Lions Recycle for Sight

How a strategy-first website stopped hundreds of unnecessary calls to a national charity’s HQ.

The problem

Lions Clubs International is one of the world’s largest and most recognisable volunteer organisations, with over 1.4 million members across more than 200 countries. Most people in the UK have heard of Lions: the charity collections, the fundraisers, the community presence.

But Lions Clubs International British Isles had a specific, very solvable problem.

Their Recycle for Sight initiative is a UK-wide programme collecting unwanted spectacles and hearing aids for redistribution to people in the developing world but it had no proper home online. The public knew Lions did good things. They just didn’t know where to drop off their old glasses. So they did what people always do when they can’t find an answer on the internet:

They phoned HQ in Birmingham.

Over and over again. Same question, hundreds of times: “Where’s my nearest collection point?” Staff time was being consumed answering something that should have taken thirty seconds online. The information existed across Lions clubs participating in Recycle for Sight - it just wasn’t findable.

The challenge

This wasn’t just a design job. It was a UX and information architecture problem that needed solving properly. The site had to work for two distinct audiences at once:

• Members of the public who wanted to know where to donate their specs or hearing aids - quickly, simply, without faff.

• Lions club members and volunteers who needed to understand how to get involved, register a collection point, and stay informed about the programme.

There was also a practical complication. Participating collection points change, new clubs join, and details need to be updated. A static list would go stale within weeks and just create a new version of the same problem. Whatever we built had to be genuinely maintainable for the long term, without needing a developer every time something changed.

What we did

We worked closely with the Lions Clubs International British Isles team in Birmingham to understand what the site actually needed to do - not just what it needed to look like. The solution came down to two things.

1. A SEARCHABLE LOCATION MAP

We built a fully searchable, interactive map showing every participating Recycle for Sight collection point across the UK. Visitors can search by location and immediately find their nearest drop-off point, complete with contact details. The question that was flooding the phone lines now has a self-serve answer, available around the clock.

We manage the map on an ongoing monthly basis, adding new locations as clubs join and keeping existing details accurate. No calls to a developer. No outdated information.

2. CLEAR DONATION INFORMATION AND FAQS

We structured the site content around the questions people actually arrive with. What can I donate? Where do I go? What happens to my glasses? How do I get my club involved? Every common question now has a clear, findable answer. This wasn’t about packing the site with content, it was about putting the right content in the right place so people could help themselves.

The result

Since launching in October 2023, the Recycle for Sight site has attracted hundreds of visitors every single day. More importantly, the volume of calls to HQ asking “where can I donate my glasses?” has dropped dramatically.

That’s not just a website win. That’s staff time handed back to the organisation. A charity team freed up to focus on work that actually needs a human, rather than fielding the same easily-answerable question on repeat.

The site also supports the long-term growth of the programme. As more Lions clubs join Recycle for Sight, the map grows with them. The infrastructure is already there. Scaling the initiative doesn’t mean rebuilding anything -> it’s just another pin on the map.