Every charity has a strategy conversation that needs to happen. A rebrand that's been put off. A website that stopped doing its job a while ago. A name that doesn't really fit any more.

Most of the time, that conversation stays where it started. In a meeting room, on a slide deck, or in a document that gets opened once and never again.

This is the story of one that didn't.

The time for change

Eleanor Martin began driving Eczema UK’s rebrand from her first role as Health Content Lead at National Eczema Society, recognising an opportunity to transform how the organisation shows up digitally. As Head of Communications, she's ready to roll out a brand that reflects the organisation's ambition.

"The name National Eczema Society had started to feel outdated and suggestively exclusive," Eleanor explains. That becomes a real barrier when our core purpose is to provide advice and support to everyone affected by eczema. The name was putting distance between the charity and the people it was trying to reach.

The organisation had broader ambitions that required stronger branding. Eczema UK is committed to advocating for the eczema community, pushing for improved diagnostic pathways, with reduced wait times for referrals to dermatologists aiding in better access to treatments. To speak with authority on the issues facing the community, a stronger presence was essential to make the intended impact.

In January 2025, the decision was made to go for a full transformation. New name, new brand identity, new website. Everything at once.

Finding the right partner

Eleanor went looking through the channels most charity comms leads would recognise. Sector contact groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, asking peers who they'd worked with and what the experience was like. About six potential partners were in the mix.

"Few and Far felt like the right fit from the start," she says, "and that was a sentiment shared by others involved in the decision."

The other conversations she'd had during the selection process felt more transactional. With some agencies, the people on the initial call weren't the people who'd actually be doing the work. There was often a sales layer in between, and it was hard to get a sense of who you'd really end up working with.

Few and Far were different. Eleanor talks about their warmth and enthusiasm, which she says was noticeably absent elsewhere. Col and Tom were in the room from day one, and they stayed there. No handover to a different team once the contract was signed. The people she spoke to at the start were the same people guiding the work all the way through.

When the people leading a project already know the background, you don't spend weeks going back over decisions that have already been made. That continuity showed up in the pace of the project, which we'll come back to.

Stakeholder investment

Anyone who's tried to get a big digital project signed off at a charity will know how this bit goes.

There were concerns about the cost, and about how beneficiaries might feel about the charity spending money on a new website. Eleanor says the real hesitation wasn't the budget itself though. It was the sheer volume of change happening at once. A new name, a new look, a completely new website. That's a lot of change for our community at once.

What helped was data. The team focused on how many people are living with eczema and how many more the charity could reach with a clearer, more accessible digital presence. Few and Far backed that up by showcasing examples of their previous work, which gave the chief executive a proper sense of what was achievable. Eleanor also pointed out that Few and Far was the only partner in the process that gave real personality to each of their case studies. That mattered to a team who wanted a site that would stand out in the dermatology information sector.

The workshop that changed everything

If there was one moment where the project properly found its feet, it was the Brand Personality Workshop.

Agreeing on anything by committee is difficult. Agreeing on something as subjective as how an organisation should feel is another thing entirely. But the workshop gave everyone a structure to work within, and it held. People with differing views on the charity's direction came out of it pulling the same way. Eleanor describes board members who'd arrived with reservations leaving with a sense of where things were heading and why.

That's what carried the project forward. A set of brand values on a slide doesn't do much by itself. But when the people who need to approve things and the people delivering them are on the same page, everything moves differently.

From board meeting to brand reveal: what it actually took