One of the UK’s oldest wildlife charities set out to achieve one thing for last year’s Giving Tuesday – to get more schoolchildren reading about nature.

Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) launched a fundraising appeal to get the nature book ‘The Lost Words’ into every primary school in the area.

The book celebrates “lost” nature words – such as acorn, willow and kingfisher – which used to be commonly used in the English language.

Building on funds raised by local fundraiser Andrea Tiplady and the Guardian’s Patrick Barkham, NWT added £1,000 from its own Children And Nature Fund, which helps connect children with local wildlife. NWT also appealed to its supporters and local community to raise another £1,000.

Using Giving Tuesday as a hook, the charity hit its fundraising target in under a month.

Community fundraiser Ginny Seppings said that using Giving Tuesday as a platform for their campaign meant the project was quick to turn around:

“It was the perfect promotional hook for our appeal, which was time sensitive due to the fact that the project was already underway.  We were able to share our messaging much more widely, and are thrilled we hit our target so soon.”

Building a network

In addition, the charity engaged with local newspaper Eastern Daily Press and local book merchants The Book Hive, Wild Sounds and Books, and Bertram Books to garner support for the campaign.

Next year, the charity hopes to run another small appeal and plan creative ways to get the message out on social media.

Ginny added: “I would recommend joining in on the campaign. I think it was a success for us because we had good communications support, and an engaging story to frame our campaign.

“If we could do something differently, we would focus more on the timing, to give supporters a little more lead time to plan their own fundraising and join us on the day.”

About Norfolk Wildlife Trust

NWT works towards a future where wildlife is protected and enhanced, where people are connected with and inspired by wildlife and wild spaces in their area.

For ways to support the charity, visit https://www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/support-us.