Macmillan Cancer Support: Laying the foundations for fundraising transformation

Macmillan’s Coffee Morning is a national institution. In 2023 alone, it raised over £18 million - enough to fund 288 specialist cancer nurses for a year. But behind the scenes, legacy systems and manual workarounds were creating friction for both fundraisers and staff.

Macmillan knew they couldn’t redesign their digital infrastructure without understanding the current service. They brought in Healthia to lead a whole-service review, using service design methods to map the end-to-end Coffee Morning experience - from fundraising sign-up through to thank you messages and future engagement.
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What we did

We worked as a blended team with Macmillan colleagues to:

• Map the full Coffee Morning journey - including front-stage and back-stage processes
• Engage 40+ stakeholders across 12 departments through collaborative workshops
• Explore how digital and manual systems interact behind the scenes
• Identify pain points and inefficiencies across teams and technologies
• Spot opportunities to improve user experience and service performance
• Challenge assumptions about what matters most to fundraisers

We created a shared blueprint of the service - not just what users see, but what enables it to run.
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Why it matters

Fundraising services are evolving. What used to be a single national event is now an ongoing, personalised experience - taking place year-round, both online and offline. But legacy systems haven’t kept up.

Our research highlighted:

• Manual processes create risk - things like delays in thank you certificates affect re-engagement
• Cash and paper processes feel outdated - but some fundraisers still default to them
• New tech can help - but only if it’s usable, visible and supported
• Hosts want flexibility, simplicity and a sense of connection
• Internal teams need better visibility of the full service - not just their part of it

We brought Healthia’s strategic lens - focusing on outcomes, equity and sustainability - to challenge assumptions and prioritise change that would deliver real value.
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What changed

Our work delivered:

• A complete service blueprint - helping Macmillan see the full picture and make informed tech decisions
• Clear short- and long-term improvement opportunities
• A future-focused roadmap aligned to Macmillan’s tech strategy
• A scalable method for embedding service design across the organisation
• Internal confidence and capability to apply user-centred design to other services

We helped Macmillan move from isolated improvements to a joined-up transformation vision - laying the groundwork for better experiences, smarter systems and a stronger fundraising future.

“Healthia helped us to go deep into the detail of how Coffee Morning is delivered, whilst also simplifying that complexity to identify future opportunities to improve the service. The blended Macmillan and Healthia team identified and prioritised pain points and developed specific ideas to improve key parts of the service. They helped challenge our thinking and supported us to embed new ways of working.”
- Steve Newstead, Head of Engineering, Macmillan Cancer Support

“Healthia brought valuable service design expertise, working hand in glove with lots of Macmillan colleagues to build on our customer journey mapping work. We look forward to using what we’ve learnt about service design techniques to help us map other services in the future.”
- Amie Slade, Customer Journey Manager, Macmillan Cancer Support