As part of the ESTHER program, it is good practice to be in touch with any recipients under your care (recipients you have registered to be in need of an ESTHER card). Try and schedule a monthly or bi-monthly catch up with your recipients, either by cell phone, exchanging some text messages, or face to face.
What is a Recipient Impact Report?
A series of questions which are asked to get a feel for how the recipient is doing and how the funds they are receiving are impacting their life. The answers to these questions are used to create a short story that is either emailed to donors who have chosen to support them, or shared with grant providers to demonstrate impact for example.
Who does this apply to?
A Case Worker or a Referral Partner Admin can complete Recipient Impact Reports.
A step by step guide to completing a Recipient Impact Report
Completing a Recipient Impact Report is a chance for you to check in with recipients and see how they are. It's good to have the questions available and ready to go through in real time with the recipient. If you are unable to do this, you can make a note of the questions and go through them when you meet or catch up via cell phone.
To access recipient updates, follow the steps below:
Log in to the ESTHER portal
On the Dashboard page, scroll down to where you can see 'Actions' and then your 'To do' list
Under 'Recipient Updates', there will be a list of updates to be completed. These are triggered by the ESTHER Team or by your Referral Partner Admin, so if there are none there, they aren't due yet. Select the recipient you'd like to complete an update for
Click through and complete answers to each of the questions
Make sure to do a final read through, have a think about how it sounds out loud to an individual reading it. It's also good practice to look for any spelling mistakes and make sure you have only used the anonymous name, and not the real name
Lastly, don't forget to click save!
Advice and tips for what makes an easy to read and informative Recipient Update
Always write in the first person. A good example could be something like: "I was able to pay a tradesperson to come to my home and paint my bedroom, I now feel proud to have friends round for coffee" or "I was able to pay some bills I have been behind on for months, this meant I could take time out to go for a walk and feel more relaxed."
A not so good example would be more like: "She paid the car bill" or "The extra money was useful." This would be a better update if it was written in the first person and had a little more detail: "I paid the car bill and was able to take a trip to see some family."
We appreciate time pressures but writing one informative sentence with a little hint of detail makes all the difference for the person reading it. These little stories are so powerful for fostering connection to people in the community donating.
Sometimes Recipient Impact Reports can lead to increased donations! We have seen examples of this where a recipient has shared that they need a new bed or are saving for a birthday present for their child and a donor has sent extra money to be able to cover this. These are really special moments for connection.
Help with how to answer the final question:
Please make sure you write the response to the final question in the first person, you can see below an example of why this is important! It reads to the person receiving it as a quote from the recipient. This is a good example:
They said:
"I've been able to buy a birthday present for my younger brother. We haven't been able to properly celebrate his birthday since we left foster care as I haven't had enough money. His face lit up like I had never seen before."
Who is reading these Recipient Update Reports?
These Recipient Updates go to a real donor - a person in the community who has signed up to give directly to a recipient in need.
The stories can also be shared in newsletters, social media posts or in formal reports to grant providers. Names and details and always anonymised to ensure safety and dignity.
When a donor signs up, they receive an email letting them know the name of (anonymous) and some information about the person they are supporting. These come from the short bios you write when you recommend a recipient, and they look like this:
Depending on the ESTHER Program you are part of, you may complete Recipient Impact Reports once a month, bi-monthly, or once a quarter for example.
These Recipient Impact Reports are then automatically sent to the paired donor. The email they receive will look a little like this:
At ESTHER, we are passionate about making your lives easier, as the people on the ground working with people in need are the superheroes!
If you feel that writing these Recipient Impact Reports are a burden, too much admin, or have any feedback on how we can make them more accessible for you, please don't hesitate to reach out and let us know.
You can email support@estherinternational.com any time.