2025 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

With charitable donations in decline and countless worthy causes competing for funds, the Jane/Finch Centre — a grassroots organization serving one of Toronto’s most overlooked communities - struggled to secure funding. Compounding this, the community has been marginalized for generations, often preventing them from getting the types of opportunities that would change their circumstances.

DEI has been corporatized. Businesses are spending millions on education from professional consulting firms. What if the agency could tap into these budgets and direct that funding to the source of those facing real bias: the Jane/Finch community?

Get the businesses that have long written off our community to write them off on their taxes, in exchange for a better version of bias training, created by those who face the bias.

They launched “Write Us Off,” a provocative B2B campaign selling accredited bias training developed by community members in partnership with experts. The training included four modules covering systemic bias, created and told by Jane/Finch youth, artists, and academics.

Outreach focused on socially responsible businesses and government orgs using PR, email, LinkedIn, and earned media to reach decision-makers. The campaign was built around the idea of using corporate education budgets to fund authentic DEI work from a historically excluded community. Coverage in national news and social media drove awareness and credibility.

Strategic planning reframed the Jane/Finch Centre’s role from recipient of charity to B2B service provider — shifting them from a cause to a solution. It redirected attention from traditional fundraising to education budgets, opening a new revenue model. It also shaped a differentiated product — bias training built on lived experience — that positioned the centre as a credible, scalable partner in workplace DEI efforts. Without this strategic lens, the work might have remained another awareness campaign instead of a long-term
business model.

The campaign drove immediate impact with national news coverage that raised awareness and helped to reframe perception of the Jane/Finch community, 48 companies purchasing training in the first 30 days, 115% of the annual donation target was achieved in first four weeks and website traffic increased by 155%. 11 other community organizations inquired about replicating the model, a new revenue stream was created from B2B education sales, and long-term roles were established for community members as educators, content creators, and facilitators.

The success of this model is now influencing how the Jane/Finch Centre thinks about fundraising and community empowerment— turning a grassroots nonprofit into a provider of meaningful, scalable services.

Credits

Agency: Angry Butterfly
CCO: Erin Kawalecki
CEO: Brent Choi
CSO: Graham Candy
VP Head Of Production: Hanna Bratt
VP ECD: Bernice Lo
VP ECD: Adam Notzl-Keyser
ACD & Art Director: Chenice Piercy
ACD & Copywriter: Ryan Chiasson
Strategy Director: Adam Allentuck
VP Group Account Director: Nipun Goomer
Project Manager: Ana Del Monaco
Photographer: Tristan Barrocks, Jan Benavente

Production: Undivided
Director: Tristan Barrocks
DOP: Angel Navarro III
Producer/Line Producer: Barclay J. Maude
Executive Producer: Scott Houghton

Editorial: Rooster Post Production
Editor: Christina Humphries
Editor/Assistant editor: Lenka Gmitrová
Producer: Nicole Stamford
Executive Producer: Melissa Kahn

Colour & VFX / Finishing : Fort York VFX
Colourist: Jason Zukowski
Assistant colourist: Jose Salinas
Lead VFX Artist: Melissa Vasiliev
Flame Artists: Luke White, James Marin, Alex Boothby
Motion Graphics: Serina Choi
Flame Assistants: Serina Choi, Josh Storm, Abraham Lim
Executive Producer: Cathy Jefferies

Audio: TA2
Audio director and original music composition: Joseph Frustaglio
Additional music composition: Oliver Wickham, Drew Thomas
Engineer: Ken Lo
Sound Design: Ken Lo, Adam Ive, Selina Fiorini-Paglia
Executive Producer: Drew Thomas, Christine Leslie