Case Studies

Great Canadian Yoga Stretch

The Need

Given their lack of a national signature event involving all organizational divisions, CNIB sought to create a fundraising property with a number of objectives:

Engage a new pool of participating fundraisers from coast to coast
Create regional communities in support of CNIB
Build brand awareness with a unique property
Raise non-designated funds for regional operations

The Response

I devised the Great Canadian Yoga Stretch as a means to engage a diverse number of audiences in a national yoga-themed fundraising campaign: CNIB staff, volunteers & clients, local yoga communities, corporate Canada, media and the public at large.

The Challenge

I was mandated to dovetail the campaign with CNIB’s Vision Health Month in May 2010. As the initial concept was created in November 2009, we had a five-month window to create all campaign assets, rally sponsors and ambassadors, organize events and promote across the country—all while publicizing the campaign alongside other CNIB Vision Health Month public education and fundraising initiatives.

The Rationale

Though run/walk events appeal to a broad range of potential participants, the charitable landscape is already overrun with similar events within the temperate months of the year.
Research revealed few yoga-themed fundraisers, and all of these were community based. The lone exception was the Power of Movement in support of the Arthritis & Autoimmunity Research Centre Foundation—a single-day yoga event in multiple cities across the country.
This strongly suggested an opportunity for a national yoga-themed fundraising campaign that could be “owned” by CNIB.

The Concept: The Great Canadian Yoga Stretch/Yoga Jusqu’au Bout

Rather than a traditional single day special event, The Great Canadian Yoga Stretch was devised as a month-long campaign that encourages ongoing fundraising as people strive to meet and exceed their personal yoga challenge.
Yoga practitioners across the country were engaged with a challenge: what’s your stretch goal?
Participants issue their yoga challenge for the month: trying yoga for the first time, 30 days of practice, your first two-hour practice, etc. The challenge is determined by the individual to promote inclusion, and everyone raises funds along the way.
The month culminates in Celebration Events in select cities where active participants come together to practice yoga and meditation. Some events feature a special guided yoga practice for the blind and partially sighted where resources are available.
The campaign also educates Canadians about CNIB services for the blind and partially sighted, including important health and wellness programs.

The Campaign

Sign up at www.greatcanadianyogastretch.ca or www.yogajusquaubout.ca and create a personal or team fundraising page.
Issue a fundraising challenge and solicit donations from friends, family, coworkers, fellow yogis.
Begin to pursue your challenge on May 1, with a goal of completion by May 30.
Log your progress on your fundraising page with blogging, photos, video.
Celebrate your donors through recognition on your page.
Promote your efforts through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Attend local end-of-campaign Celebration Events in cities across the country.
Hit designated fundraising targets to achieve prizes, including the grand prize of an all-expenses-paid exclusive weekend yoga retreat at CNIB’s Lake Joseph Centre in the Muskokas area of Ontario.

The Positioning

Yoga is means for everyone—active or sedentary, male or female, sighted or not—to improve their health and well-being. The Great Canadian Yoga Stretch was created to inspire all Canadians to try it out, work towards a personal challenge and support a great cause at the same time.
The Yoga Stretch is the only national campaign in support of vision health.
Yoga is an accessible means to inspire physical activity in the blind and partially sighted, and therefore relevant to CNIB’s mission.
Funds raised will support CNIB services in communities across the country.

The Campaign Platform and Online Properties

I directed our agency to use our positioning to create a vibrant bilingual creative platform for the campaign including web site and electronic and print marketing collateral.
I directed CNIB’s media relations team to devise and implement an outreach strategy for key campaign markets (Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal).
I engaged our agency to create a web portal at www.greatcanadianyogastretch.com that engages participants, promotes events, provides online yoga resources, recognizes sponsors and ambassadors and profiles CNIB.
The site was connected to an online fundraising portal customized through the Artez fundraising solution. This facilitated all registration and donation transactions, receipting and acknowledgements, as well as donor/participant communications to promote fund raising and event attendance.
I created and managed the Yoga Stretch Facebook group and Twitter feed.

Outreach

700+ local yoga studios across the country
Provincial yoga associations
Gyms and fitness centres
Corporate Canada: team participation
Associations with a health & wellness mandate
Existing CNIB sponsors and supporters
CNIB staff, boards, volunteers and clients
Promotional booth at the Toronto Yoga Conference: March 25 & 26, 2010
Online communities (e.g., Yoga Network Canada on Facebook, 1000 members)

Ambassadors

Targeted popular regional yoga teachers, CNIB clients and celebrities to represent the Yoga Stretch in the media and at local events.
I used personal and professional contacts as well as cold calling to introduce the campaign to targeted ambassadors—achieved 10 regional ambassadors from Vancouver to St. John’s, including an Olympic snowboarder (Dominique Vallee) and a Paralympic rower (Victoria Nolan).

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Greg Sarney

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