British Heart Foundation transforms charity retail, uplifts income by £1M+ with Power Platform and AI

As one of the UK’s most influential charities, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) funds groundbreaking cardiovascular research and provides direct, life-changing support to people affected by heart and circulatory diseases. Its mission, which is to help everyone live with a healthier heart for longer, includes backing AI-driven diagnostics, building CPR training tools, and maintaining the UK’s national defibrillator registry.

BHF also offers vital support services, from a helpline staffed by cardiac nurses to peer support groups and public education. By 2035, it aims to prevent 125,000 heart attacks and strokes across the UK and improve the quality of life for millions already living with heart conditions.

To fund its efforts, BHF operates one of the largest nonprofit retail networks in the world. With nearly 700 shops across the UK, it is the country’s biggest charity retailer and the largest charity seller on eBay. These shops transform donated goods into research funding and community impact.

“We have shops and stores on nearly every high street across the UK,” says Sarah Boardman, Head of Retail Transformation at the British Heart Foundation. “For many people living with, or supporting someone with, heart disease, our shops are their first touchpoint after hospital. People walk in and say, ‘You saved my life,’ and show their scar. Our red heart logo means something to people.”

Working and fundraising smarter

As BHF scaled, its unique hybrid model of operating as a research funder, healthcare supporter, and retailer became both a strength and a complexity. The organization faced some serious operational challenges in its retail systems.

First, there was no standard method for creating donated stock records in its ERP system. This made it hard to track items, assess value, and claim eligible Gift Aid—a UK tax incentive that could return up to 25% on donated sales. Secondly, the charity lacked tools to consistently determine which donated items should be sold online, where some command premium prices, versus in-store. Finally, the growing volume of donated stock meant that shipping low-value items to BHF’s central listing hub in Leeds was becoming inefficient, environmentally costly, and often unprofitable.

“We needed to be smarter,” says Michael Spivey, a retail expert and long-time staff member in BHF’s eBay operation. “It wouldn't be cost effective to sell an item valued at £10 if it costs you £12 to list, store, and ship it. But without the right data, our shops were using their own judgement.”

For a mission-driven organization relying on volunteer labor support, legacy systems, and limited tech infrastructure, the cost of inefficiency was ineffective fundraising and its impact on how well BHF could serve those in need.

Building an intelligent retail system

Gareth Campbell-Julian, Director of Technology Transformation, at the British Heart Foundation says that in late 2023, the organization committed to something very brave by reinventing how it handles, prices, and channels donated items. “We decided to do a full-scale, cloud-first transformation using Microsoft technologies.”

The British Heart Foundation reimagined its stock management process using low-code Microsoft Power Platform, Azure OpenAI, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. Power Platform is the backbone for BHF’s donated stock processing solution. Its low-code capabilities helped BHF to quickly build, test, and deploy a new retail pricing and inventory app in just a few months, something that would have previously taken years.

“We started with a blank page in September 2024,” says Campbell-Julian. “We used agile sprints to go from idea to what we call a ’minimum lovable product’ in just three months. By January 2025, a live Power App was in select stores.”

Store staff can now use a guided, intuitive interface built with Power Apps and Dataverse to assess and record donations. The app uses Azure Functions, Azure API Management, and AI Builder, a Power Platform feature. AI Builder has custom connectors and PCF components to help analyze item attributes like brand, condition, and seasonality. It also can suggest an optimized price and channel (storefront, eBay, or Depop). Power Automate helps orchestrate the flow between front end and backend systems, while Microsoft Dynamics manages the inventory lifecycle and Gift Aid tracking.

BHF used Microsoft Azure and Power Platform tools as integration layers instead of embedding logic inside the ERP. “We wanted to avoid the technical debt that could slow us down,” explains Alex Paraman, Solutions Architect at the British Heart Foundation. “A Power Platform architecture lets us evolve without breaking ourselves.”

Behind the scenes, Azure Machine Learning and Microsoft Fabric provide the analytical power. AI models trained on 1.9 billion rows of historical retail data began identifying patterns in pricing accuracy and sell-through rates. Campbell-Julian says the AI model, affectionately dubbed “Arti,” became a pricing helper for store staff and volunteers, empowering them to get value right the first time and cutting waste from the system.

Expanding what’s possible

With its solution live across more shops, BHF is already seeing measurable gains. The organization projects a £500,000 rise in Gift Aid revenue in year one and over £1 million in additional sales from improved pricing and smarter channel allocation. But the benefits go beyond numbers.

For one, the workload has shifted from repetitive tasking to high-value human interaction. The organization’s approximately 20,000 store staff and volunteers are working within a data-smart system, freeing them to offer richer customer experiences rather than wrestling with spreadsheets and labor-intensive stock handling.

They’re also cutting environmental waste by minimizing unnecessary shipments and reducing landfill disposal from unsold stock. In addition, the app is impacting volunteer and staff morale, by allowing them to be more engaged in store operations using AI. “You can see the spark when they realize they’re teaching the machine,” says Paraman. “It’s not just automation, it’s collaboration.”

With its rich, integrated data platform, BHF is making evidence-based decisions at scale. “We’re now processing nearly 800,000 items a week across all the shops,” says Paraman. “AI is essential in this—no human team could accurately track, price, or optimize the processing of that many items manually.”

Paraman continues, “This helps us fulfill a moral obligation to our doners. When someone takes the time to gives us their goods, we owe it to them to extract the most value we can— to power lifesaving research.”

BHF’s innovation efforts are being recognized. The transformation of its stock management processes recently won Best Breakthrough Data Project at the UK’s Digital Technology Leaders Awards 2025. BHF also won the Best Not-for-Profit Project award.