Chai Lifeline Canada - Annual Campaign & Family-Support Storytelling
“Built the visual and narrative platform for a national children's-illness charity - annual campaigns, donor materials, program storytelling and event creative - through years where the organization's public voice and fundraising trajectory both had to grow at the same time.”
The short version
Thirty-second read- The mandate
- Build the visual and narrative platform for a national children's-illness charity through years when both its public voice and its fundraising trajectory had to grow at once.
- The insight
- The work had to move donors without ever using a family as a prop. Dignity, consent and the family's control over their own story were the strategy, not a constraint on it.
- My role + craft
- Set the annual creative platform - concept, voice, imagery direction, campaign architecture - then split it across direct mail, digital, event, video and executive channels. Wrote and directed the family storytelling and partnered with the executive team on board and major-donor materials.
- The result
- A national platform the organization could carry across years without a rebuild each cycle, and a case-for-support system Canadian program leadership kept building on past my direct involvement.
The craft on this project is traditional: strategy, writing, art direction and production, finished by hand. Where AI carries real weight in my practice is the work around the work - interrogating briefs, drafting and stress-testing copy, exploring visual directions before committing budget, and automating the mechanical middle. The judgment, voice and final calls here are all mine. I break the whole system down on the How I use AI page.
Curious how the whole system works? How I use AI to improve efficiency, creativity and momentum, or see the full toolset.
Chai Lifeline Canada is a national charity supporting children and families facing serious illness, trauma and crisis, raising roughly $7.5M a year. I led brand, marketing, communications and creative with a four-person team, across direct mail, print, email, organic social, paid media and events, reaching 30,000+ donors annually. The communications had to move donors without ever using a family as a prop, honour a specific faith community without excluding anyone else who wanted to help, and hold one tone from quiet weeks through headline campaigns.
- 01Set the annual creative platform - concept, voice, imagery direction, campaign architecture - before splitting it into direct mail, digital, event, video and executive channels
- 02Wrote and directed family storytelling that led with dignity: consent, context, and control over how the family's own story was told
- 03Built the case-for-support system - what the organization does, why it matters, what a gift becomes - so program staff and volunteer canvassers could tell the same story in their own words
- 04Directed photography and film with the pace and restraint the subject demands - no exploitative close-ups, no manipulative music, no fabricated tension
- 05Partnered with the executive team on the board and major-donor materials that carry the strategic argument, not just the emotional one
- 06Held quality across event creative - signage, run-of-show, sponsor decks, on-screen visuals - so the moments that donors actually attended felt of a piece with everything else
- $140K+ net raised against a $40K goal on the inaugural Rosh Hashanah Meal Program campaign, which I conceived, wrote, designed and delivered
- Supported $7.5M+ in annual fundraising through campaign optimization, donor messaging and cross-channel execution
- Multi-channel programs reaching 30,000+ donors a year: engagement up 25 to 40%, audience up 15 to 25%, click-through up 20 to 30% and cost per thousand down 15 to 25%
- Segmented acquisition, onboarding and stewardship journeys built across Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Salesforce, Feathr and Blackbaud
- A national campaign platform and case-for-support language the organization carries year to year instead of rebuilding each cycle
Concept, art direction & execution - Shawn Van Daele for Chai Lifeline Canada, 2016 - 2020.