect to see.

What Makerble will do for Cardiomyopathy UK

Cardiomyopathy UK will be using Makerble MissionKit which brings together CRM, scheduling, surveys and impact reporting to monitor and evaluate their support group network.

• Each of the 40 support groups will exist as a project within Makerble, with recurring sessions set up as events. Volunteer group leaders (who won't need their own individual user licences) will be able to take attendance registers using a simple self check-in link on their phone. That information flows directly into the platform replacing the time-consuming email-and-upload process.
• Members of each support group will have their own contact record, meaning their attendance and survey responses are linked to them as individuals over time rather than only being recorded as a headcount. The Cardiomyopathy UK team can then look at their results data by group, but also by condition type, by region, gender, ethnicity and any other characteristic which is being used. This ability to truly see their data will be transformational. Results will also be joined up from across the whole network by using Makerble's Albums feature which groups projects together for one-click reporting.
• Wellbeing surveys will be sent directly to members by SMS or email, with responses flowing back into the platform and tracked over time. That means Cardiomyopathy UK will be able to show not just that people are attending, but how their wellbeing is changing as a result. This will be a significant step forward for their evaluation and funder reporting.
• The team will be using Makerble's alert functionality so that if a survey response triggers a safeguarding concern, for example, a member indicates that they are struggling significantly or feeling unsafe, the system can automatically notify the appropriate person at Cardiomyopathy UK so that they can follow up. For a charity working with people who are living with serious, often life-limiting heart conditions, that kind of real-time action can make all the difference.

The bigger picture

Cardiomyopathy UK is a small charity with a national reach and a network built on the goodwill and time of dozens of volunteers. The challenges they face around  capturing the real impact of peer support at scale, without placing unsustainable administrative burdens on the people delivering it, are experienced by many health and condition-specific charities. Makerble makes it much easier to gather, analyse and communicate the impact of volunteer-led peer support. We're looking forward to the difference that makes to Cardiomyopathy UK and the influence it has on their funders, commissioners and the broader health system.

Cardiomyopathy UK is the national charity for people affected by heart muscle disease. Find out more about their work and find a support group near you at cardiomyopathy.org.

If you run a condition-specific or health-focused charity and want to explore how Makerble could support your evidence and reporting, get in touch.

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