THCT Storytelling Platform

The Tygerberg Hospital Children’s Trust, founded in 2011, is a registered Trust and Public Benefit Organization with the sole objective of supporting mother and child patients at the Tygerberg Hospital. Currently, the hospital sees more than 44,000 child patients each year, most of them from indigent families.   

In order to sustain the incredible work they do, the trust requires significant funding. Until recently, they have mainly focused on Community-based fundraising, but as of last year, they have implemented major changes in their business processes and strategy. They have introduced a new marketing plan, which focuses on increasing brand awareness through the expansion of their website and social media platforms.  

The trust has a far-reaching stakeholder network, which includes patient families, volunteers, hospital staff, government, and businesses, just to name a few. The main question is how do we activate this network of people towards the trust’s cause? 

Stories are one of the strongest ways to make emotional connections between donors and charities, and are more powerful than merely using statistics or discussing objectives. They are an invitation to make a direct impact on the lives of real people and can inspire people to donate or spread awareness.  

As a team we have designed a website aimed at connecting community members to the stories of real-life patients, so that the public may see the incredible work that takes place at the hospital. Users are able to create an account and submit their stories online via any device which has internet access. This central, easily accessible platform will allow for the collection and sharing of patient stories to the large stakeholder network. Storytellers are also able to upload images and a video, to help convey their message. During registration, users will have to read and agree to the Trust’s Terms and Conditions, which details how their stories will be used, edited and shared.  

Staff members will be able to vet and edit each story, to ensure that they align with the trust’s brand. If needed, they can contact the storytellers for more information, using the contact information provided upon registration. The aim is to publish compelling stories, which will raise awareness and inspire people to donate.  

During the vetting process, stories can be marked as regular or branded by a staff member. Regular stories are made available to the general public, and all users can view, comment and interact with it. As the platform grows, a story can be marked as branded in order to generate more funding. A short snippet is displayed on the website to incentivise users, and in order to read further, they will need to become a recurring donor.  

Our team has included a link to the Trusts GivenGain account, where recurring donations can be made. Upon receiving proof of a user’s monthly recurring donation, a staff member can change the user status on the website, to allow them to view the branded stories. This status can easily be changed again if the user decides to terminate their donation. Once-off donations can also be made via SnapScan – a secure and convenient payment method. The trust’s unique SnapScan QR code is displayed on the donations webpage.  

Lastly, our website allows the admin to generate monthly reports which graphically represent story metrics. These reports can be used to analyse the reach and success of each story, and can be useful in making strategic decisions. Each report can be exported and saved in multiple file formats for future reference.