Ways to fundraise this Spring

A couple of people that are standing in the grass

Boost your fundraising

Have you ever thought about match funding?

Most employers are ready to help you raise money for your favourite charity, you just need to ask! Speak to your manager or HR department to see if they can support you. If they want to know more about Kent Wildlife Trust and our work, we’re happy to help!

You could also give your fundraising a boost by starting a JustGiving page or teaming up with friends through GiveMatch.

For support or to learn more about fundraising for us, contact us at fundraising@kentwildlife.org.uk

A family walking down a path with the words take steps for nature this spring

Family Fun This Easter

Could you take part in Hedgehog Walk – can you walk 3km over two weeks, the same distance a hedgehog can walk in one night? Plus, if you fundraise over £30, you’ll win a prize! The challenge is running from 31 March to 13 April, and you can sign up.

Get involved

You could host a community easter egg hunt and donate your profits to Kent Wildlife Trust, or turn your spring clean green! Sell your unwanted items at a car boot fair or online and donate some of your earnings to help wildlife thrive.

A poster for a children's show with a sheep and a sheep

Download our fundraising packs for even more tips and tools to help you FUN-draise this spring

Get involved

Could your company Sponsor a Reserve?

With over 90 reserves in our care, we’re proud custodians of nature, and we’re asking you to join us.

By sponsoring a reserve, whether through a one-off donation, choosing us as your Charity of the Year, or committing long-term, your company can secure its future.

Your support will unlock its wild potential, showcase your organisation’s commitment with an onsite plaque, and give your team the chance to explore its magic on a guided tour with its dedicated warden.

A group of people standing on top of a dirt road

Contact corporate@kentwildlife.org.uk to sponsor your reserve today.

The return of the red-billed chough to Kent

Once extinct from Kent’s skies, the red-billed chough is making a triumphant return. Known for its vibrant red beak, glossy black feathers and impressive aerial acrobatics, this striking bird has returned to the White Cliffs of Dover after two centuries of absence. Thanks to two successful releases as part of a groundbreaking reintroduction project, the chough is becoming a more familiar sight, bringing joy to locals and birdwatchers alike.

Reaching Greater Heights

The comeback is supported by the “Reaching Greater Heights” initiative, a National Lottery Heritage-funded project that is restoring 80 hectares of precious chalk grassland. This collaboration between Kent Wildlife Trust, English Heritage, White Cliffs Countryside Partnership, and the Western Heights Preservation Society will run until December 2026. Together, we are creating vital habitats across Dover Castle and the Western Heights for rare species like the early spider orchid, lesser calamint, and Adonis blue butterfly, while providing the perfect hunting ground for the chough.

Chalk grassland, often called the UK’s rainforest, is an incredibly rare and important habitat. It can support as many as 40 species per square meter and hundreds of invertebrates, many of which are vital to the chough’s diet. For over 40 years, we have worked with partners to restore chalk grassland through conservation grazing with organic livestock, ensuring these habitats remain rich with insects.

The Chough Reintroduction Project

Since 2022, Kent Wildlife Trust and Wildwood Trust have worked together to restore the red-billed chough to Kent. Following the second successful release season in summer 2024 alongside the first wild chough chick hatched in over 200 years, attention now turns to raising the next generation of birds to bolster the free-flying population.

To fund the 2025 release, we launched an appeal last winter, and the generosity of supporters has ensured the project’s continuation for another season.

What’s next?

Dover’s chalk grassland restoration forms part of a larger network of interconnected habitats across the south coast. The project aims to release between 30 and 50 choughs in Kent over the five-year project, but the road to a self-sustaining chough population is a long one. We are continuing to work with landowners and partners to ensure the landscape can support the chough’s needs. Meanwhile, Wildwood Trust focusses on breeding, hatching, hand-rearing, and training the birds for life in the wild.

Nationally, the Kent population serves as a model for future reintroduction efforts along the south coast, potentially creating stepping stones to link fragmented populations. A Southern England steering group, including Natural England and leading conservationists, is facilitating these efforts.

