December will mark ten years since TreeSisters achieved charitable status, and we are so proud and grateful for everything we have achieved during this time. Much has changed since then. And as environmental damage increases and the number of tree planting organisations grows, we understand more than ever the importance of a holistic approach, working at the most ethical level possible for all beings and moving away from the monetisation of nature.

We've been hinting at changes for a while. Many of these you won't see as they happen behind the scenes to make us more effective and efficient as a charity. Others may be more obvious, and some of these changes will affect you. We have put a lot of thought into these, and we hope you understand the extensive ethical reasoning and values behind them. It is what sets us apart as an organisation. We are deeply grateful for your support of TreeSisters.

Tree counters & User Accounts

From November 1st 2022, we will no longer provide individual tree counters and user accounts. TreeSisters' primary impact measurement has been the number of trees planted, but this doesn't even begin to tell the story of our work and its impacts. It is a singular and transactional narrative that monetises nature and is out of alignment with our Green Cover Strategy and Ethical Tree Growing Framework.

Our reforestation and green cover work is led by both the environmental impacts and the needs of the communities. This may mean the purchase of infrastructure, e.g. a tree nursery or tractor, is more beneficial to reforestation efforts than trees in the ground. We are doing you, those we plant with and the planet a disservice by providing such a narrow metric.

TreeSisters will continue to measure the overall number of trees planted by our planting partners, but this will not be our sole measure of impact. Instead, we will be taking a more holistic approach. As well as quantitative and qualitative data, we will be sharing stories, videos and photos from our planting projects so that you can truly understand the wide-reaching impact of your donations. We will take on more community projects, working with Original People and local communities as a facilitator to share knowledge and create space for what success looks like for those unique areas and landscapes.

Because of this, we will no longer be splitting donations into rigid 70% green cover, 15% behaviour change and 15% core costs segments. As we move to more community-led projects with tree planting, restoration, education and women's empowerment embedded in the project design, segregating these activities isn't logical or helpful to the cause. We will report in our impact reports and annual statements how your donations have been spent and what has been achieved. We will continue to be open and transparent in all that we do so you can be confident your contributions make the most impact across all of our work.

Lastly, as we transition to this new platform and way of working, log-in account areas that hold individual tree numbers and donation history will no longer be available. You will, however, continue to receive a confirmation email for all donations you make.

Our focus will be on what we have achieved collectively, not as individuals, because it is only in coming together that we can face the immense challenge in front of us.

Website and Fundraising Pages

Alongside launching a new streamlined and easier-to-navigate website by the end of the year, we are moving our primary fundraising platform to JustGiving. Current fundraising pages will be unavailable from the 1st of November 2022. Don't worry; we will email reminders about this over the coming weeks, and you can set up a new fundraising page here as soon as you like.

Alongside this new platform, we will provide tools, including a fundraising pack with tips, ideas and how-to's, to fully support your fundraising efforts. JustGiving is also perhaps the most reputable and recognisable fundraising platform around. It allows for more confidence, functionality, shareability and support for your fundraising efforts, which frees our team to work more effectively on our vision and mission.

Looking Ahead

We know some of these changes might be a little hard to digest, but we also know this is the right thing to achieve the most good and stand in integrity for what TreeSisters is about. By moving away from a singular metric of success and rigid allocation of funds, this new approach will provide a better service to our supporters, stakeholders and, most importantly, our beneficiaries. With more straightforward processes, fewer technical issues, and more tools and information to support you. It will provide a fuller understanding of the breadth of our work as we measure and report impacts more encompassing and accurately than the number of trees planted.

To better facilitate these changes, we have created these handy FAQs that go into more detail and hopefully answer any questions you may have. We are a small team, so it would be particularly appreciated if you could check these before contacting our support inbox.

Lastly, thank you! Thank you for being so supportive of TreeSisters and our evolution. Thank you for being part of a global network standing for nature and change and working together to achieve something extraordinary.

We couldn't do it without you.

Thank you from all of us on

the TreeSisters Team