The story
About Treetops Hospice
Founded in 1983, Treetops Hospice is a leading end-of-life care charity that supports people across central and southern Derbyshire. The hospice delivers high quality palliative care including nursing and emotional support for adults and their families.
The funds received from donations go towards a number of vital services; from palliative care and aftercare to counselling. The charity also prides itself on giving those they help the option to choose where they die, making people comfortable at the hospice or in their own homes.
The need
Support for a successful Christmas Treecycling campaign
Having run a Christmas Treecycling service in 2023, Treetops Hospice was keen to do it bigger and better in 2024.
The Treecycling service was simple on paper but logistics-heavy in practice. To make sure the event was a success, the charity needed to ensure they could process donations, capture post codes and track donor details in order for everything to run smoothly.
That’s where they turned to Enthuse for help.
The Treecycling campaign was a great way to interact with the local community
The Enthuse approach
A branded donations page to capture key details
The Treetops Hospice offered the local community a christmas tree collection service for unwanted trees in early January 2024 – and they wanted to ensure this was done in exchange for a donation to the charity. This would act not just as a fundraiser but a way to interact with the community and spread awareness of the hospice.
To make this possible, Treetops Hospice made use of the Enthuse Donations solution. The charity set up a donations page – branded to their cause with their colours and logo – to collect donations online, whether by debit or credit card or via Apple Pay and other mobile wallets. Crucially, by having the collection sign-up within the donation page, those who were interested in the service had to choose whether or not they wanted to donate to the charity before leaving the page. This put the charity at the heart of the service and what’s more, everyone that made use of the service decided to give!
The charity also made use of the pre-set donation amounts with tangible descriptions to try and encourage donor behaviours and bring home the impact of what a donation could achieve. The charity started the pre-set donations at £15 – up from £12 the previous year – and saw 60% of people select this suggested amount, a great sign that nudging participants in a certain direction worked.
The charity also incorporated higher pre-set donation amounts for those generous, high-value donors and by using the tangible descriptions alongside them, they were able to really tie the Treecylcing campaign back to their cause and their services. Whether this was demonstrating how certain amounts equated to nursing care, aftercare or counselling it was a great way to remind participants who they were supporting and educate those who were unfamiliar with their work.
The charity enjoyed how easy the Donations solution was for its donors to use. The ask was minimal, those wanting to use the Treecycling service simply had to make a donation, type in the number of trees for collection and fill out their address for a volunteer to come and take the trees away. It didn’t demand anything else for those who wanted to get involved, making the barrier to entry as low as possible – exactly what Treetops Hospice was after.
When it came to collecting the address of the household, Treetops Hospice made use of the postcode lookup capability via Enthuse. Before confirming their pick-up slot and finalising the donation, those wanting to use the service had to confirm their postcode was within the pick-up area. If so, they could proceed with their name ready to be added to the volunteers’ list for collection. Given the geographical scope and the low temperatures, it was vital to get this right for the smooth running of the operation. This included 80 volunteers with 40 vans across a three-day period.
Many volunteers came from local businesses, a great opportunity to build relationships with corporates
Good causes are always looking for an easy-to-use solution and Enthuse Donations helped to make sure that tracking event progress was simple. Treetops Hospice liked the fact that they received an email to notify them of donations as they came in. What’s more, with Enthuse’s reporting capabilities, it was straightforward for the charity to export spreadsheets to check on the campaign’s progress. This was used to inform communications as well as logistics planning for the volunteers.
Once donations had been made for the Treecycling collection, the charity was able to customise the receipt emails with a thank you note. This was crucial for reminding donors of the cause they were supporting, tying it all back into the hospice’s work. And with the ability to ask donors to opt-in to marketing activities, this means Treetoops Hospice can start thinking about building those longer-term supporter relationships as a result.
Storytelling is important as a hospice, having a donation page branded to our cause and the opportunity to add tangible descriptions to our pre-set donations helped us to get our message across.
Victoria Rocca – Relationships Manager, Key Events, Treetops Hospice
Results
£24,500 raised for the hospice
Treetops Hospice managed to raise a fantastic £24,500 via Enthuse for its 2024 Christmas Treecycling campaign. That’s a 64% increase on the £14,900 raised from the 2023 event. And with 0% platform or payment provider fees, more of their fundraising went to supporting their services. In fact, the charity calculated that the funds raised equated to 213 nights of vital nursing care.
In addition, Enthuse automatically processed Gift Aid for the incoming donations, saving the charity’s staff time doing this manually themselves. The charity actually saw a 5% uptick in those who selected to add Gift Aid to their donation this year, growing from 80% in 2023 to 85% in 2024.
The initiative acted as a great relationship building and brand awareness piece for the charity. Many of the volunteers involved in collecting the trees were from local businesses, which was great for creating those connections with corporates – something charities are always keen to do. And by getting out and about to all parts of their catchment area, it gave Treetops Hospice the opportunity to get their message across to those who perhaps hadn’t heard of them before.
Overall, the charity raised a fantastic amount, improving year-on-year whilst providing a useful, environmentally-conscious service to its local community.
Building long-term supporter relationships is vital and the ability to add custom thank you notes and marketing consent forms gave us that opportunity to build our pool of supporters.
Victoria Rocca – Relationships Manager, Key Events, Treetops Hospice
