Case study

Giving, as easy as a reply.

First, 150,000 supporter records in one place. In 2024 we moved Countryside Alliance's supporter data out of Microsoft Dynamics 365. Then we made WhatsApp a channel for consent and for giving, with Flowella, our sister company.

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A man in a waxed jacket at a field gate at golden hour, smiling at his phone, a spaniel beside him

£50,000+raised by one WhatsApp donations campaign

At a glance

Client
Countryside Alliance
Sector
Membership organisation and charity
Where
UK-wide, with arms in Wales, Scotland and Ireland
What we did
Data migration, WhatsApp through Flowella, email journeys, paid media, data warehouse
Years
2023 to today

The challenge

49 grades. One fixed date.

Supporter data had built up in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for years. Membership administration was moving to a specialist provider in June 2024, and the data had to be in one place first.

Before

Years of data in Dynamics 365

49membership grades to map

  • Gift Aid declarations stored as linked records
  • Donation categories that did not match the new CRM
  • Duplicate records left by an earlier partial sync
  • A new membership provider going live in June 2024
  • Membership and campaign work that could not stop

After

One CRM, by the end of June 2024

150,000+contact records moved, history included

  • Contacts, memberships, deals and donations in HubSpot
  • Full donation and transaction history on every record
  • Membership numbers visible to customer service
  • Dynamics 365 retired at the end of June 2024
  • No disruption to operations, in the client's own words

The migration

Eight data flows. Every run repeatable.

We ran the move as an engineering project, not a one-off import. Every record type, grade and donation category was mapped and agreed with the client before any live load.

  1. From

    Microsoft Dynamics 365

    • Contacts
    • Memberships, across 49 grades
    • Gift Aid declarations
    • Deals and donations
    • Transaction history

  2. Through

    Our migration service

    • Queue-based, written in C#
    • 8 data flows, 4 record types
    • Tested in a sandbox first
    • 36 live records first, no errors
    • Samples checked against the sandbox

  3. To

    HubSpot

    • 167,000 contacts in the full run
    • About 20 hours, in office hours
    • A developer watching throughout
    • Donation history visible to the client

Sandbox first, then 36 live records on 31 May 2024, then the full run, approved on 12 June 2024.

“The migration from Microsoft Dynamics to HubSpot was a complex task, but the team at Discover Digital handled it with expertise and professionalism.”

Lawrence Tribe-EndtCountryside Alliance, on the 2024 migration. From our published case study.

WhatsApp consent

Ask first. 3,651 said yes.

Before any appeal, we asked supporters whether they wanted to hear from Countryside Alliance on WhatsApp at all, in two batches through Flowella, our sister company. About 10% of the contact base opted in, inside the 8 to 15% target set at the start.

  1. About 40,000messages asking supporters to opt in
  2. 15,151messages read
  3. 3,651supporters opted in

Flowella data for the consent campaign, October 2025 to January 2026, reported 5 January 2026.

The appeal

£50,000 from one WhatsApp appeal.

With consent in place, the appeal went to supporters who had opted in. They chose what to give inside WhatsApp, then paid at an online checkout.

Follow-ups ran on their own, with a person stepping in for the larger pledges. The campaign raised more than £50,000.

  • A short video message in WhatsApp
  • An in-chat form for the amount and how often to give
  • An online checkout to complete the gift
  • An automatic reminder for smaller pledges
  • A task for the team on larger pledges, so a person follows up
WhatsApp Automation
Hands holding a phone showing a WhatsApp message from Countryside Alliance, a countryside sunset behind

Sending direct

Half the cost per message.

Flowella runs on Meta's official WhatsApp Business Platform, and Meta bills its fees directly, with no markup. At the start of the appeal, that was projected at about half the cost of HubSpot's own WhatsApp credits.

  • Through HubSpot's WhatsApp creditsabout 9p
  • Through Meta directly, with Flowellaabout 4p

Halfthe projected cost of each WhatsApp message

Projected UK prices at the start of the appeal, 7 October 2025. Meta and HubSpot prices change.

“Flowella made it easy to run a WhatsApp-led donation campaign alongside HubSpot. We could trigger HubSpot workflows based on WhatsApp actions, so reminders and follow-ups were automated, timely, and actually relevant.”

Fone, H.Countryside Alliance. Review of Flowella on the HubSpot App Marketplace, February 2026.

How it unfolded

From Dynamics to its own data.

It began with paid search in late 2023. Three years on, we are building the data warehouse at the centre of Countryside Alliance's systems.

  1. Nov 2023, done

    Paid search

    A review of search keywords, then Google and Meta campaigns for membership and newsletter sign-ups.

  2. Jan to Jun 2024, done

    Out of Dynamics 365

    More than 150,000 contact records moved before the new membership provider went live.

  3. Mar 2024, done

    Email journeys

    Workflows that turn newsletter subscribers into members and bring lapsed members back.

  4. Oct 2025, done

    WhatsApp consent

    About 40,000 messages, and 3,651 supporters opted in.

  5. Oct 2025 to Jan 2026, done

    The appeal

    A video, an in-chat form and an online checkout. More than £50,000 raised.

  6. 2026, done

    Its own data at the centre

    A data warehouse fed nightly from the membership system, Customer.io for email and Flowella for WhatsApp. Subscription preferences moved across in May.

  7. Aug 2026, done

    WhatsApp from Customer.io

    The first send through Flowella reached more than 4,000 recipients, with about 90% delivered.

  8. Now, happening now

    Forms into the warehouse

    Website forms writing to the warehouse, and the remaining contact data moving across.

Line up your CRM, conversations and AI.

Tell us what is slowing your organisation down. We will show you what HubSpot, WhatsApp and AI can do about it.

Email
hello@discoverdigital.com
Phone
+44 (0)118 974 4736
WhatsApp
+44 118 974 4736
Office
Reading, UK
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