Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation

In 1999, while working with Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF) to develop the first electronic tax receipt recognized by Revenue Canada, Artez saw an opportunity to take the previously manual paper-based registration and fundraising process online for the CIBC Run for the Cure — and it did so, with huge results.

In the first year after making this transition, $50,000 was raised online, but in the six years since then, the amount raised online has grown to over $7.5 million, accounting for almost half of the public money raised by CIBC Run for the Cure participants. CBCF believes much of this money would not otherwise have been generated through traditional means.

And while the extra money raised is extremely important, CBCF also recognizes the tremendous value added by the online tools in helping them administer the nationwide event, as well as the significant reduction in administrative costs realized through electronic tax receipting and easier management of participant and donor information.

Almost everyone has had a loved one affected by breast cancer. Artez is proud to be helping the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation to help so many people, all while breaking new ground in online fundraising.

Gulu Walk

If you haven't yet heard of the GuluWalk, then you're missing one of the most inspiring grassroots stories in fundraising and awareness building out there.

The GuluWalk was born when two Canadian men learned about one of the impacts that civil war in Uganda is having on a generation of children. Every night in rural war-torn northern Uganda, tens of thousands of children walk miles into urban centres, to sleep in relative safety in the streets and avoid abduction by the army to be used in the war. It's a heart-breaking story, and when Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward learned of it in 2005, they decided to do something about it. Embarking upon their own "Gulu Walk", they walked 12.5 km every night into downtown Toronto and slept in the streets, only to walk home again in the morning and attempt to go about their days.

Since that first month-long endeavour, the GuluWalk has grown into an international peace movement, with walks happening all over the world. In 2006 alone, they raised more than half a million dollars for the cause — with a paid staff of two. From a technical perspective, this remarkable feat of fundraising was made possible by the Artez Solution.

GuluWalk set a goal of getting 10,000 people to sign up and raise $100 each. Without the right software solution, that would have been an administrative nightmare. "Artez made it easy for us, in a very simple way, to put names and faces to everyone who was ready to walk for these courageous kids," says Adrian Bradbury, one of the founders of GuluWalk. And for Artez, it's stories like this that make it all worthwhile.

Gulu Walk was the 2007 ePhilathropy award winner for Best Special Event Registration and/or Membership Campaign.

Comic Relief

It was an impressive request that UK's Comic Relief brought to Artez — to help them use technology as part of an integrated campaign to recruit 250,000 people to take part in the Sport Relief Miles, and provide engaging and simple peer-to-peer fundraising tools.

The goal? To raise money to help kids living in some of the world's poorest countries, as well as vulnerable people in the UK. If that wasn't enough for one campaign, things got even more complex when a celebrity supporter agreed to swim across the English Channel, and Comic Relief decided to add celebrity sponsorship pages to the mix. They had a big project with big goals, and they needed the right tools to make it happen.

Artez rose to the challenge offered by this international client, and helped Comic Relief meet — and exceed — their targets, with 420,000 people joining in this fundraising effort. "Artez provided marketing insight, integrated campaigning advice, technical know-how, brilliant account management and sheer hard work," said Martin Gill of Comic Relief. "Working across five time zones, Anglicising everything, customizing the software, integrating data with other 3rd parties, managing high volumes of traffic within the application, and handling international payments... we couldn't have done it without them."

Artez went on to work with Comic Relief on their next big fundraising effort — Red Nose Day, in March 2007. But that's a different success story...

Children’s Miracle Network

The Walk for Miracles is a signature event for Wal-Mart, reinforcing their corporate and employee commitment to Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) and raising money for children’s hospitals across Canada.

While initially contracted to provide only the online registration and fundraising capabilities for the walk, Wal-Mart quickly recognized the value of engaging Artez at the strategic level also. Artez then provided the thought leadership and guidance required to effectively leverage our technology, ensuring that participation and fundraising objectives were met. We also helped develop and execute their internal and public recruitment and communications plan.

In 2006, we were asked to help expand the scope of the event, in part by creating an event concept and messaging that will better engage Wal-Mart associates, vendors and customers both nationally and at the store level.

Easter Seals Society

In May 2004, Easter Seals Nova Scotia successfully piloted a first-of-its-kind fundraising event in Canada — The Drop Zone . The challenge — to rappel down the side of a 22-storey building in Halifax. The result — almost 70 participants each raised $1,000 or more in support of their daring for the cause!

The event was such a success that Easter Seals decided to expand it to eight Canadian cities in the summer of 2005. Artez was approached to help provide online registration and fundraising for the 2005 event.

To date, almost 400 ‘rappelers’ across Canada have raised more than $525,000, of which more than $300,000 was raised online. For many of the Easter Seals provincial offices, this was their first experience with online fundraising.

Early indications suggest that in 2006 our role will be expanded to help support not only a more ambitious event, but several of the Easter Seals’ signature 24-hour relays across Canada.

Kids Help Phone

In 2002, Artez began working with Kids Help Phone (KHP) to support their annual Bell Walk for Kids Help Phone. In that first year, they raised just over $150,000. Since then, however, funds raised online have increased to more than $675,000, and now account for 40% of all funds raised by the walk. In 2005, KHP raised more than $1 million online in total.

Reflecting this growth in online fundraising, and fuelled in part by the online success of their walk, Artez’s relationship with KHP has grown over the years to encompass additional events and activities, and our role has become more strategic and partnership-oriented.

We also continue to explore how best to support the wide range of third-party organized events raising funds for KHP. In addition to the Walk, KHP now also provides pledge-based fundraising for their Bank of Montreal golf tournament and their regional Halloween “Boo-la-thon” events, as well as online ticketing for their annual dinner. Artez is proud to support Kids Help Phone with all of their online fundraising endeavours.

National Ovarian Cancer Association

In 2002, the National Ovarian Cancer Association (NOCA) launched its inaugural Walk of Hope in Toronto, attracting 350 participants and raising $40,000. The following year the walk grew to three cities and raised $80,000.

Artez jumped on board in 2004, and with the help of our online tools the walk grew to over 1,600 participants in eight cities, raising more than $275,000 — of which $50,000 was generated online.

In 2005, uncertain they could duplicate this growth again, NOCA asked us to help them better develop and define their strategy — to understand why people participated in the walk, what made their event unique, and what created that all-important bond with their cause and organization.

To their surprise, we convinced them not to add sites — and still the walk grew to almost 2,500 participants and raised more than $500,000, of which almost 40% was raised online. More importantly, they achieved these results without having to add staff or substantially increase the burden on their already stretched volunteer base. Needless to say, NOCA was delighted to exceed their own expectations, and Artez was delighted to have demonstrated the power of online fundraising.