Nottingham Forest Supporters' Trust case study: one connected platform
How a volunteer-led supporters trust replaced a fragmented stack with Coreflow, and started moving at the speed its members needed.
The starting point
NFST, established in 2019 and run by volunteers, was working across four disconnected tools: a WordPress website, Mailchimp, SurveyMonkey and Slack. Comms went out by email only.
The link between the website and Mailchimp for registering new members was unreliable, and routine changes meant raising a ticket with a website developer.
The challenge
Membership was on a slight downward curve. With the club doing well, some felt the trust mattered less. The opposite is true: in good times, a few bad decisions by a club can still do real damage, and that is exactly when an organised, well-backed membership counts.
But a volunteer team buried in manual admin and awkward comms systems could not always move fast when it needed to.
What changed
The trust implemented Coreflow. The WordPress site was replaced by a modern platform that made the case for the trust in its own right.
- The website integrated automatically with membership data and Stripe payments. Legacy PayPal members were brought across too.
- New members received automated confirmations. Offers like three months free membership became no-touch, where before the website developer had to be involved.
- WhatsApp replaced email as the main channel. Open rates went from around 30% to 90%, with survey and campaign response rates up 200%.
- Failed member payments are now flagged and followed up automatically. Cancellations are one click.
- Email, WhatsApp and AI chat all land in one inbox, replied to and stored against each member.
- Social media is managed in the platform, with approvals and control over who can post. The trust also used social advertising to promote campaigns and widen its audience.
Results
Six days' notice. Over 2,000 responses.
Nottingham Forest gave the Fans Advisory Board just six days' notice of a season ticket consultation. Using Coreflow's built-in survey tool, the trust gathered over 2,000 responses from members and fans within five days. The results were published and were a significant factor in the club freezing prices.
1,100+ emails to the council, one click each
To back the stadium, the trust built an automated landing page where fans sent a templated email to Rushcliffe Borough Council, with their name and address inserted automatically. One click to send. Over 1,100 emails went out, and the campaign also produced a list of non-members the trust could invite to join.
The result
NFST is now seen as a modern, tech-savvy organisation. Membership is up 20%, software and service costs are down £2,000 a year, and volunteers spend less time fighting admin and clunky systems, and more time on the work they care about.
“Coreflow AI has played a significant part in the trust upping its game and becoming more relevant, through better comms and spending our time on the issues that matter to our members.”
The Board, Nottingham Forest Supporters' TrustLet's talk about your members
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