Wards of Kent funding marks the beginning of Tree of Hope Children's Charity’s digital growth

Tree of Hope children’s charity proudly celebrates the launch of their brand-new website this week and marks the beginning of a new chapter in driving their digital growth, thanks to the continued support and funding of Wards of Kent estate agents, part of the Arun Estates group.

Tree of Hope is a national children’s charity helping families with sick and disabled children to fundraise for their children’s healthcare needs who cannot get what they need via state provision, and it is thanks to the support and funding of Wards of Kent and The Rooney Foundation, part of Arun Estates, that has made this project possible.

In 2020 Tree of Hope, which was founded in 1992 in Bexhill, East Sussex, developed a relationship with The Rooney Foundation, the charitable arm of Arun Estates via the Kent Community Foundation, and a 3-year grant starting in 2021 which marked the next major phase of Tree of Hope’s growth.

The funding given to Tree of Hope has been used to expand the support available to families with a sick or disabled child in the UK over 3 years and increase the number of children that can be helped. The success of this pilot project has been game changing for the charity and in order to help grow their online presence, part of the project is a new website to help the charity build its digital marketing strategies and propel its digital growth to ultimately increase its reach.

With over 100 estate agent branches in Essex, East London, South London, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight staff and customers of Wards of Kent, Cubitt and West, Douglas Allen, and Pittis have made a huge difference for hundreds of families needing to improve their child’s health through their support of Tree of Hope.  Head of Marketing and Family Support Georgina Lowry commented: “We are so grateful to Arun Estates and particularly Wards for their tremendous support. Tree of Hope continues to be needed by so many families with there being a £1.8 billion funding gap in disabled children’s services across the UK, so digital growth is key to us being able to reach those families that need us. We are really excited for this to be the start of our next chapter and the website being far better equipped to enable us to achieve that.”

Since the project, Wards of Kent estate agents have also selected Tree of Hope as their charity partner of the year in 2024 and their fundraising will help enable Tree of Hope to provide its services to families in Kent and across the UK. Over the years Arun Estates have raised over £16 million in support of local and national charities.

Aldo Sotgiu, Group Managing Director of Arun Estates said “We have a long association with the Tree of Hope and when we asked our staff which charity they would like to raise funds for this year I was delighted when the Tree of Hope was selected. This means we’ve adopted the Tree of Hope in 2024 as one of our core charity partners across the group.

Our staff and offices have several events planned throughout the year to raise as much money as possible for this fabulous organisation that supports families to help fundraise and acts as an umbrella charity supporting thousands of individual children’s campaigns over three decades. This goes right to the core of our charitable endeavours which has always been associated with helping disadvantaged children right across the county.”

Tree of Hope appointed Kayo Digital, award winning digital marketing agency in Kent to carry out the project, who are specialists at developing the websites with end users in mind and build their projects around tailored customer research projects.

CEO Becky Andrew commented: “Tree of Hope is dedicated to ensuring every child and young person has access to the best healthcare and support, empowering them to lead fulfilling lives and realise their full potential. This chapter marks a pivotal moment for the organisation in realising this vision, harnessing the power of digital technology to reach many more families and enhance the support we provide. We are deeply grateful to both Arun Estates and The Rooney Foundation, whose generous support has been crucial in enabling us to bring this vision to life.”