The campaign's donation mechanic lived and worked ONLY on Twitch (the social platform primarily for gamers to stream their gaming while also interacting with viewers). The success of the campaign relied on Twitch viewers subscribing to the Jane/Finch Centre verified account (also a place where they could learn about the organization)

Other campaign elements lived organically on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube, driving to our Twitch page or website to learn more, and providing content for news outlets reporting on the campaign.

With so many worthy causes to support, it can be hard to get the attention (and dollars) of potential donors - especially without strong name recognition. Our client (the Jane/Finch Community Centre) is one of 86,000 registered charities in Canada, and one that most had never heard of. In addition, rising income inequality increases the need for donations, while diminishing the public’s ability to give.

We wanted to create a fundraising campaign that not only engaged the public with a conversation about income inequality, but had a built-in donation mechanism that made it easy for people to donate.

The goal was to raise $20,000 for this struggling community centre, without exploiting the residents (no sad pics of poverty, which would only play into the stereotypes of the Jane/Finch neighbourhood, known as Toronto’s poorest and most dangerous).

It's the 'modern-day Robin Hood story' of taking from the mega-rich to benefit the poor.

We took advantage of a loophole in the streaming service Twitch (owned by Amazon and Jeff Bezos) where Amazon Prime Members get a free $3.50 to subscribe and support a streamer. If the $3.50 is not used it goes right back to Amazon. So we turned JFC into a verified Twitch streamer, allowing people to subscribe to us and donate money in a way that's 100% funded by Amazon (in a perfectly legal way :).

This allowed us to not only garner much-needed donations, but enter the conversation about income inequality in a surprising manner, and tap into the groundswell of anger against corporations that do little to benefit the communities their workers live in.

People were able to not only help a community centre, but also got a chance to 'Bill it to Bezos'.

We looked at current trends in the donation landscape, and identified declining contributions in the context of rising economic concerns. We interviewed community members to understand the Jane/Finch area was not defined by ‘struggle’, but by their capacity to adapt and work together to fight inequality.

Since the people who are most passionate about income inequality are often those without the means to give, we wanted to create a campaign that not only engaged this target, but had a built-in donation mechanism. This young target is sick of the rich getting richer while the average Canadian struggles.

Our team scoured the internet, past donation campaigns, and social platforms, and discovered a donation mechanism that fit so perfectly with the topic that we knew immediately we had something special. The platform Twitch.tv was not only a place these conversations were happening, but also a native place to donate with one click.

First, we had to turn the Jane/Finch Centre (JFC) into a verified Twitch streamer (a months-long set of protocols and milestones that included a certain number of hours streamed, number of followers, time on platform, and application to be verified).

Once we had the accreditation, we were eligible to receive Prime subscriptions, so we released our campaign video (YouTube), and social media assets (TikTok & Instagram), all of which drove organically to our Twitch hub or campaign website. The hub and site also had tutorial videos explaining how to subscribe/donate for those who weren't sure how to link their Amazon Prime account to Twitch.

PR helped get the word out (with the local, national, and international press carrying the story), and the campaign donation push went from September to November 2022.

The centre met their entire annual fundraising goal in under one week, with over 45% of the donations coming through Twitch subscriptions, the rest as a result of the PR the campaign garnered. In total, the campaign raised more in the first week than they have over the past 3 years combined.

In addition, The Jane/Finch Community Centre received a different type of coverage than the type of negative press the neighbourhood regularly gets. Historical news coverage is about violence, poverty, and other subject matters that paint the community in a bad light. This coverage was about all the good things the centre was doing to support education, immigration, youth, seniors, etc.

This included millions of impressions from local and national news coverage, and around the world. General press covered the story from a human interest point of view, and the tech press told the deeper story on innovation.

There was $0 spent on media.

The total budget was also $0.

Production was all done in-house by the agency.

The Jane/Finch area of Toronto is notoriously known as a neighbourhood that's full of gangs, shootings, and poverty. News coverage tends to reinforce these stereotypes. As a result, it's created a belief that this region is beyond hope - and for some, that the residents are to blame for the struggles they face.

This campaign not only created a wonderful way to raise donations, it also brought to light the incredible efforts of the community centre, and the residents' daily work to fight inequality.