My name is Gab and I’m a member of the Ballarat & District Greens. We thought it would be very Greens-aligned to run a fundraiser focused on planting trees and direct funds raised to our then upcoming federal election campaign.

In December 2021 we ran a fundraiser in partnership with FifteenTrees called ‘Trees for Hope Ballarat‘. The month-long campaign encouraged Greens-minded folk to buy trees at $10 each that would later be planted across the Ballarat federal district. Profits went to our 2022 Ballarat Greens federal election campaign.

Promotion occurred online through Greens communication channels and our branch’s Facebook and Instagram.

To my delight, people across Victoria and even interstate purchased trees. We had supporters from as far as Bass Coast, Mornington, Baw Baw and Campbelltown (yep, NSW!) buying trees knowing they would be planted in the Ballarat district. That made me so happy and personally gave me a lot of hope for the world.

Supporters were encouraged to buy trees as Christmas gifts and every supporter received a digital tree card to share with their chosen tree recipients.

In the end we sold over 300 trees and to top it off, Fifteen Trees handled all the dirty work for us – not that us Greens aren’t happy to help!

In terms of challenges I really can’t think of any. I did a lot of the social media preparation in the month beforehand creating graphics on Canva and scheduling posts which took a lot of stress off in December. As orders arrived, I emailed back my thanks and their digital tree card, and kept track of sales in a simple spreadsheet.

This is definitely the kind of fundraiser I’d recommend to others especially if the funds are going to something related to the spirit of planting a tree.

‘Trees for Hope Ballarat’ was a vision I had for hopeful locals to support improving federal politics and it has been so encouraging to see people across the country, not just locals, believe in this vision and put their money where their hope is.

Gab, Ballarat.

It was a pleasure to help the Ballarat and District Greens with their federal election campaign knowing that we were supporting a party that put the planet first. As an added bonus, we knew we were also supporting our local landcare groups.

All up, enough funds were raised for us to purchase 345 native plants for a local landcare group, Napoleons and Enfield Landcare. The plants were planted over the course of the winter at Cambrian Hill and Golden Plains. In the interests of biodiversity the plants were a mixture of native trees, shrubs and grasses, all sourced from local nursery, Ballarat Wildplants. This nursery grows locally indigenous plants including trees, shrubs, grasses, ground-covers and margin plants, all propagated from collected seed in the district.

Ballarat and district is home to many birds of prey such as the Powerful Owl (top L), the Black Kite (top R), the Nankeen Kestrel (bottom L) and the Grey Goshawk (bottom R). All these predatory birds will benefit from the recent planting at both Cambrian Hill and Golden Plains. Over time, these newly planted native trees, shrubs and grasses will attract insects and small mammals that will become a food source for these mighty birds.

Some of the species planted included; tassel sedge, Myrtle wattle, Australian Indigo, Goodenia, kangaroo apple (see below) and mat rush.

Thank you to Gab and the Ballarat and District Greens for their ongoing commitment to protecting our native environment. We are very proud to play a small part in their successful federal campaign last May to ensure a handful of Greens are sitting in Parliament keeping an eye on all policies that affect our land, our air and our water.

Writer: Colleen Filippa

With a background in Environmental Science, Colleen is the Founding Director of Fifteen Trees. In 2009, after 20 years in primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions, Colleen left the classroom to start the company. Fifteen Trees is a social enterprise assisting individuals and companies to reduce their carbon footprint by supporting community groups such as Landcare, schools and environmental networks.