Philanthropic Foundations Canada Celebrating the Past, Looking Toward the Future This year’s national conference, Together25Ensemble, marked PFC’s 25th year supporting and enabling philanthropy across Canada. About Philanthropic Foundations Canada (PFC) is a member association representing Canadian grantmakers. In their 25 years in operation, PFC has collaborated with civil society, the private sector and governments, to strengthen and facilitate Canadian philanthropy. PFC brings together grantmakers to connect, learn and enforce the best solutions to shape communities and protect the environment. Their mission is to promote the growth and development of effective and responsible grantmakers throughout Canada, by providing membership services, resources and advocacy. The Mandate PFC’s biennial national conference brings together leaders and innovators in the philanthropy sector to share ideas, network and get inspired. This year’s conference was their biggest to date. As their communications and marketing partner agency, we were tasked with accomplishing the following: Consultation and development of conference website information architecture Creation of conference branding Configuration of Cvent app and webpage Design digital and print assets Development and implementation of social media marketing strategy The Challenge This mandate gave us a lot of ground to cover. The biggest challenge was adapting to Cvent. PFC elected to use the platform not only to create the website for Together25Ensemble, but to also build an app that provides attendees with information on speaker sessions and events, as well as to set up personalized schedules and notifications throughout the three-day conference. Cvent has a fairly rigid framework that we needed to work within while still designing an app and website that met all of PFC’s needs. Along with running their social media in the months leading up to the conference, we needed to deliver digital assets to support the social media marketing (SMM) efforts, as well as print collateral for the conference itself. This meant working with stakeholders to ensure all content is correct and coordinate with the printers to deliver assets on a deadline. The Approach We conducted workshops with stakeholders to plan out the needed information and site map for the Cvent webpage, as well as set KPIs for the social media campaign. As we were providing multifaceted support for the conference, it was important that we stay in close contact with stakeholders to ensure both accuracy and quality of all deliverables. As PFC’s partner agency, our goal was to be flexible and responsive to the evolving needs of such a large event. Unique Branding for Together25Ensemble The first order of business was to develop the logo and branding collateral for the conference. It was important that the branding fit within the larger umbrella of PFC’s brand, while also creating warmth and dynamism. We drew from PFC’s existing colour palette, emphasizing the warmer colours. We also developed a visual schema for identifying the three pillars of this year’s conference. The end result was branding that emphasized the pillars of Fundamentals, Trends & Tensions and Collaboration that still fit within PFC’s broader ecosystem. An app to enrich the conference experience The Cvent website and app facilitated registration and provided speakers and attendees relevant information about the conference in one convenient location. Through the app, attendees had access to details about the speakers, speaker sessions and other events, as well as allowing attendees to create customized schedules and receive notifications about the sessions they wished to attend. Website and app content integration In previous years, we’ve supported the creation of a new section of their WordPress site for the conference. This year, we created a website with Cvent that provided attendees with an overview of the conference, the schedule of events, pricing and registration portal. It was important that all of this information be readily and easily accessible during the conference, which is why creating a companion app was the ideal solution. Customizable schedule This year’s conference expanded their talks and plenaries from the previous years. The event was organized around three pillars: Fundamentals, Trends & Tensions and Collaboration. With speaker sessions and events supporting each pillar, there was a lot of schedule overlap built into the conference. To help attendees make the most of their experience, the app included a My Schedule page that allowed attendees to create their own custom schedules. Speaker sessions and event information To help attendees decide on which sessions and events they would attend, the app included detailed information about speakers, discussion topics and more. While PFC provided the content, we created the information architecture and designed the UX. Analytics Total Logins 1266 The total number of times users successfully accessed the application by entering their credentials. 354 Total App Downloads The total number of times the mobile app was downloaded from app stores. 91.63% of Registrants Logged In The proportion of app downloads compared to the number of user accounts registered. Designing the look—for digital and print Having worked extensively on developing PFC’s brand toolkit, we designed the digital and print collateral for the conference. This included the conference logo, creating a custom presentation template for PFC-led speaker sessions, as well as signs and banners to be displayed throughout the conference spaces. We collaborated closely with stakeholders and were able to quickly adapt designs as new information came in. Social Media and Community Management As the communications and marketing partner agency, we handled all aspects of PFC’s social media management in the months leading up to the conference. This meant planning and executing the social media strategy, including managing and scheduling posts, providing real-time engagement and ensuring all posts are optimized for the different channels. We also ensured that all content was bilingual and inclusive. Hootsuite integration and support For this mandate, we used the social media management tool, Hootsuite. The platform’s many features allowed us to tailor content to each of the channels it appeared in, as well as easily engage and interact with conference attendees and speakers in the lead up to the conference. Social media calendar We created a social media calendar that serves fresh and informative content to PFC’s audience on a daily basis. We focused primarily on LinkedIn and X (formerly twitter), as those platforms are most used by members working in the philanthropy sector. Optimizing for success Along with following best practices for scheduling posts, we ensured that all images were optimized for viewing both in app, in mobile browsers and on desktop. The optimized images contributed to greater engagement, while preventing people from simply scrolling past posts before the images loaded. As we created cards for each speaker session at the conference, we were able to maintain consistent brand voice and presence across channels. July 29 – September 25, 2024 Increased Reach and Community Growth Visitor Highlights 1564 page views (Up 50%) Visitor Highlights 701 unique visitors (Up 39.9%) Follower Highlights 11,391 total followers Follower Highlights 436 new followers Engagement Highlights 536 reactions (Up 66%) Engagement Highlights 21 comments (Up 133.3%) Engagement Highlights 20 reposts (Up 11.1%) Serving a Bilingual Community As PFC’s core mission is to strengthen Canadian philanthropy in pursuit of a just, equitable and sustainable world, it was especially important that all communications be in both of Canada’s official languages. We worked to support translation efforts in all design collateral, as well as facilitated the creation of a translated version of the Cvent app for French-speaking attendees. Philanthropic Foundations Canada worked with Third Wunder to create our 2024 national conference — the team was instrumental in developing our brand, digital infrastructure, and marketing tools for the entire conference experience. Throughout the process – from planning, to design, and execution – Third Wunder demonstrated the ability to be strategic and to be hands-on. We appreciate the team’s ability to troubleshoot and their drive to ensure that we could implement our vision and deliverables. We appreciate their diverse and hard-working team and look forward to continuing our ongoing collaboration with Third Wunder! PFC’s Biggest Conference to Date Together25Ensemble was PFC’s biggest conference to date, and it was a sold out event. It was an ambitious undertaking that was the culmination of 25 years working to strengthen and connect philanthropic organizations across Canada. We are proud to partner with PFC in supporting their work on this event connecting the leading minds in the philanthropy sector and beyond.
Philanthropic Foundations Canada worked with Third Wunder to create our 2024 national conference — the team was instrumental in developing our brand, digital infrastructure, and marketing tools for the entire conference experience. Throughout the process – from planning, to design, and execution – Third Wunder demonstrated the ability to be strategic and to be hands-on. We appreciate the team’s ability to troubleshoot and their drive to ensure that we could implement our vision and deliverables. We appreciate their diverse and hard-working team and look forward to continuing our ongoing collaboration with Third Wunder!