Category Case Studies

Client success story for the Airdrie and District Victims Assistance Society (ADVAS). Project completed 2022.

View the booklet on Canva

The challenge

When someone goes through crime, loss, tragedy or trauma, professional support is there for a while. Then it tapers off.

What remains are the people around them – family, friends, neighbours, co-workers. These natural supports matter enormously, and they vary widely. Some know just what to say. Many want to help and have no idea where to start.

I saw an opportunity to help those people help. I pitched the executive director and team at ADVAS on a free book for the community, and they said yes.

Building the book

I led the whole project:

1. Research. I met with clinical experts and surveyed victim advocates, people affected by crime and trauma, and their natural supports.
2. Verification. I checked the data and the guidance against what the experts and survey respondents told us.
3. Writing and design. I wrote the text and the recipes, and did the layout.
4. Funding and print. I secured the funding and sent it to print: 10,000 copies.
5. Distribution. I worked with the ADVAS team to get the book into high schools, churches, employers and more across the catchment area.

The outcome

Thousands of copies reached the community, and thousands of people became better natural supports for someone they care about.

Feedback from people affected by crime and trauma, educators and employers was very positive. Readers told us the book felt safe to read – an important measure for anything written for people in pain.

Alberta has since closed ADVAS and other local victim services units. People still reach out to me by email, social media and text to say they use the book.

Try this

Think about the people who stand next to the people you serve – the family, friends and co-workers. What is one thing you know that would help them help? Write it down, and find a way to put it in their hands.

Be well.

Success story from a senior staff role at the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (now part of the Canadian Cancer Society).

The challenge

Research fellows are a critical part of breast cancer research. But their funding often depended on donations that weren’t secured in advance, with little structure behind it and little for donors to connect to.

We saw an opportunity to change that.

The campaign

We built a recurring, capital-style campaign that raised money directly for research fellows. It gave the fellowships clear structure, detail and outcomes, and told the fellows’ stories in a real way.

Experts, researchers and oncology leaders became the campaign’s voices and storytellers. Their credibility earned donors’ trust and invited both current donors and new prospects to be part of the work.

We reached people across several channels:

1. Email and direct mail.
2. Phone conversations.
3. In-person engagement – large gatherings, small groups and one-on-one meetings.

The outcome

Every result exceeded expectations, from participation to revenue.

The most telling sign in year one was new donor acquisition at the mid-level and major gift levels, which came in higher than we expected. The campaign was helping people connect with the research – and stay connected to it. Donor satisfaction and retention stayed above both sector averages and the organization’s own.

Try this

Pick one part of your work that donors fund but rarely hear about. Who could tell its story best, in their own words? Invite them to.

Be well.

Success story from my time as Director of Fund Development at CUPS in Calgary. Project completed 2023.

The idea

Most donor walls are rows of names on acrylic or metal. People walk past them without a second look.

We wanted something warm, natural and human. The people CUPS serves face real barriers to health and wellness, and institutional spaces can feel unwelcoming – even triggering. So the donor wall needed to feel like the opposite of an institution: inviting, calm and alive.

Making it by hand

I developed the concept, the design and the words, including "Oki," the Blackfoot word for welcome, and the donor names.

Then I made it. I cut the live edge wood in my home shop, sanded each piece on my deck and applied every donor’s name by hand.

The outcome

The response was warm from everyone who saw it – donors, funders, partners, staff and, most importantly, the people who come to CUPS for care. The natural look and feel made the space more welcoming, and the major project funder was very pleased with how their recognition appeared.

Try this

Walk into your own space as if you were someone arriving on the hardest day of their life. What’s the first thing you see? Make sure it says “you’re welcome here.”

Be well.

Success story from my time serving as a board director.

“We found the soul of our business.”

The challenge

A long-established, sales-driven business was facing more competition. Revenue had levelled off, and several key customer groups had dropped away. The team – many of them with the company for more than a decade – was tired, and some were considering leaving.

A traditional strategic plan hadn’t delivered the change the owners hoped for. They knew the business needed to reconnect with what made it special, so we tried a different approach.

Finding the pulse before the plan

We started with people. We met with the owners, frontline staff, customers and partners to understand how the business added life to its community – and how the community gave back.

The relationships were deep and valuable. But a recent change in approach had unintentionally split the business’s community into tiers, and people felt it.

Unpacking the story

The passion was still there. It needed room to breathe.

Together, we worked through decades of history:

1. Origin stories – why the business began and who it was built to serve.
2. Honest lessons from initiatives that hadn’t worked.
3. Celebrations of the successes along the way.
4. Bigger goals for the years ahead.

