ALS Canada – The Time is now (Evolved) Fundraising Campaign
The Challenge
ALS Canada’s year-end fundraising campaign had always carried weight; but weight alone doesn’t move donors. After a 2020 campaign built entirely under COVID lockdown constraints, the organization had an opportunity to do something more: take a campaign that had survived difficult circumstances and evolve it into something that could truly perform.
The challenge wasn’t just creative. It was strategic. Year-end fundraising in the nonprofit sector is intensely competitive; every organization is asking at the same time, with the same urgency, and often the same language. Standing out required more than better visuals. It required a different relationship with the audience, one built over time, not just activated at the moment of the ask.
Visual Showcase
My Role
As ALS Canada’s client-side marketing lead, I was responsible for campaign strategy alignment, storytelling direction, and cross-channel execution. I worked closely with creative agency Principles — who developed the creative concept and brought in director and photographer Matt Manhire — to ensure the campaign reflected both the organization’s voice and its fundraising objectives. From briefing through launch, I managed the agency relationship, internal stakeholder alignment, and the execution of campaign assets across all channels.
The
Approach
The 2021 campaign was built on a year’s worth of groundwork.
Rather than treating year-end as a standalone push, we had spent the better part of the year consistently engaging ALS Canada’s audience; sharing stories, building emotional connection, and keeping supporters close to the mission without always asking for something in return. By the time Giving Tuesday arrived, we weren’t introducing ourselves. We were continuing a conversation.
The campaign evolved the established “The Time Is Now” theme with full production behind it; a deliberate step up from the 2020 Zoom-era shoots. Working with Principles and Matt Manhire, we built the campaign around six community members: Mutiat, Barb, Steve, Mangal, Bert, and Susheela. They were chosen deliberately to reflect the breadth of the ALS community; different ages, ethnicities, genders, and stages of disease progression. This wasn’t token representation. It was an acknowledgment that ALS doesn’t have a single face, and neither does the community that fights it.
Their stories anchored everything: video content, photography, email, social, and website features. Each channel reinforced the others, and the emotional throughline stayed consistent from the first touchpoint to the donation confirmation page.
Before &
After
Before (2020): The original “The Time Is Now” campaign was built under lockdown; portraits shot over Zoom, production constraints at every turn. It was resourceful and emotionally resonant given the circumstances, but limited in what it could visually deliver. Visuals in the first row below.
After (2021): A full production campaign with professional photography and video, a deliberately diverse cast of community storytellers (some who participated in the previous year’s campaign), and a multi-channel execution that felt cohesive from end to end. The visual and emotional step-change was significant; and the audience had been warmed and engaged throughout the year to receive it. Visuals in the second row below.
The Outcome
The 2021 Giving Tuesday and year-end campaign delivered a 57% increase in donation revenue compared to the previous year’s campaign; a result that reflects more than a single campaign’s performance.
That number is the product of a strategic decision made months earlier: that consistent, mission-driven audience engagement year-round would outperform a transactional approach that only showed up when it needed something. The campaign itself was the moment of conversion. The relationship was built long before the ask was made.
Ready to talk about what community-driven marketing could look like for your organization?