How BHF’s digital transformation illustrates the future of tech in charities – and shows how well-managed projects can turn AI and system change into meaningful impact.
Walk into a British Heart Foundation shop today and you might see more than rails of donated clothes and shelves of bric‑a‑brac!
Behind the scenes, BHF is a charity that acts much more like a modern retailer: using AI to price donations, rolling out Dynamics 365 across hundreds of stores, and equipping staff with Copilot to change how work gets done.
This is an ambitious, once‑in‑a‑generation digital transformation – and a glimpse of where the charity sector is heading. And it poses a confronting question:
If this is now the benchmark for third-sector technology, how do most charities, without BHF’s scale or budget, keep up?
THE BHF LESSON: AMBITION IS NOT ENOUGH
BHF’s Enterprise Foundations programme is replacing almost every major component of its IT estate over a two‑year period – ERP, CRM, retail and marketing systems – while keeping more than 650 shops trading and fundraising targets on track. Its first flagship deliverable, the “Donated Stock App”, uses AI to help volunteers price donations accurately as they arrive in store, with image recognition and online listing support to follow.
Alongside that, BHF is training stores on Dynamics 365 ahead of a full rollout, and deploying Copilot across the organisation, to do that safely as a charity holding sensitive information, it has had to invest serious effort in understanding and governance of its data before letting anywhere near it.
Computing’s Tom Allen’s interview with BHF CTO Chris Brocklesby is a great read, I recommend it wholeheartedly. Chris is clear that IT work must be about more than switching technology stacks. Transformation is only a success if change “lands in the business” and delivers the benefits case – more efficient shops, better‑priced stock, more revenue flowing into life‑saving research – not just if a new system goes live.
Ambition, in other words, is the easy part. Delivery is the hard part.
WHY TRADITIONAL MODELS HOLD CHARITIES BACK
Most charities recognise the need to modernise.
Many have a backlog of projects: new CRM for supporters, refreshed finance and HR systems, digitised services, data platforms, AI pilots. The challenge is rarely ideas. It is capacity and consistency.
At Stoneseed, when we work with charities, we see common patterns appear again and again:
- A single “hero” project manager or head of IT informally running every change initiative alongside operational duties.
- Stop‑start progress as funding windows open and close, or key staff leave mid‑project.
- Suppliers driving the agenda because there is no strong internal programme office to coordinate and challenge.
- Projects justified on technology features rather than clear, measurable outcomes tied to the charity’s mission.
The result is often the opposite of what BHF is aiming for.
Instead of carefully sequencing a programme like Enterprise Foundations, charities try to do everything at once or lurch from one urgent initiative to the next.
- Governance becomes light‑touch at best.
- Benefits realisation rarely gets beyond the slide deck that was written at the business case stage.
This is where Project Management as a Service (PMaaS) can change the equation.
THE PMaaS DIFFERENCE
What, actually, is Project Management as a Service?
At its simplest, PMaaS is a way for charities (or businesses and the public sector) to rent the project and programme capability they need, when they need it, rather than attempting to build and maintain it permanently in‑house.
Instead of hiring a full‑time programme director, PMO, business analysts, change managers and project coordinators, a charity can tap into a standing pool of specialists on a flexible basis. That might mean a part‑time portfolio lead shaping the roadmap, a full‑time programme manager during a major system implementation, and a short, sharp burst of change management and training support around go‑live.
In practice, it mirrors the lifecycle BHF has followed. One leader designed and planned the transformation, while another is driving implementation and benefits realisation. Most charities will never have the budget to build that level of executive delivery capability internally – but they can access the same disciplines through PMaaS.
FOUR WAYS PMaaS UNLOCKS CHARITY TRANSFORMATION
1 – Turning vision into a realistic roadmap
BHF is not just swapping out one system for another; it is replacing a whole ecosystem of ERP, CRM, retail and marketing tools in a deliberate sequence. The same principle applies to any charity’s transformation agenda.
PMaaS brings structured portfolio planning to questions, like:
- Which initiatives must happen first to unlock value elsewhere (for example, data foundations before AI)?
