How a Canadian nonprofit exceeded their fundraising goal by 50% in their first ever campaign.

The success story of Canadian Perinatal Mental Health Collaborative (CPMHC) and how they used Raisely's peer-to-peer template for their first fundraising campaign.

Over 350,000 babies are born in Canada every year, but Canada has no national perinatal mental health strategy. The Canadian Perinatal Mental Health Collaborative (CPMHC) is the first and only organisation in Canada advocating for widespread and timely access to perinatal mental health supports and services.

Note: perinatal refers to the time surrounding conception up to 12 months after giving birth - and sometimes beyond.

In 2018, Jaime Charlebois and Patricia Tomasi were frustrated by the lack of perinatal mental health care in Canada. “In Canada, we do not have a national perinatal mental health strategy. We do not have medical directives or clinical practice guidelines to direct care from assessment to recovery. Because of this, there is no clear pathway for our primary care doctors to properly assess, diagnose, and treat perinatal mental illness.”

They created The Canadian Perinatal Mental Health Collaborative to spread awareness and advocate for change within the Canadian healthcare system.

Four years later in January 2022, after learning about Flora Babakhani's story, CPMHC co-founders and co-executive directors Jaime and Patricia created Flora’s Walk to honour Flora’s memory and raise awareness and funds for perinatal mental health care. “We learned of Flora’s story and knew we had to do something. Her sister wanted to share her story to help us improve perinatal mental health care in Canada and we decided the best thing we could do was to honour Flora’s memory by starting a nation-wide walk-a-thon to raise awareness and funds for perinatal mental health care.”

Why Raisely

This was CPMHC’s first ever fundraising campaign. They needed a platform equipped with the necessary digital tools for a Peer-to-Peer fundraiser, but also one that provided support in campaign planning, strategy, and execution. “When we were Googling and researching, we really had no idea what to look for because this was our first time, so we set up calls with a few different sites.” They spoke with the Raisely team on February 11th, and launched the Flora’s Walk campaign on Raisely the following week.

“What clinched it for us was the Raisely team, their knowledge of fundraising in Canada, and their support availability.”

Raisely knows Canada

CPMHC valued being connected with a Canadian Raisely team member with a fundraising background who was able to provide guidance on setting up their very first peer to peer campaign.

Pricing

“The fact that Raisely is free is critical to us as a small non-profit working hard to improve perinatal mental health in Canada.”

User Friendliness

‘Raisely has a user-friendly back end and a beautiful front end for our walk participants.”

Support

“Having expertise coupled with quick support meant we could move things forward quickly.”

Bilingual Campaigns

As a national organisation, it was important to set up a campaign in both of Canada’s national languages: English and French. Raisely’s front end customisation abilities and Multilingual Campaigns feature ensured CPMHC could connect with Canadians coast to coast.

Flora’s Walk 2022

Taking place on May 4, 2022 to coincide with World Maternal Mental Health Day, Flora’s Walk was a resounding success. 238 individuals, and 47 teams participated in 20 walk events that took place in cities across the country. Their largest walk was held in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city. “We did a lot of hand holding on the back end, making sure that every participant was connected to and had the right information.”

They ended up raising over $75,000 - a 50% increase from their original goal amount of $50,000.

They spread the word of their campaign via traditional channels like social media, corporate partnerships, news articles, and radio interviews.

However, Patricia and Jaime believe their success is rooted in their creation of a community; “We created a dedicated space for this issue, the topic of perinatal mental health hits close to home for many families, and Flora’s Walk gives them the opportunity to do something about it.”

Another hallmark of success was being transparent with where the funds were going. Typically, 100% of funds raised during a fundraiser go back into the organisation. CPMHC tried something different with Flora’s Walk 2022: 50% of funds raised went to local charities, 20% for training for health care practitioners, 20% for Flora’s family, and 10% for CPMHC to cover admin costs.

The event even caught the attention of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In the afternoon of May 4, 2022, Patricia and Jaime met with Canada’s Prime Minister in his office on Parliament Hill.

They discussed different aspects of perinatal mental health, and the importance of screenings and timely access to care. They left with a promise he would do his best to strengthen access to perinatal mental health support in Canada. He even shared their meeting on his social media accounts.

What’s next?

Flora’s Walk is now CPMHC’s signature event, and they have big plans for 2023.

They have increased their goal amount to $150,000. The number of walks for this year has already doubled from last year with a whopping 40 walks being planned in every Canadian province and in the Yukon territory. “There was never even a thought about not using Raisely for Flora’s Walk 2023, we’re hooked!”

This year all early bird participants who signed up to lead walks in their cities were enrolled in a 32-hour Online Certified Canadian Perinatal Mental Health Certificate Program - a value of more than $2800!

Jaime and Patricia are working hard behind the scenes ensuring that their walk leaders are supported. “We’re on Raisely every day, several times a day. It’s just so easy to use and intuitive.”

They are billing this year the Year of Action, with hopes for a funding announcement from the government regarding perinatal mental health care. They continue to focus on advocacy and awareness efforts.