Sculpture for Charity Fundraising, Memorials & Legacy Projects Bespoke sculpture for fundraising appeals, remembrance campaigns, supporter engagement and permanent memorial spaces.
Sculpture that connects people, memory and purpose
I work with charities, hospices, hospitals, corporate sponsors and fundraising teams to develop sculpture-led projects that create meaningful experiences while supporting fundraising, remembrance and public engagement.
Projects can range from hundreds or thousands of individually handcrafted artworks that come together as a temporary installation, to permanent memorial sculptures designed for a particular landscape or place.
The strongest projects work at more than one level. An individual artwork can become a personal keepsake or memorial, while collectively the pieces create a visually powerful installation that attracts visitors, media attention, corporate sponsorship and wider awareness of the charity.
Previous projects have included 2,825+ memorial butterflies, 2,500 dragonflies, 1,800 steel roses, 400 anniversary jasmine flowers and a four-sculpture permanent memorial trail.
Fundraising sculpture campaigns
A repeatable sculptural object can become the centre of an entire fundraising campaign.
Supporters make a donation in return for an individually handcrafted artwork, often with the opportunity to personalise or dedicate it. Hundreds or thousands of those pieces can then be brought together to create a large temporary installation before supporters take their artwork home.
The sculpture can therefore work as:
a fundraising product · a memorial object · a public installation · a campaign image · a sponsorship opportunity · and a permanent reminder of the charity
The design does not need to be based on an existing artwork. Butterflies, dragonflies, flowers, leaves, birds and other symbolic forms can be developed specifically around the charity, campaign and audience.
Ashgate Hospice — Butterfly Appeal
For Ashgate Hospice's 2023 Butterfly Appeal, I designed and handcrafted thousands of stainless-steel butterflies which were displayed together at Chatsworth before being collected by supporters as lasting memorials.
Ashgate's audited annual report records more than 2,825 butterflies dedicated and £87,804 raised. Each butterfly was offered for a suggested £25 donation, with sponsorship from Graysons Solicitors helping support the campaign. The installation also received significant media coverage, including a live broadcast from Chatsworth.
The project demonstrated how a relatively small individual sculpture can become something very different when repeated at scale: a landscape installation representing thousands of individual memories while generating significant funds for the hospice.
2,825+ butterflies dedicated
£87,804 raised
Ashgate Hospice — Dragonfly Appeal
Following the success of the Butterfly Appeal, I was commissioned again to develop a new artwork for Ashgate's 2025 campaign.
I designed and handcrafted 2,500 stainless-steel dragonflies, which were brought together in another major memorial installation at Chatsworth. Supporters were invited to dedicate a dragonfly for a suggested £30 donation before taking it home after the exhibition.
Ashgate subsequently reported that the Dragonfly Appeal raised more than £93,000. The campaign was again supported by Graysons Solicitors.
2,500 handcrafted dragonflies
£93,000+ raised
These two campaigns also demonstrate the potential to develop a successful fundraising concept over several years while keeping each appeal visually distinctive.
Roundabout — 1,800 Steel Roses
Working alongside Spitfire Forge, I designed and helped create 1,800 individually handmade mild and stainless-steel roses for Roundabout, the South Yorkshire youth homelessness charity.
Each rose represented one young person supported by Roundabout since the beginning of the cost-of-living crisis in 2021. The roses transformed that statistic into something physical and immediately understandable: 1,800 individual objects representing 1,800 individual experiences.
The installation was launched at Art in the Gardens at Sheffield Botanical Gardens and subsequently displayed at Sheffield Cathedral, before roses were made available to supporters as part of the fundraising campaign.
1,800 steel roses
1,800 young people represented
This project illustrates how sculpture can communicate the scale of a social issue without losing sight of the individual people behind the statistics.
St John's Hospice — Jasmine Flowers & Memorial Butterflies
For the 40th anniversary of St John's Hospice in London, I created 400 individually handcrafted and painted stainless-steel jasmine flowers.
The jasmine is the hospice's symbolic flower, making it particularly appropriate for an anniversary installation celebrating its community and the memories created over four decades.
