Client: Nevill Holt Opera
Client Sector: Performing Arts
Case study created: May 2020
Overview: Tonica supported Nevill Holt Opera (NHO) in using Salesforce to bring together data for ticketing, membership, fundraising and stakeholder engagement in a single customer view. Catering orders are taken through NHO’s WordPress website (using WooCommerce) and Tonica created a Zapier Zap to send the key information from these orders straight into Salesforce. Zapier was also used to connect Gift Aid declaration forms created using SurveyGizmo to auto-update Salesforce contact records each time a Gift Aid declaration was completed.
Salesforce Edition: Salesforce Lightning Enterprise Edition with the Non Profit Success Pack (NPSP).
More about this Project
Tonica’s work included:
- System evaluation and data migration into Salesforce from legacy systems in 2015, at the time one of the first UK cultural organisations to use Salesforce
- Creation of bespoke Opportunity types to record which productions an individual attended
- Regular imports of ticket sale data provided by a Tessitura export (from a third party system) using Apsona or Data Loader
- Dashboards, reports and list views to create insight for strategic planning
- Zapier integration between WooCommerce and Salesforce so that new catering orders in WooCommerce are recorded in Salesforce (matched to an existing contact or a new contact if no matching record is found)
- Zapier integration between SurveyGizmo and Salesforce allows Gift Aid declaration emails to be sent using List Email functionality in Salesforce and completed forms are updated instantly on the contact record
Gift Aid Declarations
We created a Zapier integration between SurveyGizmo and Salesforce so that Gift Aid declarations automatically update the contact record in Salesforce. This is achieved using a formula field on the contact record with the SurveyGizmo form link that also includes the contact ID. List Email functionality in Salesforce allows an email to be sent to all contacts missing a Gift Aid declaration which includes the form link. Zapier ensures that records are instantly updated in Salesforce.

A Salesforce record with no Gift Aid declaration.
Sending a List Email from Salesforce prompts a quick online declaration, the details can be instantly seen in Salesforce:

A Salesforce record after the declaration.
Benefits of using Salesforce for this project
- Non Profit Success Pack functionality in Salesforce means that there is already a home for donation and Membership information
- Custom fields on the Contact, Account and Opportunity objects record performance attendance including fields such as price type, lag time (number of days between order and performance) and purchase price
- Single customer view – bringing together ticketing, catering, membership and donations in the same place which means that segmented communications are easier and less time consuming
- Ability to record which emails and postal communications have been sent to each contact through the Campaigns tab
- Clarification of marketing consent for each source of data in order to meet GDPR requirements
- Integration with systems like Zapier mean that data from third party systems such as SurveyGizmo and WooCommerce can be updated instantly in Salesforce
- List Email functionality in Salesforce allows for multiple customised emails to be sent out
Images of Performance and Catering Data in Salesforce

This screenshot shows the Related tab of a Household account with performance history in Opportunities and catering bookings in Orders.
Project Timescales
Regular support days each year
Client Comment
“Having only joined Nevill Holt as Managing Director in January 2020, Tonica have been fantastic helping me to get quickly up-to-speed with our database and how we might be able to use what we have more strategically and to generate additional income. I was particularly delighted with the solution that Mary designed for us to gather and track our gift aid declarations. This solution completely transformed how we manage gift aid – saving us substantial amounts of time and more than doubling the level we would be able to claim in 2020. This work took place before the current situation with covid-19. This significant improvement in how we can claim retrospective gift aid has created an income stream for 2020 that has proved crucial as we navigate through the cancellation of our 2020 summer opera festival and these very challenging times. It just goes to show how prioritising these improvements to systems and processes when all is well makes such a major difference when circumstances are more difficult. Thank you very much, Mary.”
Annie Lydford, Managing Director, Nevill Holt Opera