Sing Ireland: A Digital Transformation in Membership Management

SUCCESS STORY

From Spreadsheets to Seamless Operations for Ireland's Singing Community

January 9, 2025

CHALLENGE

Sing Ireland has long been a vibrant force in Ireland’s choral community, bringing people together through song. But behind the scenes, their team wrestled with scattered data, manual processes, and administrative overhead that slowed them down. Membership renewals, program registrations, and engagement tracking were spread across spreadsheets, requiring hours of manual effort and limiting their ability to scale their impact.

The Challenge: Struggling to Keep Pace

‍Sing Ireland’s existing system was a patchwork of tools that made it difficult to maintain a single source of truth. The reliance on spreadsheets created inefficiencies:

Membership renewals were manually tracked, leading to missed deadlines and redundant follow-ups.
Program registrations for youth choirs and conducting courses required excessive back-and-forth communication.
The team lacked visibility into real-time data, making strategic planning difficult.

Despite their best efforts, the administrative burden was growing, pulling focus away from their core mission: fostering a thriving choral community.

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Mount Arbor guided us to set up a full membership system in HubSpot. Our data is no longer scattered in spreadsheets—everyone can see the same real-time status, saving hours of admin, and allowing us to connect with the people in our community in meaningful and valuable ways.

Jenny, Project Lead

Sing Ireland

SOLUTION

The Decision to ChangeThe Sing Ireland team knew they needed a better way. The pressure to keep up with increasing demands—combined with the frustration of manual processes—pushed them to look for a solution that could streamline operations and free up time for meaningful engagement. At the same time, they were apprehensive about the transition: Would the learning curve be too steep? Would it disrupt their ongoing programs?

Mount Arbor partnered with Sing Ireland to guide them through this transition, ensuring that the move to HubSpot was not just a technical migration but a meaningful transformation of their operations.

The Solution: A Phased, Practical Approach

‍Rather than overwhelming the team with a complete overhaul, we took a structured approach:

Laying the Foundation: We implemented a full membership system in HubSpot, consolidating all member data into a single, centralised database.
Automating the Tedious Work: Renewal reminders, registration workflows, and status tracking were automated, removing the need for manual intervention.
Ensuring Adoption: We worked closely with the team, providing tailored training to ensure every member of staff was comfortable and confident in using the new system.
Iterating Based on Real Needs: Rather than forcing a rigid implementation, we adapted the system based on real-world usage, ensuring it aligned with Sing Ireland’s priorities.

The Results: A New Era for Sing Ireland

‍The transformation was immediately felt:

Hours of admin time saved weekly: No more searching through spreadsheets or manually updating membership statuses.
Improved member experience: Renewals and registrations became seamless, improving engagement with the community.
Real-time visibility: The team could now see up-to-date insights at a glance, enabling better decision-making.

Looking Ahead

‍With a strong foundation now in place, Sing Ireland is positioned for growth. They can now focus on expanding their impact, knowing that their membership and program management are running smoothly in the background. The anxieties of change have been replaced with confidence in a system that works for them, not against them.

For other organisations facing similar struggles, Sing Ireland’s journey demonstrates that progress isn’t about adopting technology for its own sake—it’s about creating the space to do what truly matters.

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