The challenge

In 2023, the North York General Hospital Foundation announced an ambitious goal to raise $32 million to build a new birthing center that matches the quality of care it provides. This fundraising goal was especially ambitious given North York General is located in Canada’s most competitive fundraising city and most sought after donors. 

Within a 20 kilometer proximity to North York General there are several of Canada’s biggest fundraisers. To mention a few, SickKids Foundation who are on track to secure 1.3 Billion dollars in donations, the University Health Network which is Canada's biggest hospital network foundation bringing in north of $230 Million per year, and other hospitals like Sunnybrook and Markham Stouffville who are similar in size and located very close to North York General and its community. 

Our task was to put North York General on the map as a leader in labour and delivery care competing with the biggest fundraisers in Canada, starting by growing our donor pool and generating donation leads for the new birthing center. 

The Insight

The cross-functional team working on this project had a mix of birthing experiences at different times and with different storylines. But whether it was the younger members on our team who recently gave birth or the older ones who had given birth many years prior, everyone related to one thing: we all felt unprepared and were unaware of all the realities that come with it. 

That’s because traditional books like “What to expect when you’re expecting” feel clinical and impersonal, leaving out the emotion, the rawness, the taboo of pregnancy and childbirth. 

This realization landed us at our insight - despite the sea of pregnancy books out there, most expecting parents still feel utterly alone and unprepared for their experience. 

The Idea

Although we landed at an interesting insight, because we were so much smaller than our fundraising competition, we needed to avoid the standard approach to lead generation.

That was not going to cut it, not when we’re competing with bigger, better known fundraisers. So we sought to do something that has never been done by a hospital before; turn a hospital into a top selling author. 

Our idea was to create a first of its kind book to help new parents know what to really expect when they’re expecting using stories from real experiences and real parents. The name of the book was ‘What No One Tells You When You’re Expecting.’ 

We started by putting out a call for submissions using social, OOH, and in-hospital ad placements. The response was overwhelming. We were flooded with stories from parents wanting to share their raw, untold truth about pregnancy, birth, and the months that followed. 

From these submissions, we selected the most relevant to create our 150-page book. The stories were paired with beautiful, custom illustrations that brought our stories to life. 

Once completed, there were two ways for expecting parents to get the book. It was available for purchase on Amazon, or you could get a copy for free on the North York General website in exchange for your email address. .  

To launch the book, we leveraged an earned media first approach to bolster the conversation and spread the word. We also distributed the book to key influencers who we knew the content of the book would resonate with and who amplified our message to their audiences. 

The Results

After its release, What No One Tells You When You’re Expecting debuted at No. 1 on Amazon’s Pregnancy & Childbirth bestseller list and was the No. 1 Most Gifted book in the category. Since then, the book has remained on both lists, signaling a particular resonance among Canadian expecting parents and caregivers. 

Most importantly, our book exceeded our key objectives. It delivered a staggering 300% increase in donor leads with 15.3K new donor emails. 

The campaign also sparked interest among top tier news shows including Your Morning, CBC, and Canada’s longest running show for women: Cityline.