You’re Already Part of It.

Imagine Canada

Creative Strategy, Campaign Platform & Identity, Campaign Development, Bilingual Campaign Toolkit, Social & Digital Assets

Valued by Canadians. Closer Than They Realize.

For many Canadians, nonprofits bring to mind shelters, food banks and emergency relief organizations such as the Red Cross. Essential services, often understood as helping someone else.

That narrow view leaves much of the sector’s everyday impact unseen.

Imagine Canada’s research revealed the disconnect: eight in ten Canadians consider charitable and nonprofit services essential to their communities, yet only 41% say they know someone who has used them.

From childcare and community classes to museums, animal rescue and healthcare supports, nonprofits are already woven into Canadians’ lives. People just don’t always recognize them.

Humanity partnered with Imagine Canada to develop a national public awareness campaign that would broaden that understanding, build more positive sentiment towards the sector and help Canadians recognize their own connection to it.

Challenge

Graphic showing that 8 in 10 say charities are essential to their communities + 41% say they know someone who has used the services of a charity = the opportunity: turn recognition into a stronger sense of belonging.

Connect the Sector to the Change People Already Care About

With traditional supporters aging and patterns of giving changing, Imagine Canada needed to build relevance with a new generation.

Our strategy focused on two audiences: socially engaged younger Canadians and Canadians preparing to inherit wealth and define their own approach to giving.

Both cared about making a difference. But their generosity didn’t always translate into a connection with nonprofits.

Younger Canadians were expressing their values through advocacy, everyday choices and community action, often without seeing the sector as a place where their energy belonged. Those anticipating inherited wealth wanted their contributions to reflect their own values and priorities, with a clear sense of where they could make a difference.

The opportunity was to connect the sector to the generosity people already practise and the future they want to build.

Our approach began by affirming the ways people already contribute. From there, we needed to show how nonprofits bring people’s time, care and resources together to create lasting change, while sustaining the services and experiences their communities rely on.

By making those connections visible, we could build a stronger sense of personal relevance, shared purpose and possibility.

Strategy

Make Belonging the Starting Point

Creative development brought the perception gap into sharper focus: Canadians valued nonprofits, but often pictured themselves outside the sector, looking in.

That disconnect became our creative opportunity. Before people could see a role for themselves in the sector’s future, we could help them recognize its role in their lives today.

You’re Already Part of It. Vous en faites déjà partie.

The platform reframed nonprofits as something Canadians already belong to. It offered a welcoming point of connection, grounded in experiences people know and value.

The creative made those connections tangible. Moments across healthcare, childcare, arts, animal welfare and community life revealed the breadth of the sector, helping people recognize the nonprofits behind familiar experiences.

Bold typography, vibrant colours and playful graphic badges gave the campaign an optimistic, approachable presence. The visual system brought diverse services and stories together under one recognizable platform.

Supporting messages expanded the idea: “Nonprofits benefit everyone, even when we don’t see it,” “Nonprofit services are essential for everyone” and “Nonprofits help us all make a difference.”

Together, the language and imagery invited Canadians to see the sector more fully, recognize their place within it and consider how they could help shape what comes next.

Creative

National Visibility. Local Connection.

The campaign was designed to reach Canadians through two connected parts, giving Imagine Canada a national voice while enabling nonprofits to bring the message into their own communities.

A national campaign led by Imagine Canada

Supported by a paid media plan, the national campaign introduced “You’re Already Part of It” to Canadians, using a shared creative identity and messaging to make the sector’s breadth and everyday relevance visible.

A toolkit nonprofits could make their own

We also developed a bilingual campaign toolkit that enabled nonprofits to participate and adapt the platform to their organizations.

Customizable Canva templates included static and animated social assets, digital banners, stickers and badges, supported by a campaign guide and fact sheet. Organizations could incorporate their own imagery and stories, connecting the national message to their particular work and communities.

This flexibility was central to the idea. A local organization could show its individual contribution while participating in a broader story about the sector’s collective impact.

One shared platform, with room for nonprofits across Canada to help people discover:

You’re already part of it. Vous en faites déjà partie.

Activation

A shared campaign, made their own.

Nonprofits put the toolkit into action, adapting the campaign for their own organizations and sharing their stories on social media. Here’s a selection of their posts.

Next

Turning “What If?” Into a Lifetime of Difference.