SickKids Foundation Has Record Breaking Giving Tuesday

SickKids Foundation works to support The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Canada’s leading children’s hospital raising funds for its Precision Child Health initiative.

Giving Tuesday has become a staple in the fundraising calendar for charitable organisations in Canada and around the world. It came into prominence following the rise of Black Friday and Cyber Monday by asking consumers to support charitable organisations following their shopping sprees. This year for Giving Tuesday SickKids Foundation embarked on a bold plan that resulted in the most successful Giving Tuesday programme ever for the organisation raising a combined $1.1 million.

The fundraising programme was anchored in a strategic paid media partnership with Rogers Media, and facilitated by their media agency Cairns Oneil, and the Marketing team at SickKids Foundation. During a day-long media programme, donors were introduced to the Foundation, the Precision Child Heath initiative, patient stories and more through segments on Breakfast Television, live audio remote, host support from Rick Campanelli, digital takeovers, search advertising and social media.

The media partnership efforts alone raised $603,000 in donations. An additional $497,000 was raised through paid digital media and coordinated communications with existing donors. This marked a 34% increase in donations from 2024, which was also a record breaker for the Foundation. Another $400,000 was generously donated in a matching programme from the Moez & Marissa Kassam Equity Fund.

“These sorts of opportunities come around once a year, but the need for funding is every day,” said Heather Clark, chief marketing officer, SickKids Foundation. “Precision Child Health is ambitious, a new way of patient care and requires innovative marketing initiatives to break through. The guidance from Cairns Oneil and support from partners like Rogers Media are critical for our success.”

“The collaboration from SickKids Foundation, Rogers and teams here at the agency are what makes these programmes so successful,” added Devon MacDonald, president at Cairns Oneil. “We believe that every GTA resident has a story related to the hospital and we look to engage each and every one of them with our media campaigns to tell them the Precision Child Health story. By bringing new donors into the already strong donation base, SickKids Foundation can tell them new stories and engage them with other programmes too.”