FAQs about our new brand

Rebranding involves the revision of an organisation’s identity and often includes changing an established organisation’s name, logo, and image to grow, adapt and more effectively connect with its various audiences.

In August 2021, Birmingham St Mary’s and John Taylor Hospices merged to form one single registered charity – The Hospice Charity Partnership.

During the strategic planning process for this newly formed organisation, it became clear that while we wanted to retain the heritage of our two organisations, the branding and partnership messaging was confusing for colleagues, patients, families, supporters and those in the healthcare sector.

Eighteen months on and following extensive consultation with internal stakeholders and local communities, people have told us they now want a single, clear and unique charity identity – one that acknowledges and celebrates our 157-year heritage while
also helping to raise our charity’s profile to attract new supporters and donors. We have a responsibility to listen to our key stakeholders, and to be accountable and responsive to their needs.

Our new brand is an exciting step forward in raising our profile, opening up new opportunities, and helping to realise our vision of a future where everyone with a life-limiting illness will live and die with dignity and in comfort.

The results of our extensive market research showed that people find our current branding to be too corporate, lacking cohesion and consistency, and causing confusion for local communities. The research showed a lack of understanding and alignment between the retained brands of Birmingham St Mary’s and John Taylor Hospices, their link to each other, and to the overarching brand of The Hospice Charity Partnership.

Respondents said they wanted to see a ‘hearts and minds’ brand image that reflected unrestricted care for everyone and a commitment to our community. Birmingham was also frequently mentioned with a sense of pride and for being a core part of our identity.

Once we reviewed the findings of the research, it became clear that a name change would help to boost our fundraising, and importantly enable more people from all communities to access the care of their choice at end of life.

The legal, registered name of The Hospice Charity Partnership will remain the same, but we will refer to ourselves internally and externally as Birmingham Hospice.

A business can have a legal registered business name, as well as a trade name.

Business name: The name we use on paperwork, with the Charity Commission, and in financial information.
Our business name: The Hospice Charity Partnership.

Trade name: The name a business is commonly known as. The name you use when advertising or talking about your business. A trade name can be different from your business name.
Our trading name: Birmingham Hospice.

We’re incredibly proud of the 157 years of heritage Birmingham St Mary’s and John Taylor Hospices have shared, and what we have achieved since merging in 2021. Throughout this consultation and rebranding process, we worked with an amazing West Midlands-based brand agency called Happy Giraffe. When it comes to brand strategy, Happy Giraffe knows there are no shortcuts or quick answers. So, by working closely with us over a seven-month period, we have together created a unique and authentic brand that both celebrates our heritage and supports our ambitious strategy.

Colour is an important element in our identity. Our colour palette has grown to nine colours; retaining the vibrant pink and turquoise with the introduction of some softer pastel colours.

We are also retaining elements of the Birmingham St Mary’s and John Taylor Hospice logos, with our newly created brand mark. You can view an animation showing how the elements of our heritage have come together to create our new look.

We commissioned the services of a local, independent and experienced external brand agency to support our market research and brand development. They undertook extensive research over a four-month period to ensure an inclusive process that involved consultation with internal and external groups.

They hosted focus groups and workshops, carried out online and paper surveys, desktop research and audits to establish where we were with our current branding, and what we needed to do to promote growth and realise our vision. Combining all these elements enabled Happy Giraffe to present accurate, detailed findings and propose a new brand direction based on this qualitative and quantitative research.

Between June and September 2022, thousands of people were asked to take part in the market research process.
• All staff, volunteers and trustees were invited to attend one of many focus groups and workshops – both in-person and online – hosted over the four-month market research period.
• For those unable to attend a workshop or focus group, an email survey was sent to them.
• Patients using our Living Well Centre services were consulted through paper surveys.
• An online survey was emailed to 8,000 supporters on our database.
• Facebook advertising was used to reach people in the Birmingham and Sandwell postcode areas with an online survey.
• Leaflets incentivising people to take part in an online survey were distributed through our 20 shops.

Key stakeholders including local communities told us that they wanted a single, clear and unique charity identity, with a name that clearly communicates that we are one charity caring for people across the city – both at our hospice sites and in people’s own homes. This name supports our income generation vision to become the No.1 charity of choice across Birmingham.

We’ve kept costs to a minimum and all expenditure has been planned into our 2022-23 budget. We always ensure we spend our limited resources wisely and we are confident that the investment in our new brand represents excellent value for money. We believe the changes made to our brand will help us to raise even more awareness and money for the charity, and more funding will enable us to deliver services to more people across Birmingham.

No! We remain exactly the same charity, with the same people, providing the same care and support services. Patients and their families will not see any change in the way their care is delivered. Our services will remain free of charge for patients and their loved ones, and our values of kindness, togetherness, positivity, openness, respect, and innovation will continue to underpin everything we do.

Patients and their families will not see any change in the way their care is delivered, and we will continue to offer personalised and specialist support at home, in local communities, and at our hospice sites in Selly Park and Erdington.

Birmingham Hospice will be the trading name of The Hospice Charity Partnership. This means that The Hospice Charity Partnership and its current charity number (1156964) will remain the same. It is common practice for charities to maintain their legal name when rebranding, as this allows us to minimise disruption and costs while the changes take place.

Along with the new brand launch we have also launched a new, single website for the charity. The website address will remain the same: www.birminghamhospice.org.uk. We now have one single profile for LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram (@brumshospice).

For a short time, we will still have two Facebook business pages – one for Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice and one for John Taylor Hospice. We plan to merge these pages during March and will keep our followers updated with posts. To merge pages, Facebook requires them to have the same name. This means you’ll see both names change to ‘Birmingham Hospice’ before the page merge takes place. Don’t worry though, this will all take place behind the scenes, and you don’t need to do anything to stay up to date with our latest news and photos!

No, as our legal charity name and bank details are staying the same you do not need to amend your direct debit. Your generous gift is still going to the same great cause, thank you.

Cheques should be made payable to Birmingham Hospice. However, we can also accept cheques made payable to The Hospice Charity Partnership, Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice and John Taylor Hospice.

Thank you so much for choosing to leave a gift in your will. No, you don’t need to update your will with our new brand name as our legal charity name remains the same. This means that we can still receive your generous gift.

Existing fundraising pages: From 7 March, our online giving platforms reflect our new brand name, so you don’t need to do anything. Your hard-earned sponsorship and much-needed donations will continue to come through to us, helping make every moment matter for local people and their loved ones.

New fundraising pages: To set up a new fundraising page, please search for ‘Birmingham Hospice (Birmingham St Mary’s & John Taylor Hospices)’.

No, you do not need to change anything. We are working closely with Much Loved to smoothly transition from our heritage brands to Birmingham Hospice. All donations kindly made on active tribute pages will not be affected.

If you have any old brand materials, you are welcome to keep them as a memento of your fundraising experience. However, we kindly ask that you no longer use these materials to support your fundraising activity.

We would be delighted to provide you with new materials for your next fundraising/awareness raising event. Simply email fundraise@birminghamhospice.org.uk or call 0121 752 8779 where the team will be able to support you.

We need the support of the whole community to ensure people get to know us by our new name, Birmingham Hospice, as quickly as possible. Therefore, we would appreciate if you could recycle or dispose of responsibly any old brand materials you have.