Helping Charities access critical funding through the Sutherland Self Help Trust
The Problem
Our Process
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The Solution
SSHT Brand: Rooted in History
The SSHT brand was due for touch up. The logo was pixelated & not suitable for mobile. The web fonts, layout and colours needed refinement to better reflect the trust.
To do this, we started with brand purpose. By talking with charities and surveying internal stakeholders with questions designed to get to the bottom of where the Trust wants to be in the future, we were able to ensure all stakeholders were represented and communicated with. We identified the key values and realised that the values of Ben Sutherland 80 years ago are still just as important to the Sutherland family today.
This needed to be communicated through the brand and involved evolving the family crest.
Understanding the audience
The Sutherland Self Help Trust provides grants to charities however it's not as simple as having a line of charities out the door. Like any business, the Sutherland Self Help Trust has to make Charities and in particular, those in funding roles aware of their annual grant. Part of the web refresh process involved talking with past charities to hear how they talk about the Trust. This is the language that resonates with the Trust's target audience and and it was critical that we understood their problems, motivations and needs better.
As a result of this research we were reminded how vital the support these charities receive from trusts like SSHT is. The lives that have been impacted by the Sutherland Trust are huge, so we needed to tell their story better.
Incorporating past test learnings
In the 2020 application campaign, we tested a new landing page with a clearer message, directing people to the form quicker. The result of this test was a 116% increase in conversion rate.
As a result of testing, and using qualitative data we learnt that there was a clear need to communicate each years application criteria clearly.
Charities were clear that they put in a lot of work to submit their grant applications so they need to be able to identify quickly whether they align with the application criteria and, whether to invest the time to pull together an application or not.
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