June 23rd saw the launch of A Giant Cause, the National Trust’s new fundraising campaign to help fund the construction of new visitor facilities at the the Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland. The new facilities will improve the experience of visiting the Giant’s Causeway, provide new opportunities for people to learn about the heritage of the area and participate in the Trust’s conservation work at this spectacular World Heritage Site.

HomeMade Digital worked with The National Trust and Bluecube to develop the website for A Giant Cause. HomeMade’s principle role in this process was to build and implement The National Trust’s first ever e-commerce fundraising platform using the Artez E2 system. Ben Alexander, our resident Artez expert, bent, broke and stuck back together the Artez system to enable people show some ‘Giant Love’ and sponsor their very own stone in the virtual Giant’s Causeway.

Visitors to the site are invited to choose their own unique stone which they can either sponsor as an individual or invite their friends to ‘chip in’ together and sponsor the stone as a group. Stones can be sponsored for different amounts with different incentives at each level including certificates, pin badges, limited edition prints and books.

We’re now working on extending the online fundraising platform for A Giant Cause to enable supporters to use the Artez system to organise their own events. This way supporters can raise the money to sponsor their very own stone by having a Giant tea party, running a marathon or jumping out of a plane! Supporters will also be able to sign up online to participate in the events organised by the National Trust such as the upcoming Giant picnic and Giant Walk.

This project offered The National Trust an opportunity to break away from its often more formal style to create a much more animated and youthful vibe for A Giant Cause. HomeMade worked closely with The National Trust in a consultancy role to help realise this vision and build both the site and email copy for the e-commerce fundraising platform. Hopefully this will enable the campaign to appeal to a younger audience and help bring A Giant Cause closer to its fundraising target.

We have really enjoyed working on this project and rose to the challenges posed by the tight immovable deadline and working with multiple vendors from Northern Ireland, England, Canada and South Africa. It’s been an exciting opportunity to work with the National Trust and introduce to them new technology to help them create a more cutting edge image for the organisation.

All that remains to be said is: ’Show some Giant Love and Sponsor a Stone!