Before we dive into the details, you can grab the complete case study here: download the Tree Aid case study (PDF). It covers every technical nuance and organisational challenge in depth and makes a great companion to this article.

Introducing Tree Aid

Tree Aid is an international charity working across Africa's drylands, planting trees and supporting communities to improve their livelihoods. Visit treeaid.org to learn more about their work. By early 2024, its public-facing website was running on Umbraco 8, and the original brief focused on upgrading to Umbraco 13. The marketing team could only update blog posts; any new page, layout or navigation change required a developer. Donations were handled through a clunky third-party form and reconciliation with the CRM, Raiser's Edge, was a manual, error-prone process.

The charity had two clear priorities:

• Empower the marketing team to build campaigns and pages without developers.
• Streamline online giving and integrate donations seamlessly with Raiser's Edge.

This is the story of how FreshConstruct rebuilt Tree Aid's digital presence on WordPress + Elementor, creating a modern platform that has already doubled donation conversions.

Challenges & objectives

The Tree Aid project wasn't just a lift-and-shift. It had to overcome several organisational and technical hurdles:

• Unseen brand guidelines. A design agency was delivering a new brand identity midway through the build. Our component library and templates had to be flexible enough to adapt to whatever colour palette and typography eventually arrived.
• An ageing CMS. Tree Aid was on Umbraco 8 and initially explored a move to Umbraco 13, but the limitations of the legacy build and the effort required to modernise the editing experience made a full rebuild the stronger option. There was no direct upgrade path that solved the wider platform problems without significant redevelopment.
• Cumbersome editing workflows. Beyond the blog, everything on the old site was developer-driven. Landing pages, navigation changes and campaign pages required code changes, slowing down fundraising efforts.
• Fragmented donations. Multiple forms processed donations and gift purchases. Supporters were redirected off-site to pay via Stripe, then data had to be exported and imported into Raiser's Edge by hand.
• Complex ecommerce requirements. Tree Aid sells symbolic gifts like Iconic Baobab that supporters can send as ecards or physical postcards. Each product needs multiple card designs, personalised messages and variable quantities, functionality that vanilla WooCommerce doesn't provide out of the box.

Our approach: WordPress + Elementor + a bespoke plugin

Choosing WordPress & Elementor

To give Tree Aid's marketing team the autonomy they needed, we selected WordPress with the Elementor page builder. Elementor's drag-and-drop interface allows non-technical users to create complex layouts quickly. We built a library of custom components, including hero blocks, impact statistics, quote panels, story grids and donation prompts, that editors can mix and match without touching code.

Integrating WooCommerce, Stripe & Raiser's Edge

Donations are not traditional ecommerce transactions. They come with recurring gifts, campaign codes, supporter IDs and Gift Aid declarations. To handle this complexity we developed a bespoke WooCommerce plugin that bridges WooCommerce, Stripe and Raiser's Edge.

• Recurring and one-off donations. Donors can set up monthly contributions or make single gifts directly in the checkout flow.
• Appeal coding and supporter tracking. Each transaction carries the right campaign code and supporter ID into Raiser's Edge for proper attribution.
• Gift Aid support. UK donors are prompted to declare Gift Aid, and the plugin records the necessary data for HMRC claims.
• Seamless reconciliation. WooCommerce order data maps directly to Raiser's Edge constituents. Finance teams no longer export spreadsheets or perform manual reconciliations, the data flows automatically through Stripe.

This integration turned a painful back-office process into a reliable, joined-up donation engine.

Gifts that grow: extending WooCommerce for ecards

Tree Aid's Gifts That Grow programme allows supporters to purchase symbolic gifts and send them to loved ones. Each product, such as Iconic Baobab, needed options for ecards, postcards or donations only, plus multiple card designs and personal messages. WooCommerce alone doesn't support this level of customisation, so we extended its product types to include:

• Selectable card formats. Supporters choose ecard, postcard or donation only.
• Multiple designs per gift. Different card artwork can be selected via thumbnails.
• Personalised messages and scheduling. Buyers can add a recipient's name, a personal message and specify the send date. The ecard is generated and emailed automatically on schedule.
• Automatic CRM updates. Donations via gift purchases feed into Raiser's Edge just like standard donations.

This customisation ensures that supporters enjoy a seamless giving experience while staff have a unified view of all transactions.

Implementing the brand: bold, responsive & accessible

Tree Aid's new brand guidelines emphasised vibrant colours, large typography and photography celebrating the people they support. Our design team translated these guidelines into a flexible digital design system:

• Custom Elementor templates. While Elementor provides many design options, we built bespoke templates that adhere to the charity's spacing, colour contrast and typography rules. Hero sections use layered images with accessible contrast, buttons follow the brand palette, and iconography stays consistent.
• Mobile-first responsive design. Flexible grid layouts ensure that content remains readable and images retain their impact on mobile, tablet and desktop.
• Reusable dynamic blocks. Quote panels, statistic cards and story grids were implemented as reusable blocks. Editors can insert them anywhere, choose colour variations and update content via ACF fields.

From old to new: comparing the experiences

The legacy Umbraco site

The old website featured large hero images and static pages. Beyond basic blog posts, editing required developer intervention. Donation prompts were handled by embedded forms that sat alongside content, and supporters were redirected off-site to make payments. The donation page included a pie chart explaining spending; a small box invited visitors to choose a monthly amount or type an Other figure before being whisked off to a third-party payment gateway. Data then had to be imported manually into Raiser's Edge.

The new WordPress platform

The new site retains compelling storytelling but wraps it in an interactive, modern framework. The home page hero uses emotive typography with clear calls to action. Navigation is simplified and a prominent Donate button leads directly into the custom checkout. Symbolic gifts are treated like products with imagery and optional ecard designs. Supporters stay on the site to complete payments via Stripe and receive immediate confirmation emails. The marketing team can launch campaign pages with unique layouts in minutes rather than days.

Outcomes & impact

Since launching the new platform, Tree Aid has already seen impressive results:

• 200% increase in conversion rate from visitor to donor, averaged across web channels. This dramatic jump exceeded expectations and proved the value of investing in a better user experience.
• Reduced risk and improved compliance. Migrating away from an unsupported CMS eliminated a looming security headache. WordPress has a vast ecosystem and receives regular updates.
• Happier supporters. Donations and gift purchases now happen entirely on the Tree Aid site. Buyers can send personalised ecards instantly and declare Gift Aid without fuss. The checkout is fast and mobile-friendly.
• Time savings for staff. Marketing staff can build pages and campaign landing pages without developer help. Tasks that used to take days now take hours.
• Streamlined fundraising operations. The bespoke Stripe and Raiser's Edge integration eliminates manual data entry and reconciliation. Finance teams have greater confidence in their data.
• Room to grow. The modular Elementor architecture and custom WooCommerce extensions allow new appeals, products or campaigns to be launched quickly without technical bottlenecks.

Conclusion

Tree Aid's move from an ageing Umbraco 8 platform, after initially considering an upgrade to Umbraco 13, to a modern WordPress + Elementor platform shows how charities can transform their digital presence and fundraising operations simultaneously. By investing in flexible content editing, seamless donation flows and brand-led design, the organisation not only mitigated security risks but unlocked huge gains in supporter engagement and revenue.

Ready to explore how FreshConstruct can help your charity modernise its digital fundraising? Download the full case study to dive deeper, or contact us to start a conversation.

Disclaimer: The impact metrics cited, including the 200% increase in conversion rate, come directly from Tree Aid and reflect results at the time of writing. Your results may vary depending on your own context and implementation.