We named what was driving the business forward, and spoke openly about what was holding it back.

The outcome

The work produced three-year and five-year strategic plans. Within months, operational plans were updated, and a re-energized team was putting the core ideas into action.

In the first year after implementation:

1. Customer retention rose 13%.
2. The business won back 28% of the customers it had lost in recent years.
3. No one on the team resigned.

Try this

At your next team meeting, ask the longest-serving person in the room to tell the story of why the organization began. Then ask the newest person what they think it stands for today. The gap between the two answers is where your next plan starts.

Be well.

Know Good Consulting engagement: a temporary contract leadership role with a commercial and industrial service provider.

“Sales increased by almost 17% year over year.”

The challenge

The business was a leading service provider to commercial and industrial customers. It offered better software and a stronger solution than its local competitors, and it was preparing for a significant investment. To support that growth, it needed more revenue – and its sales strategy hadn’t been updated in four years.

The owner brought me in to lead the work, knowing it might call for decisions that would be hard for him to make himself.

Looking at the whole picture

I started with the numbers, then looked closely at the people and processes behind them. I reviewed the sales process, the customer life cycle and how the team worked together. I spoke with the sales team, customers, vendors and other partners, and studied the local competition.

The product was strong. The sales team needed clearer accountability and better incentives, and it was larger than the business needed.

The hard decision

I recommended a smaller sales team. It wasn’t an easy recommendation.

The owner pushed back at first. He cared deeply about his staff, and so did I. But my job was also to care for his business. Over time, he agreed.

The team became about 28% smaller through a mix of steps:

1. Not filling roles as people left on their own.
2. Promoting one team member into a more senior position.
3. Ending some roles. Every person who left did so with care, respect, dignity and a severance package. Humanity first, always.

Supporting the people who stayed

With the owner, I built a revenue plan that put the customer at the centre of every interaction and simplified how the team captured information, won new customers, kept existing ones and followed up on service.

For the team, that meant:

1. Clear goals and measures everyone understood.
2. Flexibility, within reason, in schedules and working styles.
3. Recognition for good work.
4. Professional development, including chances to shadow and work alongside other teams.

Some people took time to let go of the old way of doing things. Most embraced the change – especially as they saw their own earnings grow.

The outcome

With a smaller team and no added marketing spend, the business grew sales by nearly 17% year over year.

Try this

If you’re facing a hard staffing decision, write down how you’ll treat each person affected before you make it. If you wouldn’t be proud to share that plan, it isn’t ready yet.

Be well.

Success story from my time serving as a volunteer board director.

“The board was more confident in their decisions.”

The challenge

The organization was a major local employer and a strong contributor to its community. At the board table, though, discussions often circled back, and requests for more information kept delaying important decisions. The organization’s momentum was slowing.

Finding the cause

Adding more paperwork wouldn’t solve it, so we looked for the root cause. We reviewed the bylaws, the decision-making processes and the information that had been provided in support of past motions.

We also interviewed staff and fellow board members, paying close attention to the decisions that had been hardest to reach. That showed us exactly where communication was breaking down.

Balancing operations and governance

Working with staff, the board and outside experts, we identified the specific operational measures and disclosures the board needed to govern well – without pulling directors into day-to-day detail.

To make it last, we worked with the staff team to simplify and automate their reporting using software they already had.

The outcome

The work produced three practical tools:

1. A guidance document to help the board and executives make decisions efficiently.
2. A clear framework for staff on what information to share, and when.
3. An automated reporting process built on the organization’s existing software.

Board members and executives felt well informed and made decisions with confidence. Staff appreciated the consistent, automated reporting. With less friction, meetings freed up time for forward-looking conversations about the motions that mattered most.

Try this

Look back at the last decision your board delayed. What information did directors ask for, and could they have had it the first time? The answer is where to start.

Be well.

Success story from a senior staff role at a national organization.

“In the first year, we achieved 225% of our goal.”

The challenge

The organization had a strong, established network of high-net-worth partners. It then launched a new product aimed at a very different audience – one where the brand wasn’t well known.

It needed a focused acquisition strategy to cut through the noise, build trust with this new group and generate meaningful revenue.

Getting to know the audience

We started with the early adopters. I combined the organization’s own data with outside research, and we sat down for real conversations with customers. Together, those revealed the shared motivations driving this new audience, and we built detailed profiles of the people most likely to say yes.

