2025 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

At a time when charity donations were at their lowest level in Canadian history,
and need and noise in the sector was highest, the brand had to create awareness and understanding of an unknown charity.

Safehaven is a not-for-profit that has provided residential, respite, and transitional care to individuals with medical complexities and disabilities for over 35 years. Until recently, Safehaven had been primarily funded by the Government and
hospital networks.

Since the pandemic, funding has slowed, and need has increased. For the first time ever Safehaven needed to undertake a large capital raise but was entering the market with an awareness of almost zero.

The need for respite services for the medically complex had reached a critical level, and with over 10,000 families on a waiting list to receive support, Safevhaven had to make inroads and quickly in order to begin fundraising to support their new facility to better serve their communities.

As a society, a growing number of Canadians are fed up with inequality. Previously marginalized groups are coming into the spotlight and younger Canadians feel that their inclusion is important. Data shows that 84% of millennials give to charity and 23% want to be known for their philanthropy. With millennials being the key recipients of the $1.5-$2B wealth transfer, they have or will come into a new and unique position to support causes in which they believe.

The agency needed to create awareness and understanding for Safehaven in the GTA, so it could become one of those causes.

They chose to target a psychological target that was highly relevant to millennials, and those with a millennial-mindset: Social Warriors.

Social Warriors are proud of how fair, moralistic, and inclusive they are, wearing these values as a badge and working to bring others on board. They believe each person adds to society with their unique gifts and that our lives are made richer by our differences. They achieve personal fulfillment by making others’ lives better.

Social Warriors are restless in the face of injustice and will fight passionately on behalf of the marginalized. But they haven’t given any thought to the medically-complex. This group is so marginalized that Social Warriors don’t even
realize they need help.

A problem unseen is a problem unsolved.

1 in 100 kids is medically complex in Ontario. The agency knew that if we could make social warriors aware of the children that Safehaven serves, they would be inspired by the cause. Social Warriors believe that a life worth living is the birthright of every human being. Yet these children and their families are not given the support they need from government and medical institutions. Medically-complex kids can’t fight for themselves, so they needed Social Warriors to fight for them.

Drive Social Warriors to see those hiding in plain sight.

Safehaven is fueled by a powerful belief: that everyone deserves a space where they can thrive, one that allows them to develop to their greatest potential. Safehaven creates these spaces in 7 GTA houses but it needs help to continue to serve exceptional children. They needed everyone to actually see the 1 in 100 Safehaven serves.

The agency created a seek-and-find-type book to gamify awareness of the issue. In a sea of charities filling people’s inboxes and feeds with appeals, they went in the opposite direction.

They created an illustration with key landmarks of Toronto (e.g., St. Lawrence Market, Nathan Philips Square, and the ROM) with medically-complex children interspersed among all the other people and families going about their regular business. This illustration, framed to make the number 100, graces the
cover of the book.

Inside, they broke the illustration into 9 (a 3x3 grid), with each piece becoming its own page marked by a letter in “Safehaven.” In each visual, there are 100 people and one is a medically-complex child that the reader needs to find. The copy on each page tells the harsh reality that families face in a poetic way. The final page of the book contains a letter from Safehaven’s CEO, thanking people for reading the book and encouraging them to learn more at safehaven.to.

The One in 100 book firmly secured Safehaven on the “charitable map” with donors and the public. The campaign achieved 3.2 million earned media impressions, the highest in the charity’s history.

The brand recorded a 350% increase in website traffic during the campaign period, and the 1st edition available online and in local bookstores sold out in the first week.

Moreover, because of the heartfelt story, “One in 100” has since been accepted to Indigo and will be available on shelves in Toronto this holiday season.

Credits

Founder, Chief Creative Officer: Matt Litzinger
Founder, President: Kaitlin Doherty
Executive Creative Director, Advertising: Caitlin Keeley
Executive Creative Director, Advertising: Josh Day
Executive Creative Director, Design: Omar Morson
Designer: Omar Morson
Strategy: Alison Savage
Account Director: Val Traitses
Account Executive: Shea McNeely
Illustrator: Kathleen Fu
PR Agency: Heads + Tales
Media Agency: M&K Media