How to help your charity stand out

There are so many wonderful charities doing amazing things, that sometimes it’s hard for charities to stand out from the crowd and be noticed.

We spoke to carers from the Celebration Garden by St Richard’s Hospice to learn how they took a very simple idea and delivered a high-impact campaign to reach out to fundraisers in the local area.

The big idea

Back in 2016, St. Richard’s Hospice, Worcester, launched its first Celebration Garden as a way to reach out to local people and raise awareness of the charity.

In a similar campaign to the placing of ceramic poppies in the grounds of the Tower of London to mark the centenary of WWI, the Celebration Garden saw 1,000 hand-crafted forget-me-nots planted in Worcester city centre.

The flowers were sponsored by members of the public who later got to take them home as a keepsake, or to give to someone as a gift, and the money raised helped to fund the hospice’s care of patients and families in Worcestershire.

Why we love it

The location at the base of St. Andrew’s Spire in the city gave the campaign great visibility, and the clever use of forget-me-nots meant that the campaign resonated perfectly with the charity and made them more recognisable in the local community.

The secret of success

Not every charity is going to be able to produce a visual floral display like this – but why not challenge your charity to think a little differently about what will grab the attention of your supporters and people in your locality?

We think this Celebration Garden worked particularly well because it was bold, unique and clever – by making only available 1,000 hand-crafted forget-me-nots to sponsor, the campaign had a real sense of urgency about it and so encouraged people to get involved by sponsoring the charity.

Got a great campaign idea?

Create your next campaign on Virgin Money Giving to have an even bigger impact.