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Mothers' Union

Empowering Mothers’ Union with Connected Systems for Smarter Membership and Fundraising 

Mothers’ Union is a global Christian movement with over 4 million members, including approximately 38,000 members across Britain and Ireland. The organisation is dedicated to supporting families and communities through faith-driven outreach, education, and advocacy. Working across dioceses, Mothers' Union delivers programmes that empower individuals and strengthen family relationships.

As a membership-led organisation reliant on local and national engagement, efficient data management, volunteer coordination, and streamlined communications are crucial to the success of its mission. 

The Challenge

Before embarking on this digital transformation, Mothers’ Union relied heavily on manual, fragmented systems. The key challenges in their business processes included: 

  • Membership and Volunteer Management: Managed through a legacy CRM (OpenEngage) lacked support and data quality controls. Membership records existed in silos, resulting in duplication, inaccuracies, and inefficiencies. 
  • Communications and Engagement: Email and newsletter lists were manually maintained across disconnected systems and spreadsheets, limiting segmentation and strategic outreach. 
  • Payment Management: Direct Debit processes involved up to six separate manual data entry points across GoCardless, OpenEngage, Excel, and Business Central. Donation handling was also fragmented, requiring multiple manual interventions. 
  • Administrative Burden: The lack of integration between systems led to a significant workload for staff, including manual data entry, data exports, and reconciliation activities. 

Our Solution

Cantarus implemented its Membership App alongside a Power Pages-based Volunteers Portal, fully integrated with Dynamics 365 and third-party platforms including GoCardless, Stripe, Business Central, Shopify, ClickDimensions, and Loqate. This transformation delivered measurable improvements across all core areas:


Direct Debit Management

  • Diocese admins now manage Direct Debit members directly via the Power Pages portal. 
  • Member data flows automatically between Dynamics 365, GoCardless, and Business Central. 
  • Manual exports, notifications, and duplicate data entry are eliminated.
  • Payment statuses, mop-up payments, and cancellations are all self-service via the portal.


Volunteer and Membership Workflows

  • Volunteers can join or renew online, with real-time updates in Dynamics 365. 
  • Address entry is streamlined using Loqate, reducing entry errors and improving usability. 


Financial Integration

  • Successful Direct Debit payments trigger automatic reconciliation in Business Central. 
  • The DD control account balances per diocese with no manual intervention.


Donation and Gift Aid Management

  • Donation forms embedded on the website connect directly to Dynamics via Stripe and GoCardless.
  • Gift Aid claims are now submitted programmatically every quarter, replacing spreadsheets and manual uploads. 


Marketing and Engagement

  • Newsletter sign-ups and donation activity automatically update marketing lists in Dynamics via ClickDimensions. 
  • Integration with Shopify brings sales and engagement data into Dynamics 365, supporting richer member insights. 

We chose to collaborate with Cantarus because of their flexibility, professionalism, and practical approach. They expertly delivered our Dynamics 365 implementation to efficiently manage Memberships, Volunteers, and Fundraising activities, helping us streamline business processes and integrate seamlessly with external business applications and payment systems.

Adam Sach Director of Fundraising & Communication, Mothers' Union

Data Migration 

One of the most complex aspects of the project was migrating membership data from the legacy OpenEngage system, which lacked clear documentation, field-level rules, or consistent formatting.

Cantarus tackled this by: 

  • Conducting a detailed data audit to identify inconsistencies, duplicates, and incomplete records. 
  • Collaborating closely with Mothers’ Union to define business rules and data transformation logic. 
  • Applying data cleansing and validation checks during migration to ensure only quality data was transferred into Dynamics 365. 
  • Establishing a single source of truth for membership and volunteer data for the first time in the organisation's history. 


In addition to data migration complexities, key challenges addressed in the project included: 

  • Undocumented Legacy System: OpenEngage lacked proper field definitions and enforcement rules, requiring manual interpretation and validation of thousands of records. 
  • User Adoption: Cantarus invested significant time in stakeholder workshops, change management, and training sessions to ensure smooth user onboarding and ownership. 
  • Complex Financial Processes: The Direct Debit cycle, involving six systems and multiple handovers, was completely reimagined into an automated, auditable workflow that minimised human intervention. 
  • Integration Landscape: Building seamless connections between Dynamics 365 and third-party systems (GoCardless, Business Central, Stripe, ClickDimensions, Shopify, Loqate) was critical to success and achieved with secure, scalable architecture. 


The Results

The solution has transformed Mothers’ Union’s operations, reducing administrative burden, improving data quality, and enabling better engagement with members and supporters. Through deep collaboration and a practical, insight-driven approach, Cantarus has laid the foundation for long-term digital success and future growth. 

Tangible outcomes include:

  • Centralised member and volunteer data for the first time
  • Significant reduction in manual processing across payment workflow
  • Automated quarterly Gift Aid submissions for greater consistency
  • Real-time insights into supporter activity via Dynamics 365
  • Removal of spreadsheet dependency for donations and newsletters
  • Greater autonomy for dioceses with self-service membership and finance tools

Cantarus took the time to thoroughly understand our unique requirements and workflows, offering valuable insights that improved existing processes and enhanced integrations. Throughout the project, Cantarus was punctual, responsive, and approachable. Their clear guidance and effective problem-solving have made them an outstanding partner, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration.

Adam Sach Director of Fundraising & Communication, Mothers' Union

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