Montrose Community Trust is an impactful local charity that empowers its community through a range of education, sports and health programmes. Working to tackle issues like deprivation, mental health and isolation, they see more than 22,000 engagements each year across programmes like Montrose Connections, a dementia meeting group, Breakfast in the Box, a free community breakfast, International Speakers Club, an integration-based language group, and a wide range of football sessions for all ages and abilities.
Project duration: 2025 – Present
Challenges
Montrose Community Trust (MCT) was founded in 2012 with a simple mission: to make positive changes to the lives of those in their community through the unique power of football. In the years that followed the charity has grown from a football-focused organisation into one of the most impactful charitable trusts in Angus.
For MCT, this big change had created a big problem – their marketing approach was unfocused, people were unaware of the breadth of their work, and their website no longer reflected the impact they were having on all corners of the community.
It’s with this challenge that MCT reached out to us, and what started as a website project has grown into a remarkable marketing partnership that continues to deepen and widen the Trust’s impact in our communities.
Our Approach
Our support for MCT has leaned into these key areas:
Website: Building a brand new website that more accurately represents the charity and will act as their online hub for years to come.
Strategy & Training: Building MCT’s confidence, marketing skills, and helping them articulate their mission and vision.
Video: Capturing impactful and emotive people-led content that connects and documents the Trust’s milestone moments.
PR: Changing the public perception of MCT from a football charity, to an organisation that’s here for everyone in the community and has the acknowledgement of high profile visitors.
Website
MCT’s previous website was functional, but it didn’t speak to the breadth of programmes on offer, and it didn’t take users on a journey through the trust’s mission, vision and ultimately to get involved, whether through attending a programme, volunteering or donating. There were huge information gaps, a lack of emotive impact, and all in all the Trust had outgrown it.
That’s why when we began writing and building their new website we focused everything around the user. The website had to speak to the people in the community. It had to be easy to navigate and take people on a journey that would make taking the first step to turning up to any programme something to be excited about, not intimidated by.
To meet these aims, we built a website that:
- Is content-rich, with a wealth of information around MCT’s purpose and values, acting as a knowledge hub for all things MCT.
- Makes it easy for the community to learn more about or book into relevant programmes or volunteering opportunities.
- Highlights the Trust’s mission to people of influence – from funding bodies and strategic partners to local volunteers.
- Is easy for MCT’s staff to update as the organisation continues to grow and evolve.
- Supports The Gable End, MCT’s £2million development that will encompass a leading dementia centre, a digital lab, community hub and a new office for MCT’s staff.
The new website shows the world who MCT are in a way that’s professional and impactful – raising their confidence and expanding their digital reach. With this sleek asset behind them, the team are more able to spread the word about the impact they’re having and the importance of their work.
Crucially, the team at MCT has embraced their website. Built to be easily updated by teams without a tech background, it only takes a few clicks to add a new programme or upload a blog – and the team have been incredibly self-sufficient in keeping it up to date.
We also delivered additional SEO training, meaning the Trust team are now able to write and upload blogs that aren’t just informative, they’re specifically targeted to the audiences that are most important to them.
Strategy and Training
Defining the Trust’s Values
Each time we work with an organisation for the first time we get to know them through a collaborative workshop. For MCT, this stage was crucial to defining their values, their mission and their marketing focus. These values are used to shape all marketing activities by MCT – they’re embedded into the website, shine through in every social media post and give the community a core understanding of what MCT stands for.
Defining these values doesn’t just make for impactful marketing content, it helps to guide conversations around the Trust and means their staff are more able to confidently articulate their mission, decide how and where to deliver programmes, shape how they want to be seen by their community.
Social Media Training | Embedding Social Media Into Daily Practice
MCT’s team don’t work behind the scenes – they’re out delivering impact every day. And one of the best ways to reach people online is to document that impact with authentic social media content.
That’s why we delivered social media training to MCT’s core team, helping them make the most of their Instagram and Facebook feeds by creating engaging posts and video content that connects.
The result is that social media is no longer an afterthought for the team – it’s something that’s embedded into their day to day routines, with a content schedule that’s consistent. Each member of the team has committed to creating and posting a steady stream of content, demonstrating the power of embracing training and holding themselves accountable.
Their content shows their participants, their team behind-the-scenes and ultimately puts people first. And this content is connecting on a massive scale – MCT’s Facebook posts have reached more than 500,000 people since the training sessions took place.
Public Relations | Reshaping Perception
Shaping the public’s perception of MCT from a football charity to a charity that impacts every part of the community wasn’t an easy feat. We took an approach involving a thoughtfully written website, alongside press and blogs that highlight all of the charity’s work, and in particular highlight how The Gable End will support this.
The result is a shifting perception of the trust, with £800,000 raised for The Gable End to date and press coverage in The Courier, Angus World, on STV and through the local Chambers of Commerce.
We also support MCT to deliver their More Than Football day, Big Walk and Talk and their Christmas Festive Friends initiative – each of which moulds the perception of the Trust from a football charity, to an organisation that touches the lives of people from all corners of the community.
Video Support | Telling Stories that Connect
Video content has been a key aspect of MCT’s marketing strategy, bringing the real stories and emotion behind the Trust to the forefront. Below we’ve highlighted three key videos that have made a real difference and will preserve important milestones for years to come.
Royal & Governmental Visits
In April 2026, Montrose Community Trust welcomed First Minister John Swinney and The Duke of Edinburgh in two visits that spoke to the impact they’re having and were well earned recognition of the hard work and dedication of the Trust’s team. And we were right there by their side.
Flexible, fast-moving and adaptable, we were on site at short notice, working proactively throughout both shoots to ensure we captured a breadth of content from the visits that really captured the feeling of the days.
The result? A reel and two, emotive, impactful videos that have gathered more than 35,000 views and will keep the visits in the memories of the MCT team and the wider community for years to come.
Midlife Matters
MCT is an organisation that’s always looking for new ways to positively impact its community. Through their own research they identified a key group that felt underrepresented – midlife women. From here, Midlife Matters was born, a first-of-its-kind group in Angus that supports women experiencing the symptoms of menopause and perimenopause.
We were brought in to produce a promotional video for this new group. Taking a new approach, we created an editorial-style, rather than talking-head, video, with MCT’s Gemma Cruickshank providing a deeply moving narration that spoke to women from all backgrounds. The video is full of emotion and honesty – and helped women in the community feel seen and understood, fully booking out the first run of the group.
Impact Beyond Numbers
Since launch, the website has had:
6,000 unique users
4,800 engaged sessions
32,603 impressions on Google
34% users acquired from organic social
But for us, working with MCT has been about more than numbers going up, page views or click rates. It’s been a project that’s about real, on the ground impact. It’s been rewarding to empower such an incredible, dedicated team to become more confident, not just in their ability to use social media and their website, but to speak more broadly about their mission and vision.
The team at MCT shows the power of truly leaning into training, understanding what makes your organisation special, and shouting loudly about it – and we’re so proud to continue to support them along the way.
Due North Creatives have played a hugely important role in helping Montrose Community Trust communicate both our impact and ambition. Their creativity, professionalism and genuine understanding of community work has made them feel far more like strategic partners than an external agency. We’re incredibly grateful for their support and believe it’s worth more than its weight in gold.
Chris Platt
CEO
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