All 400 flowers were displayed together at the hospice's anniversary celebration. Supporters could dedicate an individual jasmine for a suggested £40 donation before taking it home as a permanent keepsake. The production of the sculptures was funded by Dorchester Collection, meaning funds generated through the dedications could support the hospice's work.
400 handcrafted jasmine flowers
£40 supporter dedication
I have also produced stainless-steel butterflies for St John's ongoing in-memory programme. These can be personalised and either displayed within the hospice gardens or taken home by supporters; the hospice currently offers them for a £45 donation.
The project shows how corporate sponsorship can work alongside sculpture-led fundraising, helping charities create a high-quality physical artwork while maximising the value of supporter donations.
Birmingham Women's & Children's Hospitals — Remembering Together
My work with Birmingham Women's and Children's Hospitals extends the idea of remembrance sculpture into a permanent memorial environment.
I created four individual sculptures for the charity's Remembering Together trail at the National Memorial Arboretum. The trail was developed with families and the hospitals' bereavement and chaplaincy teams, with each sculpture representing a different experience of loss across the two hospitals.
The four memorials remember:
Children and young people lost at Birmingham Children's Hospital · Little lives lost at Birmingham Women's Hospital · Bereaved mothers who donate breast milk · NHS staff who have died
The Birmingham Women's Hospital sculpture uses a butterfly to represent lives lost too soon, with purple wings symbolising support for bereaved families. The Children's Hospital memorial incorporates a tree enclosed within a balloon, representing children and young people who have died.
The NHS memorial honours staff from Birmingham Women's and Children's Hospitals, while the Memory Milk memorial recognises bereaved mothers who donate breast milk following the loss of their baby.
The physical sculptures are connected to an online remembrance experience where families can add names, photographs and messages and make donations supporting the hospitals' bereavement and chaplaincy teams.
This project demonstrates another way sculpture can support a charitable organisation: creating a permanent place for remembrance that also connects physical artwork with continuing digital engagement and in-memory giving.
[VIEW THE REMEMBERING TOGETHER PROJECT]
From an individual object to a collective artwork
One of the most effective aspects of sculpture-led fundraising is its ability to connect the individual with something much larger.
A single butterfly, dragonfly, rose or flower can represent one person, memory or donation. Bring hundreds or thousands together and they become a collective artwork capable of communicating the scale of a charity's work in a way that statistics alone often cannot.
After an exhibition, supporters can take their individual artwork home, extending the relationship with the charity beyond the original campaign.
Designed specifically for your organisation
Every project can be developed around the identity, purpose and audience of the organisation.
This might involve:
memorial and in-memory campaigns · hospice fundraising appeals · anniversary campaigns · donor recognition · supporter keepsakes · corporate-sponsored campaigns · permanent memorial sculpture · sculpture trails · hospital and healthcare environments · community participation
Designs can incorporate meaningful symbols, personalised inscriptions, different metals and finishes, or a visual identity specific to the organisation.
For permanent commissions, the sculpture can also be developed in response to the landscape, architecture and way people will interact with the site.
Corporate sponsorship
Sculptural fundraising projects can also create strong opportunities for corporate partners and sponsors.
Previous projects demonstrate how sponsorship can contribute towards production while allowing supporter donations to deliver greater value to the charity. A substantial public installation can also give a sponsor meaningful association with a positive, highly visible community project without allowing commercial branding to overwhelm the purpose of the artwork.
Both Ashgate's campaigns involved support from Graysons Solicitors, while Dorchester Collection funded the creation of St John's Hospice's 400 anniversary jasmines.
Developing a fundraising or memorial sculpture project
Projects normally begin with a conversation about the organisation, audience and objective rather than with a predetermined design.
We can consider:
the story or symbol behind the artwork · likely number of pieces · target supporter donation · production budget · personalisation · sponsorship · installation and display · collection or distribution after the campaign · permanent versus temporary use
For repeatable fundraising artworks, production can range from relatively small campaigns to several thousand handcrafted pieces.
Costs depend on design, quantity, materials, personalisation and installation requirements, so projects are quoted individually.
Discuss a project
If you are developing a fundraising appeal, remembrance campaign, hospice memorial, hospital artwork or permanent legacy project, I would be pleased to discuss how sculpture could become part of it.
Contact James Sutton Sculpture to discuss an initial idea.
