We launched a new site for Edinburgh Children's Hospital Charity (ECHC) in Autumn 2016. The site was needed to support the charity as they prepared for the opening of a new hospital in Edinburgh and to help raise the £3 million pledged to the new building.
Objectives
An iconic institution in Edinburgh, the original Sick Kids hospital is beloved by parents and children across the city. The ECHC charity helps support the hospital and other young people’s community health care settings by raising funds and distributing grants. With an archaic existing website, they desperately needed a new online presence that would:
- Help raise money in two ways; through donations and spend on the online shop
- Raise awareness of their purpose, activities, and offerings
- Support the raising of the £3 million pledged to the new hospital
- Provide them with the tools they need to grow their charity over the years to come
Child first, patient second
ECHC believe that nothing should get in the way of being a child and that every child deserves to be a child first and a patient second. This philosophy was core to the entirety of the new site and something we wanted to convey in the visuals and the content.
Strategy
It became immediately clear during our strategy workshop that the website had to cater to a very wide audience. Supporters and parents were the primary two audiences but the site also had to strongly appeal to healthcare professionals and corporate funders. A visual style and tone of voice that would cross and connect with all users was therefore imperative.
By talking to a range of audience members, we also discovered the wealth of fantastic stories that each had to tell. From parents and children to doctors and corporate funders, we had access to a pool of people who were passionate about the hospital and the help that the charity facilitated.
This story driven approach would form the backbone of our strategy for the content on the new website.
Driving donations
Like many charities, ECHC facilitates its good work because of the donations it receives. Therefore, bringing the donation process to the forefront and making it more streamlined and integrated was a key part of the website project.
Along donations, their online shop would be refreshed and restructured. This made it more appealing for family and friends to buy toys for children they knew in hospital and support the charity through gift giving.
Implementation
Working closely with the ECHC team, we created a series of stories for the website that covers a large variety of the work they do. These page layouts use large pull quotes and bright, happy colours. The power in these pages though comes from the written copy itself.
Based on our findings during the strategy workshop, we invited a number of parents to write their own stories for the website, and a photographer was then sent to capture each family at home, in hospital or in the ECHC family centre. The result is a series of shareable landing pages that explain why people need ECHC and why they choose to volunteer or donate. They are some of the most popular pages on site.
It’s all about events
Events are a huge driver of donations for ECHC and were a vital feature for the new site. A filtered list was deemed the best solution for visitors, and the individual event pages kept deliberately short and concise. It was important that SKFF could talk to anyone interested in taking part in an event, owing to huge popularity but limited places available.
“Working with Primate was a real pleasure. They understood exactly what we wanted to achieve, listening, guiding and sometimes challenging us when needed. They were always quick to respond, full of technical and design know how, yet remained human and approachable to the end! I can't wait to work with them again.”
Pippa Johnston
Director of Fundraising & Marketing