Case study · islamic charitiesNovember 2024

Blackburn UK Trust

An 18-month partnership that took Blackburn UK Trust from a legacy platform to a Techno Serve in-house CMS — website donations grew 640% year on year, active users rose 58-fold, and the site reached 8 Position 1 rankings, lifting the website's share of total income from 0.56% to 3.14%.

Website DevelopmentCustom CMSCharity SEOGoogle GrantsMaintenanceAnalytics

client

Blackburn UK Trust

delivered in · 18-month partnership

Sector

UK Islamic charity

Partnership

18 months

Platform

React + custom CMS

Total giving growth

+32.8% YoY

Website donations

+640% YoY

Active users

1K → 61K

Position 1 rankings

8 of 201

Website income share

0.56% → 3.14%

Outcomes

The numbers that moved.

01year on year

+640%

Website donation growth

+640%

2024 → 2025·client donation records; actual values confidential

02all channels

+32.8%

Total giving, year on year

+32.8%

2024 → 2025·client income records

0358×

61K

Active users (GA4)

≈1K→61K

1 Jan 2025 – 28 Jun 2026·GA4

045.6×

3.14%

Website share of total income

0.56%→3.14%

2024 → 2025·client income records

05of 201 tracked

Position 1 rankings

rank-tracking reports

06days → under an hour

under 1 hour

Appeal page publishing

2–3 days→under 1 hour

client workflow record

Trends

Growth, visualised.

Website share of total income (%)

The website's contribution to the Trust's total income, year on year — 0.56% to 3.14%, a 5.6× increase off a very small base. Source: client income records.

Donation growth by channel (%), 2024 → 2025

Year-on-year growth rate for each channel, so the rates can be compared directly. Website donations grew 640% while non-website giving grew 29%. Only the growth rates are published — the Trust's actual donation values are confidential. Source: client donation records.

Before vs after — key measures

BeforeAfter

Recurring donor retention65%→89%

Recurring donor retention before and after the rebuild, in percent — a 24-point rise. Source: client donation records.

The full picture

Every number, in detail.

Google Analytics (GA4)

Audience growth across the reporting window, 1 January 2025 – 28 June 2026.

61K

Active users

58× the prior period

58K

New users

57× the prior period

192K

Views

36× the prior period

662K

Event count

21× the prior period

Search Console performance

Organic search footprint across Islamic giving categories.

11.5K

Total clicks

376K

Total impressions

3.0%

Average CTR

24.2

Average position

Keyword ranking distribution

201 tracked keyword rows, at an average position of 34.75.

Position 1

Top 3

5.5% of rows

Top 5

8.0% of rows

Top 10

16.9% of rows

Top 20

32.3% of rows

201

Tracked rows

Highest-performing keywords

Keyword	Position	Landing page
blackburn uk trust	1	/
charities in blackburn	1	/
10 days of dhul hijjah 2025	1	/news/education/dhul-hijjah-2025/
who should receive zakat	1	/appeal/zakat/
plant a tree sadaqah jariyah	1	/appeal/plant-a-tree/
dhul hijjah 2025	2	/news/education/dhul-hijjah-2025/
sponsor a hafiz	2	/appeal/hafiz-sponsorship/

Source: rank-tracking reports.

Donation growth by channel

Year-on-year growth rate by channel, so the rates can be compared without publishing the Trust's actual income.

Channel	Growth, 2024 → 2025
Website donations	+640%
Non-website donations	+29%
Total giving	+32.8%

Source: client donation records, 2024 vs 2025. Only the growth rates are published — actual donation values are confidential to the Trust. Website share of total income rose from 0.56% to 3.14% — a 5.6× increase.

Google Grants

No-cost search advertising, 21 March – 29 June 2026.

467

Clicks

12K

Impressions

< 1 hour

Appeal publishing

6-hour max on complex campaigns

In-house

Technical support

replacing external reliance

The brief

What we set out to solve.

Limited online visibility

Key appeal categories had little organic presence, and there was no structured SEO measurement or keyword tracking in place.

Slow appeal publishing

Getting a new appeal page live took 2–3 days, holding back the charity's ability to respond to seasonal and emergency giving.

Low website contribution

The website generated only a fraction of total income — 0.56% in 2024 — leaving a clear digital growth opportunity untapped.

Reliance on external support

Technical support sat outside the organisation on a platform with limited scalability, slowing fixes and campaign changes.

Our approach

How it came together.

A calm, four-step rhythm — we listen first, sketch in the open, build in tight loops, then tend the result long after launch.

Rebuild & migrate

The platform evolved from a legacy stack through React to a Techno Serve in-house custom CMS — each step delivering better performance, stronger security and faster technical support.

In-house technical control

We replaced external dependency with a dedicated in-house team, giving faster fixes, deeper platform knowledge and a sub-1-hour appeal publishing workflow.

SEO & Google Grants

Structured Search Console tracking, campaign landing pages and Google Grants built a measurable organic footprint — 376K impressions and 8 Position 1 rankings.

Donation journey & reporting

We supported the donation journey and stood up GA4, Search Console and Grants reporting to feed monthly performance reviews.

What we shipped

8 deliverables

Migration to a Techno Serve in-house custom CMS
Sub-1-hour appeal page publishing workflow
Charity SEO delivering 8 Position 1 rankings across 201 tracked keywords
Google Grants programme driving no-cost search traffic
Campaign landing pages for seasonal appeals
Ongoing maintenance and in-house technical support
GA4, Search Console and Grants reporting for monthly reviews
Donation journey support lifting website income share to 3.14%

Gallery

A look at the work.

Blackburn UK Trust website homepage — The live Blackburn UK Trust website on the Techno Serve custom CMS

"Techno Serve Ltd. has supported Blackburn UK Trust with reliable website development, technical support and digital growth expertise. Their work has helped us strengthen our online presence, improve campaign delivery and support our fundraising activity more effectively."

Mufti Saleha

Chairman, Blackburn UK Trust

The story

Background

Blackburn UK Trust is a UK Islamic charity running year-round and seasonal appeals across Zakat, Qurbani, Dhul Hijjah, water and Hafiz sponsorship. Over an 18-month partnership, Techno Serve delivered measurable growth across visibility, traffic, fundraising and operational efficiency.

Challenge

Key appeal categories had limited online visibility, appeal pages took 2–3 days to publish, and the website contributed just 0.56% of total income. Technical support sat with an external party on a platform with limited scalability, and there was no structured SEO measurement.

Approach

We evolved the platform through React to a Techno Serve in-house custom CMS, replacing external dependency with a dedicated in-house team and a sub-1-hour appeal publishing workflow. Structured SEO, campaign landing pages and a Google Grants programme built a measurable organic footprint, while GA4 and Search Console tracking fed monthly reviews.

Outcome

Total giving rose 32.8% year-on-year, and website donations grew 640% while non-website giving grew 29% — lifting the website’s share of total income from 0.56% to 3.14%, a 5.6× increase. Active users grew from roughly 1,000 to 61,000 across the GA4 window, a 58-fold rise; the site reached 8 Position 1 rankings across 201 tracked keywords; and appeal publishing came down from 2–3 days to under an hour. Recurring donor retention rose 24 points, from 65% to 89%, with duplicate records cut by 94%. The Trust’s actual donation values are confidential; only growth rates are reported here, never amounts.

Selected work