At Sparx, we pride ourselves on being masters of our craft. That’s why in 2021, we launched our own purpose-driven magazine, Make The World Better Magazine, a publication that shares incredible stories of individuals and organizations who are driving positive impact.
Of course, part of mastering a craft is looking for inspiration and learning ways to make your work even better.
Connecting With Canada’s Premier B2B Magazine Publishers
Sparx was thrilled to be one of roughly 100 attendees, all of whom directly work in the magazine/publishing industry, to celebrate the best of the best in Canadian B2B magazine publishing and mingle with nominated writers, editors, and contributors.
In a beautiful room overlooking Toronto’s vibrant downtown district, including Toronto City Hall and the Eaton Centre, the event ran seamlessly with winner announcements and breaks for food, including a delicious multi-course lunch, and plenty of time for networking.
Learning and Sharing Our Purpose-Driven Vision
While this event was awards-based, that didn’t stop us from absorbing as much as we could from our various conversations with professionals in the space.
We learned more about the current state of the Canadian B2B magazine industry, various distribution channels for magazines, target audiences of different B2B magazines, and monetization paths — all useful information to apply to our Make The World Better Magazine as well as the other magazines that we publish on behalf of our clients.
We were thrilled to spread awareness about our magazine portfolio and share copies with interested individuals. As representatives of the only purpose-driven magazine at the event, Make The World Better Magazine stood out from the crowd of publications for lawyers, university alumni, and other B2B-focused groups.
Even though we weren’t nominated (yet!), we found the value in seeing the best practices and celebrating outstanding publications.
Inspiring Quality Storytelling
The room was filled with vibrant discussions, but there’s no doubt that the rise of artificial intelligence and competition for attention were topical. Among the concerns: publishers run the risk of producing hastily-made, filler content that doesn’t inspire, represent, or engage readers.
What the NMA:B2B Awards Luncheon does well is encourage the difficult but important journey of quality storytelling by empowering writers, editors, designers, and content creators to continue to focus on producing quality content and communicating the value of it.
Overall, we hope to attend this event again and applaud their sensitivity to sustainable event programming, like avoiding disposable cutlery and plates and being mindful of their paper footprint.
It was a valuable experience for us to learn about and celebrate B2B magazine publishing and see a clearer path forward for our own magazine initiatives.
Sparx Publishing Group is not your typical digital marketing agency — we’re a team of purpose-driven marketers on a mission to make the world better. And the journey toward better begins with walking our talk.
We don’t just amplify the efforts of purpose-driven organizations; we are purpose-driven. We don’t just champion diversity; we are diverse. We don’t just offer marketing services; we believe in being good at what we do for others by doing it for ourselves.
Here are the core traits that make Sparx, Sparx and empower us to live out marketing with purpose, every day.
We’re Purpose-Driven
Our story began over 10 years ago with a spark of an idea to level the playing field for Canadian self-directed investors via a free online resource called Sparx Trading. To reach and engage this audience, we grew a passion for creating content marketing that has a positive impact on people and planet.
Sparx has come a long way from our humble beginnings. We have since expanded into a purpose-driven marketing agency dedicated to working with companies and organizations who are thoughtful and intentional about making the world a better place. For us, quality, attentiveness to detail, and innovation are reflections of our principles and key aspects of delivering on our purpose. And since our values are so integral to who we are, we want to work with other values-aligned organizations to make their impact shine, amplify their good, and help ignite the spark in other individuals and businesses to be purpose-driven.
Every member of the Sparx team is invested in driving positive change.
We’re a small team with big dreams, and the biggest one we all share: to make the world better. This is exemplified in our initiatives, Make The World Better Day, which grew out of a place of both loss and hope, and our publication, Make The World Better Magazine, where we amplify the voices of changemakers because we’re inspired by their stories and are rooting for their success.
