Case study · islamic charitiesNovember 2025

Hope Foundation

An ongoing website maintenance and evolution partnership for Hope Foundation UK on WordPress, Elementor and iCHARMS — proactive maintenance, performance tuning and donation optimisation cut Gift Aid processing from 30 days to 10 — three times faster — and grew website donations 255% year on year, the first year online giving overtook every other channel.

Website MaintenanceWebsite EvolutionWordPress DevelopmentPerformance TuningSecurity UpdatesDonation OptimisationiCHARMS

client

Hope Foundation

delivered in · Ongoing partnership

Sector

Islamic charity

Engagement

Maintenance & evolution

Platform

WordPress + iCHARMS

Locations

UK · Tanzania · AJK

Gift Aid

30 → 10 days

Web donation growth

+255% YoY

Gift Aid saving

20 days per cycle

Digital giving

Now dominant

Outcomes

The numbers that moved.

01year on year

+255%

Website donation growth

+255%

2025 → 2026·client donation records; actual values confidential

023× faster

10 days

Gift Aid processing time

30 days→10 days

client workflow record

03every cycle

20 days

Time saved per Gift Aid cycle

20 days

client workflow record

First time in 2026

Website vs non-website giving

Website now leads

Trends

Growth, visualised.

Gift Aid processing time (days)

BeforeAfter

Gift Aid processing30 days→10 days

Gift Aid claims cut from roughly 30 days to 10 — three times faster, saving 20 days per cycle. Source: client workflow record.

The full picture

Every number, in detail.

Operational improvement — Gift Aid processing

Streamlining Gift Aid with iCHARMS recovered tax revenue far faster.

30 days

Before

to process Gift Aid claims

10 days

After

to process Gift Aid claims

3×

Faster

30 days down to 10

20 days

Saved

per Gift Aid cycle

Donation growth analysis

Website donations became the dominant fundraising channel for the first time in 2026.

Measure	Value
Website donation growth, 2025 → 2026	+255%
Gift Aid processing	30 days → 10 days
Channel position in 2026	Website exceeds non-website

Only the growth rate is published — the underlying donation values are confidential to Hope Foundation. Source: client donation records.

The brief

What we set out to solve.

Continuous maintenance drain

The website required ongoing maintenance that consumed valuable time and internal resources, pulling the team away from frontline work.

Slow content updates

Updating content, appeals and donation pages was a time-consuming manual process, slowing the charity's ability to respond to campaigns.

Gift Aid bottleneck

Processing Gift Aid claims took approximately one month, delaying recovered tax revenue the charity relied on.

Performance and donation UX gaps

Technical improvements were needed for a faster, more reliable donation experience, and the online journey needed optimisation to encourage more digital giving.

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.

Maintain

Continuous monitoring, bug fixing, security patches and proactive maintenance keep the WordPress site stable and reliable through seasonal appeals.

Evolve

Ongoing design and functionality improvements — custom WordPress and Elementor enhancements, plugin management and feature builds — keep the site modern and future-ready.

Tune

Speed optimisation, caching, image compression and Core Web Vitals work, plus regular security audits, SSL and vulnerability patching.

Optimise giving

Improved donation flows, form design and checkout experience alongside iCHARMS to streamline Gift Aid and encourage more online giving.

What we shipped

8 deliverables

Ongoing website maintenance with proactive monitoring and support
Continuous website evolution on WordPress and Elementor
Performance tuning: caching, image compression and Core Web Vitals
Security updates: audits, SSL management and vulnerability patching
Donation flow and checkout optimisation for more online giving
iCHARMS integration for faster Gift Aid processing
Content support for appeals, campaigns and seasonal programmes
Dedicated technical support and infrastructure assistance

Gallery

A look at the work.

Hope Foundation homepage and appeals — Homepage — causes front and centre

iCHARMS Gift Aid management screen — Gift Aid management

iCHARMS Gift Aid submission screen — One-click Charities Online submission

iCHARMS donor dashboard — Donor dashboard

Hope Foundation mobile donation portal — Mobile donation journey

iCHARMS Gift Aid verification and audit trail — Gift Aid audit trail

"Ongoing maintenance and evolution keep our website fast, secure and always ready for our next appeal — and with faster Gift Aid processing and record online giving, our digital channel now leads our fundraising."

Hope Foundation

Charity team

The story

Background

Hope Foundation UK is a non-profit working across the UK, Tanzania (East Africa) and Mirpur AJK. Its mission is to strengthen humanity in the face of poverty and social injustice through sustainable programmes in water wells, education, cooked meals, orphan sponsorship and seasonal Sadaqah and Qurbani giving. The charity’s website is built on WordPress with Elementor and iCHARMS, and Techno Serve runs it as an ongoing maintenance and evolution partnership.

Challenge

Continuous maintenance was consuming valuable time and internal resources, and updating content, appeals and donation pages was a slow manual process. Processing Gift Aid claims took approximately one month, delaying recovered tax revenue, while performance and the online donation experience both needed work to encourage more digital giving.

Approach

We provide comprehensive digital care and evolution: continuous monitoring, bug fixing and security patching; ongoing design and functionality improvements to keep the site modern; performance tuning through caching, image compression and Core Web Vitals work; and donation optimisation through improved flows, form design and checkout. iCHARMS, integrated with the WordPress and Elementor stack, streamlines Gift Aid and donation management.

Outcome

Gift Aid processing dropped from roughly 30 days to 10 — three times faster, saving 20 days per cycle. Website donations grew 255% from 2025 to 2026, and in 2026 website donations exceeded non-website donations for the first time, making the digital channel the charity’s dominant source of giving on a reliable, future-ready WordPress platform.

Selected work