Research | Strategy | Branding 

Championing kids’ health

One of the largest and most trusted kid’s health charities in the country, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation (SCHF) exists to help provide all children with access to the best possible healthcare, whenever and wherever they need it. The Foundation has been delivering on this promise for over 35 years.

After expanding its remit to fundraise for two major paediatric hospitals and three health services in NSW, the Foundation needed a dynamic new brand to reflect both its increased footprint and its ambition to be a mechanism for powerful change in kids’ health.

A rapidly changing charity landscape and unprecedented changes in donor behaviour presented SCHF with the opportunity to better engage audiences and unify donors.

Interviews, workshops, surveys, audience profiling, category and competitor analysis left no stone unturned. Research unearthed SCHF’s unique position as a change agent with one foot at the front line and one in the future of kids’ health, achieving both immediate effects and long-term impacts, changing one kid’s life today and future-proofing the health of all kids tomorrow.

The strategy was to create a brand that conveyed the Foundation’s attitude, ambition and capabilities with a single unifying goal: All in for kids’ health.

Research and strategy

Building the brand

To create a vibrant, contemporary brand, all design elements were carefully crafted to move the Foundation to where it needed to be as well as provide solutions to existing issues. The new brand is flexible, dynamic and solutions focused. Visual, verbal and sonic branding assets were supported by a robust design hierarchy with a varied and growing audience in mind.

An extensive design system gave the Foundation a wide set of tools that covered every need for every audience. An online brand hub consolidated all brand assets in one place and helped the Foundation’s team access, share and grow the brand quickly and expertly.

Building a community

SCHF’s 70,000 supporters have a powerful collective impact on kids’ health. For the first time in the Foundation’s history, the supporters were identified as a group, the Movement of Many, and represented in the brand.

The tie that binds the Movement of Many imagery together is the use of the hand-heart gesture. The hand-heart gesture represents the heart in the SCHF logo, which is the symbol of giving. This is a way for the Movement of Many to show their support in photos and films, align with the team at the Foundation, recognise each other at events and online, and connect with the kids they support. It’s both an identifier and a statement, one that has been wholeheartedly embraced by the community it represents.

Representing 170,000 kids

Two characters were developed to represent the 170,000 kids that SCHF help each year and the many, many more that will get the help they need for generations to come. These happy-go-lucky characters who need a helping hand with their health represent all kids - all experiences, all conditions, and all stages of their health journey.

Impact

SCHF now speaks with a single, united brand voice while making a greater impact on children with its broader mission. For the first time in its history, it has unified its 70,000 supporters under one banner, the Movement of Many.

This game-changing approach has modernised the Foundation’s donor engagement, driving a 48% rise in donations via the new SCHF website two months after the launch of the new brand, compared to the same period the previous year.

Since the rebrand launched in November 2021, the Foundation had moved from raising $62.2 million in 2020 to raising over $89.4 million in 2023.

SCHF is on an exciting and significant trajectory evolving and adapting to meet the needs of sick kids in an ever-changing world.

The SCHF rebrand has won ten national and international awards.

Transform Awards

The Transform Awards honours and rewards the most innovative, creative and successful brand work in ANZ.

Gold | Best brand evolution

Gold | Best visual identity by a charity, NGO or NFO

Gold | Best visual identity from the healthcare and pharmaceuticals sector

Winner | Best overall visual identity

Muse Awards

The Muse creative awards is a global advertising awards platform celebrating excellence and innovation.

Gold | Branded content

Indigo Design Award

The Indigo Design Awards celebrates outstanding design achievement.

Silver | Branding

Better Future

Better Future is the world’s largest network of design award programs.

Sydney Design Awards

Silver | Identity and branding

GOV Design Awards

Silver | Identity and branding

Australian Design Awards

Silver | Identity and branding

Wild Design Awards

Silver | Graphic design - Identity and branding - community

Transform Awards ANZ, Jury

“Fantastic creative application and strong energy. It was a joy to see the results and it gave me a wonderful sense of optimism.”

“Judges were unanimously impressed by the sheer effort demonstrated in the project. Fantastic creative application, strong strategy and stellar results.”

Testimonial

“The new brand positioning for Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation has helped us tell a more emotive, compelling and holistic story of the impact of the Foundation, together with its generous supporters, makes on the lives of sick children. After expanding our remit three years ago to fundraise for both children’s hospitals and additional paediatric health services, our brand needed to support our broader mission and ensure donors understood the breadth of scale of impact we make on kids’ health. From a fragmented and disconnected brand architecture, we now have a consistent brand hierarchy that makes our work more efficient and effective.

The responses from our supporters and stakeholders have been overwhelming, and we have seen a significant increase in engagement and donations. SunnySideUp was a true partner and collaborator, and delivered a smooth experience to help us launch our new brand.”

Kate Ferguson

General Manager, Engagement, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation

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