- How do we phase rollouts to avoid overwhelming frontline teams?
- Where are the critical dependencies and risks that could derail delivery?
This turns a wish‑list of projects into a coherent, prioritised roadmap grounded in the organisation’s mission and capacity, rather than in vendor promises.
For example, a mid-sized health charity we worked with phased its CRM and finance replacement over 18 months, avoiding a single ‘big bang’ that would have overwhelmed volunteers.
2 – Governing AI and data responsibly
BHF’s Copilot rollout was preceded by “quite a lot of time” spent understanding where sensitive information sits and how it should be governed. That level of diligence is non‑negotiable for any charity, especially like one we have worked with handling donor, patient or beneficiary data.
PMaaS gives access to delivery leaders who understand both the opportunity and the risk of technologies like AI. They can:
- Embed data‑protection and information‑governance requirements into project plans.
- Ensure AI pilots have clear guardrails, approval routes and monitoring.
- Coordinate legal, compliance, IT and frontline stakeholders around a common approach.
That means charities can move at a responsible pace: not paralysed by risk, but also not exposed by naive experimentation.
3 – Scaling delivery without bloating headcount
In a single month, BHF is rolling out its Donated Stock App nationwide, training stores on Dynamics 365 and rolling out Copilot across the business. Most charities do not have the luxury of infinitely elastic internal teams; nor can they justify permanent headcount for such intensity of business change.
PMaaS is designed for those peaks and troughs. It allows a charity to:
- Ramp up specialist project capacity during intensive phases like design, build and deployment.
- Draw down to a lighter‑touch sustainment model as programmes move into “business as usual”.
- Access niche skills (for example, retail system migration or AI change management) for targeted periods.
Financially, this aligns better with project‑based funding and avoids the long‑term commitment of expanding permanent teams.
4 – Keeping focus on mission and outcomes
Perhaps the most important lesson from BHF is the insistence on outcomes. As Chris Brocklesby puts it, delivering IT for its own sake “is never any good”; success is defined in terms of the business results achieved.
PMaaS hard‑wires that discipline into delivery. From the outset, projects are scoped and governed around measurable benefits: increased shop throughput, higher average basket value, improved supporter retention, reduced manual re‑keying, or more time freed for frontline work. Benefits owners are identified, tracked and held accountable beyond go‑live.
For charities, that link between project investment and mission impact is critical. It strengthens internal decision‑making, reassures trustees and funders, and, most importantly, ensures that technology change translates into better outcomes for the people and causes the charity serves.
BRINGING BHF‑STYLE TRANSFORMATION WITHIN REACH
British Heart Foundation has some unique advantages: scale, a retail footprint, and a CTO with deep commercial experience from organisations like Tesco, easyJet and Vodafone. But the underlying disciplines driving its transformation – clear vision, strong governance, phased delivery, relentless focus on outcomes – are not exclusive to large charities.
Project Management as a Service exists to make those disciplines accessible to the rest of the sector. For charities that want to modernise systems, explore AI, or reimagine supporter journeys, but do not have the in‑house capacity to plan and deliver complex change, PMaaS provides a ready‑made delivery engine.
If your organisation is wrestling with a backlog of projects, an over‑stretched IT team, or a sense that you are not getting full value from past investments, now is the moment to re‑think your approach. The benchmark set by programmes like BHF’s Enterprise Foundations will increasingly influence donor expectations, partner requirements and staff experience across the sector.
You do not need 650 shops or a once‑in‑a‑generation budget to respond.
You do need a way to turn ambition into execution.
For many charities, the next leap forward won’t come from buying better technology, but from changing how transformation itself is delivered.
In the project office – powered by Project Management as a Service.
Find out how PMaaS can help your charity (or business or public sector body) achieve essential change through IT. Contact us here or on 01623 723910
More about Project Management as a Service from Stoneseed
Sources:
https://www.stoneseed.co.uk/project-management-as-a-service/
https://www.computing.co.uk/interview/2026/charity-starts-in-the-server-room
