Impactful design for tree planting charity: International Tree Foundation

Elevating ITF’s social impact

International Tree Foundation

The world’s oldest tree-planting charity

International Tree Foundation (ITF) has a bold mission to inspire communities to plant, protect and promote trees for the benefit of the people and the planet. 

Famille - digital impact awards 2024 winner
sustainable marketing campaigns

The Challenge

With a lean communications team, their social content needed structure, clarity, and stronger audience resonance. Furthermore, the growing emotional toll of climate messaging presented a unique challenge: how to inspire action without overwhelming the audience.

"The work not only looks good. It’s helped us focus strategy, talk about fringe topics more easily, and build stronger content advocacy."

The Strategy

In a voluntary partnership, famille dedicated 16 hours per month to rethink ITF’s social strategy, starting with Instagram. Using insight-led discovery, benchmarking, and co-creation via Miro, we developed flexible content pillars and visual treatments rooted in ITF’s brand. This was grounded in insights, such as The Lancet’s global youth survey, which found that 59% of 16–25-year-olds reported extreme worry about climate change, with nearly half stating that it negatively affects their daily lives.

Our approach prioritised accessibility and brainprint impact, balancing urgent messaging with uplifting stories to reduce climate fatigue and anxiety.

Miro
ITF Instagram grid

Results

  • Instagram interactions up 499.7%, with a 70.7% rise in organic reach
  • A single Facebook post using the new approach reached 490,747 people organically, with 10,488 interactions, 3,571 shares, and 785 saves
  • ITF’s internal team now plans content more confidently, applying the method across platforms
  • Our collaborative approach with ITF was awarded Gold in the Digital Impact Awards 2024 for most effective use of Social Media with a small budget.
  • Increased clarity in post-treatments to support accessible communications for a diverse audience

"We have never seen organic engagement like this ever! We adapted the approach we took with Instagram to our Facebook channel. Thanks to famille for giving us the guidelines to structure our content, and support through our social media planning sessions, as we continue to shape content."

Illustration of Phone with ITF grid Mockup

From seedlings to brand stories: Elevating International Tree Foundation's Instagram.

In this article, we share how our approach can support teams to achieve impact through strategic content planning and visual identity.