Case study

A national membership, moved in stages.

No big switchover. SGI-UK is a lay Buddhist organisation and a registered charity. We have supported the platform behind sgi-uk.org since 2022, and since 2024 we have been moving its membership onto HubSpot, one signed-off stage at a time.

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The SGI-UK shop page on sgi-uk.org, with visitors walking through a garden in the header photo

About 27,000contacts in HubSpot, about 15,000 of them members

At a glance

Client
SGI-UK (Soka Gakkai International UK)
Sector
Faith and community, registered charity
Where
UK-wide
What we did
Platform support, data migration, HubSpot CMS, Stripe payments, members' portal
Years
2022 to today
Delivered by
Discover Digital, a HubSpot Platinum Partner in Reading, UK

The challenge

One platform held everything.

SGI-UK wanted to leave a heavily customised platform without one big switchover, and with members' personal data protected at every step.

Where it started

One heavily customised platform

1system for the website, members, shop and reports

  • Contacts, members and the whole local structure in one system
  • Website changes that needed a developer
  • Members and leaders wanting to do more for themselves online
  • Personal data about a faith community, so consent and access come first

Today

Building on HubSpot, stage by stage

About 27,000contacts in HubSpot, about 15,000 of them members

  • The local structure, from national level to support groups, as custom objects
  • An online offerings page on Stripe, built to record each offering against the member
  • Meeting attendance reporting, built for local stats collectors
  • Tracking on sgi-uk.org only after a visitor consents
  • Data kept in step with the existing system during the move

The first service

An offering, start to finish.

Online offerings, SGI-UK's word for members' financial gifts, were the first member-facing service built on HubSpot.

  1. Member

    Confirms their membership

    • No portal account needed
    • One-off or regular
    • Weekly or monthly
    • Optional Gift Aid
    • Postcode lookup

  2. Payment

    Stripe

    • One-off and regular offerings
    • Several regular offerings per member
    • A full first month, not a part payment

  3. Record

    HubSpot

    • Offering recorded against the member
    • Invoice sent automatically
    • Thank-you email sent automatically

Built in the second stage of the programme, which SGI-UK signed off in July 2026.

Where it stands

The foundation, in numbers.

  • About27,000contacts in HubSpot, about 15,000 of them members
  • 7types of local organisation record, as HubSpot custom objects
  • 5workstreams mapped in discovery workshops
  • 4ways to pay on the platform we support: shop, courses, magazine subscriptions and offerings

Contact and member counts: Discover Digital, October 2026. Custom objects: Discover Digital project records, August 2026. Workstreams: discovery, 2025. Ways to pay: our published SGI-UK case study.

How it unfolds

Small steps, each one signed off.

Each stage is agreed, delivered and signed off by SGI-UK before the next begins, so every stage leaves members or staff with something they can use.

  1. 2022, done

    Platform support

    Weekly catch-ups, fixes and upgrades for the platform behind sgi-uk.org.

  2. Nov to Dec 2024, done

    Proof of concept

    A secure membership page, a member data import and an API layer, tested before any commitment.

  3. Feb to Sep 2025, done

    Discovery

    Workshops across five workstreams. The local structure and member data modelled in HubSpot.

  4. Aug 2025, done

    Migration as a process

    Data issues found in testing are fixed as the programme moves on, rather than holding everything back.

  5. Jul 2026, done

    First services

    Signed off: online offerings with Stripe and meeting attendance reporting on HubSpot.

  6. Aug 2026, done

    Consent-first tracking

    Analytics and HubSpot tracking on sgi-uk.org load only after a visitor consents.

  7. Sep 2026, happening now

    Members' portal

    Invitation-only sign-in, members' own profiles and leader views.

  8. Next, next

    Events, courses and the shop

    Events, courses and study, subscriptions and the shop on the same foundation, with a website SGI-UK's own team can edit.

In delivery

A members' portal, by invitation.

The current stage gives members a place of their own. Staff views in HubSpot are being shaped with SGI-UK's team in workshops, and about 40 test cases were shared with SGI-UK for approval before testing.

  • Invited members confirm who they are with a one-time code
  • Secure sign-in through Microsoft Entra External ID
  • Members see their own profile and keep their contact details up to date
  • Leaders view, but cannot edit, profiles in their own part of the organisation
A community gathering in a bright hall, one member helping another sign in on a phone

Services used

The services behind this work.

  • Membership in HubSpot

    The local structure, from national level to support groups, modelled as HubSpot custom objects.

    HubSpot services

  • Migration and integration

    Member data moved in signed-off stages, an online offerings page built on Stripe, and Microsoft Entra sign-in in delivery.

    CRM integration on Azure

  • A website SGI-UK edits

    Next: events, courses, subscriptions and the shop on the same foundation, with a website SGI-UK's own team can edit.

    HubSpot CMS websites

Next step

Find out why your members go quiet.

Our digital marketing audit for membership organisations looks at your website, CRM, email, paid media and data together, hears from your members and staff, and gives you a ranked plan: quick wins first, bigger projects in order.

Ask about a membership marketing audit

Moving your members onto HubSpot?

Tell us what your current system holds and what has to keep working. We will show you how we would move it, one stage at a time.

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