Celebrate Christmas with Chestnut Tree House

From creating magical memories, to helping families through some of their toughest times, Chestnut Tree House needs you this festive season. We’ve put together some of our favourite festive fundraising ideas below to get you in the festive spirit and support your local children’s hospice

CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

WITH CHESTNUT TREE HOUSE

n Recycle your Christmas tree for Chestnut Tree This winter, businesses and residents in Sussex can get their Christmas trees collected (between January 8th-11th 2022) in return for a donation to Chestnut Tree House children’s hospice. Visit www.just-helping.org.uk/registertree to sign up now. Registration closes at midnight on Wednesday January 5th 2022.

n Host a Christmas quiz Release your inner quiz master by hosting a Christmas quiz and asking colleagues to donate to play. n Festive volunteering Chestnut Tree House is also seeking individuals and businesses with vans, lorries, and everything in between to give their time to the Christmas Tree recycling scheme. If you’re looking for a team-building opportunity, then this is perfect for you! If you would like to get involved, please email volunteers@stbh.org.uk.

n Have a bake off Mince pies, gingerbread or yule log – get everyone to bake their favourite festive treats and crown the winner Star Baker. Dish out your delicacies at the end and ask for a donation. n Buy your Christmas cards Don’t forget to send your colleagues a Christmas card. You can browse the range of Chestnut Tree House Christmas cards on their website!

n Deck your desk Whether you’re at home or in the office, break out the baubles and hold a Deck Your Desk competition. Charge a small entry fee and be sure to vote for your favourite festive makeover.

n Donate to the Christmas appeal Will you donate today and help families like Harry’s create magical memories this Christmas time?

MEET HARRY

Harry was born prematurely with pulmonary hypertension and a hole in his heart. As well as these life-limiting illnesses, Harry was born with Downs syndrome. He needs constant care – care that requires specialist medical knowledge.

When Chestnut Tree House nurse Laura visits, the family get to stop being carers, and focus on just being parents, siblings or grandparents. They get to play with him, like any other families do.

You can help families like Harry’s spend time decorating Christmas trees and getting into the festive spirit – instead of fixing feeding tubes and managing care. A Christmas gift of £70 could help pay for a weekend or evening care visit to a child’s home.

n Host a game night Board games are a fabulous way to lift spirits. Get fundraising by getting people involved in games that can be played virtually such as Pictionary and Charades!

n Play the lottery Play the Chestnut Tree House Lottery and help change local children’s lives this Christmas. From just £1 a week you could win £1,000 every week, which would mean Christmas presents for everyone!

n Donate your last hour’s pay Ask colleagues if they’ll be kind enough to donate their last hour’s pay before Christmas. WHAT YOUR MONEY MEANS Whatever way you get involved with Chestnut Tree House this Christmas; you can be sure you are making a big difference to your local children’s hospice. It costs over £4 million each year to provide all the care services offered by Chestnut Tree House.

Families are never charged for their care and only a small proportion of the hospice’s care costs are funded by central government, so they rely heavily on the generosity, help and support of people like you.

A MESSAGE FROM BECKI JUPP, DIRECTOR OF FUNDRAISING AT CHESTNUT TREE HOUSE

Throughout December, as well as free hospice care and services for hundreds of children with lifeshortening conditions, there will be a whole host of festive activities at Chestnut Tree House and in the community, giving families the chance to create magical memories together.

On Christmas Day, whilst you are tucking into your Christmas Dinner and spending time with your loved ones, Chestnut Tree House will remain open, and the Care Team will be on call for crisis care and to support those children for whom sadly it might be their last Christmas. And for those families who have lost a child, the bereavement team will continue to be there to offer support and a listening ear at what can be one of the most difficult times of year.

There are so many ways you can raise funds this Christmas time, and we really need your support, now more than ever.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at Chestnut Tree House.

Find out more about how you can support Chestnut Tree House this

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Land of Fire Gold Grains Case Study

Turning one’s passion for charity into a social enterprise may sound like a dream for many.

Here’s a look at how Marbely Baez did just that, when she left her home country of Nicaragua to set up Land of Fire Gold Grains in the UK.

Marbely’s journey started in 2015, when she was volunteering in charity work here in the UK. Through her experience interacting with youth, children and the homeless as part of her work, she saw a growing need to support the community. On return to Nicaragua in 2017, she met a number of local coffee farmers while touring the country and learned that Nicaragua ranked within the top 10 producers of highest-quality coffee in the world. It was here where she saw the opportunity to create a community-focused business offering Nicaragua’s best produce to the world.

The first step for Marbely was to establish a presence in the UK. While regulatory minimum investment requirements meant that doing so could be prohibitively expensive, Marbely was advised by the Department for International Trade that she could work around this by applying to an accelerator or training programme first. She took the recommendation to apply to the NatWest Accelerator in Brighton, which she credits with giving her the knowledge needed to scale up her new venture.

Eventually, Marbely was able to gain government approval to set up her business in the UK. She tells us that this opened up a world of opportunity – for example, Land of Fire Gold Grains was able to attend the London Coffee Festival recently, and gain exposure to a large number of coffee roasters.

When asked about the greatest challenge faced when running her business, Marbely points out that the coffee production industry is highly competitive. She found herself competing with large corporations with considerably more experience. As a result, it was imperative that Land of Fire Gold Grains was able to establish itself as a well-known brand. To do this, the business needed to not only develop its marketing capabilities, but also build a strong network of industry connections, and create a brand image based on their unique value proposition.

Says Marbely, the unique proposition of Land of Fire Gold Grains is that it is communityfocused, and seeks to donate 70% of its profits to charitable causes. Beneficiaries include charities in Brighton and Nicaragua, an orphanage in Senegal and schools in Peru.

Looking to the future, and noting that the coffee industry is seasonal in nature, Marbely seeks to expand Land of Fire Gold Grains to organise markets where organic and sustainable produce are sold. She hopes that this would enable her business to generate a larger, more consistent flow of profits, therefore allowing her to amplify its impact on beneficiaries.

After all, the most rewarding part of running Land of Fire Gold Grains, according to Marbely, is seeing the positive impact she is making on all stakeholders involved: from charities to coffee farmers and endconsumers.