Building bridges

Because this audience didn’t yet know the brand, we earned trust through the people and places they already valued:

1. Phase one: partnerships. We built partnerships with businesses and organizations that were already popular with this group.
2. Phase two: a targeted campaign. Using those new community connections and our research, we launched a focused, exclusive acquisition campaign.

The outcome

In the first year of this campaign model, the organization reached 225% of its customer acquisition goal, with average transaction values higher than expected.

Just as important, we built the campaign, partnerships and data systems together with the organization’s own staff. The team learned to think and act strategically, so when I moved on, the work carried on without missing a beat.

Try this

Think of an audience you want to reach but haven’t. List three businesses or community groups they already trust. Those are your first conversations.

Be well.

Client success story. Project completed 2018.

“We got international attention and awards.”

The challenge

Our client wanted to grow its brand presence and activity across Western Canada. The business was widely respected as an expert in its field, but its customer base was narrow. It needed a community investment strategy that would reach well beyond its niche and appeal to a broad audience.

Our approach

We started by identifying the customer groups with the most growth potential and taking the time to understand what motivates them to act.

From there, we built a focused, engaging community program designed to speak directly to those groups, and chose the marketing channels with the strongest reach.

Telling the story

The program launched strongly. To keep the momentum going, I served as the brand’s spokesperson and storyteller on an extended media tour:

1. More than 30 presentations to community and business audiences.
2. 15 earned media interviews.
3. Dozens of one-on-one and small-group conversations.

The story resonated, and the business was regularly invited to present at academic and industry events.

The outcome

The program earned international attention and won multiple awards. Most importantly for our client, it recorded more than one million activations across Western Canada.

Every one of the brand’s online channels saw sustained double-digit growth in positive engagement, and new customer accounts rose sharply.

Try this

Ask your newest customers why they chose you. If any of their answers are about what you stand for, you’ve found the start of a community story worth telling.

Be well.

Client success story. Project completed 2023.

“The minister called to talk about the issue.”

The challenge

Our client, a provincial organization, needed to protect the people it serves from proposed legislative changes. If passed, the changes would have created real hardship for an already vulnerable population and put new barriers in the way of their success.

The organization needed a strong advocacy campaign that carried its message clearly to government. It also worried that public protests could backfire and hurt the cause.

Our approach

We focused on organizing voices. First, we built a simple, clear story so the public could quickly understand what was at stake. Then we created safe, accessible ways for people to share how the changes would affect their own lives – connecting community members directly with the people making the decisions.

Connect. Inform. Engage.

1. A campaign website built around that core story.
2. Shareable social media content for our client and its partners.
3. Toolkits for partner organizations that wanted to get involved, so everyone spoke with one voice.
4. Training for community leaders, so they could respond confidently to media and government.

By making advocacy easy, we made it possible for everyone to take part safely.

The outcome

Thousands of people used the campaign’s tools to share their personal stories directly with members of the government. Many of them had never felt heard before.

About a week after the website launched – with no press release and no media coverage – the Minister responsible for the legislation called our client to talk about the issue. When the bill was tabled, the changes that would have caused the most hardship were gone.

Try this

If you’re facing a policy change that affects the people you serve, write down how it will change one person’s day. Then ask: who needs to hear that story, and what’s the easiest way to get it to them?

Be well.

Success story from a senior staff role at a national charity.

“Our response rates tripled compared to other campaigns.”

The challenge

The organization worked in about 60 communities across the country and needed to improve both donor retention and acquisition. It had a strong online presence and a solid database of corporate partners. What it needed was a focused strategy to bring those audiences to life.

Listening first

We went straight to the people who already cared. I started with existing donor survey data, then held focus groups to understand why people chose to support the organization.

With that insight, we identified the communities with the most potential and wrote a series of bold, thought-provoking questions that spoke directly to why people get involved.

The campaign

We brought those questions to life across several channels:

1. Direct-mail postcards, delivered on a carefully timed schedule.
2. Online content built with our creative teams to deepen each message.
3. A consistent anchor. Every piece reminded readers why they support the organization and why their continued partnership matters.
4. Testing as we went. We compared addressed and unaddressed mail to make every dollar reach as many people as possible.

The outcome

The questions struck a chord. The campaign tripled the organization’s previous record response rate for acquisition and retention.

The most meaningful result came after. Many donors moved from giving once a year to giving monthly – building a steady foundation for the organization’s future.

Try this

Look at the opening line of your next appeal. Is it a statement, or a question your reader will want to answer? Try writing three questions that speak to why your donors care, and test the best one.

Be well.