Kent’s chough population is setting the stage for future reintroductions along the south coast, helping to bridge gaps between fragmented groups. A Southern England steering group, made up of Natural England and top conservation experts, is driving these efforts forward.

Paul Hadaway, Director of Conservation for Kent Wildlife Trust:

“The red-billed chough reintroduction project in Dover demonstrates that, even with the perilous state of nature in this country, it is possible to restore ecosystems and bring back missing species. This project is built on decades of science, feasibility studies, and habitat restoration.

“This reintroduction is already inspiring further conservation efforts, ensuring the red-billed chough’s story of recovery continues. With every soaring chough and every milestone achieved, Kent takes another step closer to a wilder, more vibrant future for its iconic landscapes.”

Find out more

Share your sightings

Please do share reports of sightings of choughs foraging and soaring over Dover Castle - it’s an image us conservationists have long envisioned!

6 actions you can take to make an impact for nature

A hedgehog eating out of a bowl in the grass

1. Provide food and water for local wildlife

Our local wildlife will appreciate any support we can give them this spring. Some creatures, like hedgehogs, will be coming out of hibernation and will be looking for food and water. We can help them by leaving shallow dishes of water (remember that milk can make a hedgehog poorly) and meat-based hedgehog, dog, or cat food for our prickly visitors.

Birds will be grateful for topped-up bird feeders as they’ll need lots of energy for raising their chicks. Having a shallow dish with some stones in will create an accessible drinking spot for many creatures!

A field full of wildflowers and trees on a cloudy day

2. Keep it WILD

Would it be a wildlife magazine if we didn’t suggest leaving patches of your space to grow wild? Leaving grass to grow longer as well as leaving ‘untidy’ areas of any green space (whether it’s at school or at home) will give wildlife a safe place to shelter and eat. Plants like dandelions and clovers will have the chance to grow and provide very important food sources for pollinators! Log piles and ‘dead hedges’ are fantastic homes for minibeasts, so you’ll be creating a great habitat whilst providing a food source for birds and other wildlife.

A man and two little girls sitting on a log

3. Get outdoors

Spending more time outdoors is a great thing for you and for nature. When we get outside to socialise, exercise, or relax, we boost our mental wellbeing and feel more connected to our environment. And when we gain more appreciation for something, we are more passionate about wanting to protect it!

Whether you’re sending the kids off exploring while you enjoy a relaxing walk, or you’re ready to discover a volunteering opportunity that might give you a renewed sense of community and purpose, the outdoors is calling!

A little girl is playing with a watering can

4. Reduce your water usage

Where possible, installing a water butt in your outdoor space can help with reducing your water consumption. That way, you’ll have stashed away a healthy supply of recycled rainwater, ready to use on your plants or for topping up your bird bath or pond in the summer, without the need to use the hose! As a bonus, your plants will prefer being watered this way because tap water is usually much colder than their surrounding environment.

5. Plant for pollinators

Whether you have a window box or a garden, we can all do our bit to help pollinators. We rely on honeybees for about a third of everything we eat, but it’s not just bees that help us out: butterflies, wasps, bats, hoverflies and moths are also pollinators!

By providing them with tasty nectar and pollen in the flowers that we plant, it will keep them going this year. Great ones to plant this time of year include English bluebells, grape hyacinths, lungwort, primroses, and lavender.

Check out our ‘Actions’ page to find out how to create your own ‘Nectar Café’.

Two little girls playing in a field of grass

6. Keep learning

Nature is fascinating – I think that’s something we can all agree on! How about taking a magnifying glass out on a walk with you to explore the worlds of lichen, moss and minibeasts? Or inspecting the fresh green leaves of trees as they unfurl...

You could get involved with local campaigns, attend one of our fascinating Study Days, or visit us at Tyland Barn for a fun-filled day of pond dipping! As you learn, your enthusiasm and passion will spark interest in others, helping to spread the word about how much we need nature.

Feeling inspired? Check out even more actions for nature this spring here

Bella Sabin-Dawson

Education Officer

Bella creates resources and delivers education sessions at our nature reserves and across schools in Kent. With a background in environmental social sciences, she cares deeply about the relationship between people and nature, and how this can impact wildlife and the environment.