We also participate in various initiatives that enable us to give back and help others, such as Movember, Kiva loans, and our personal seasonal gifting practices, where we donate funds to causes that are important to our clients. As of 2021, this gifting practice has led us to jointly donate a total of 5,000 meals to various local food banks across Canada and the US and to amplify donations to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and a local humane society in Florida.
Beyond traditional marketing goals, our purpose-driven communications also reflect our belief that being equipped with the right knowledge is another critical part of making the world better. By sharing our takeaways from purpose-driven events we’ve participated in, such as Brand Battle For Good and Make The World Better Day, and raising awareness of mission-aligned recognition days, observances, and organizations through social media and in our newsletter, we hope to inspire others, hold ourselves accountable, and spark meaningful conversation.
We’re Diverse
As a CAMSC-certified minority-owned and -led organization, our team is certified diverse. We’re open to new ideas and every staff member is encouraged to bring their unique perspectives to the table. We’re passionate about amplifying diversity and applying our diverse set of backgrounds and experiences to drive innovation and create marketing that speaks to the plurality of the places we live and the audiences we serve.
Championing diverse voices and learning about identities different from our own is incredibly important to us. As open-minded marketing experts, we want to help others communicate their diversity story and to do our utmost to help further the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) cause.
One way we’re championing diversity is through Make The World Better Magazine. Our fifth edition, which launched in July 2023, is the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion issue. We’re so thrilled to share the inspiring stories of organizations and individuals who are helping to make the world more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible.
Since DEI is a central part of who we are and our purpose-driven communications, we will continue to seek more ways to incorporate it into our Sparx-owned marketing and to amplify more and more diverse voices. As we learn and grow, we will continue to share our DEI learnings, pitfalls, and wins with our audience in the hope of making our own diversity story better.
We Offer Services That We Use Ourselves
At Sparx, we invest time, energy, and resources into our own marketing because we believe in being good at what we do for others by being good at it for ourselves.
Our expertise is first-hand — we’re professionals who work in the marketing space, so we know the problems, limitations, and opportunities different workflows bring to client work. Not only does this increase our adaptability and ability to plan, scope, and execute effectively, it enables us to create the best work possible for our clients as we’re constantly refining our processes and skills in our owned brand marketing efforts.
Everything we do is tried-and-true, and we dedicate ourselves to making the best content, solutions, and strategies possible for us and our clients. We will never deliver solutions we would not feel proud to use for Sparx.
Whether it’s building websites, blog posts, whitepapers, downloadable guides, marketing collateral, advertisements, brand guides — you name it — we’ve done it for ourselves. This includes:
Publishing our own magazine, Make The World Better Magazine and doing this as a service for clients as well, including Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.
Maintaining and regularly crafting new content for our blog and extending this service to our clients, which can be seen in the one-time, series, and monthly blog posts we made for Galt Foundation.
Staying active on our own social media channels and building, publishing, and managing social media content for our clients.
Creating downloadable purpose-driven marketing guides, with adjacent marketing campaigns (ads, landing pages, email drip campaigns) to raise brand awareness, and offering this service to our clients as well, including TPD and Work With Us Foundation.
We’re also well-versed when it comes to data. The Sparx team uses data and analytics extensively to inform our decision-making to make sure our own campaigns work as effectively and efficiently as possible. We extend this to our clients in order to provide them with the data and solutions necessary to get the results they need, when they need them.
And since we know how to manage our workflows and pace ourselves properly, we always deliver quality results. Working against timelines and within budgets? We do that daily.
Conclusion
Walking our talk is an intrinsic part of Sparx because our team members bring a genuine interest, enthusiasm, and passion for the work they do. We’re driven by our purpose to make an impact, as we believe that it’s the right thing to do and that we should always bring our best. This unique combination of elements is what makes our brand special.
Are You Marketing With Purpose?
We’d love to work with your values-aligned organization. Contact us for a free consultation and to help market your one-of-a-kind impact story.
For non-Indigenous Canadians, ourselves included, there are aspects of how we live and interact with the world that we may have never questioned, particularly when it comes to economic and resource-based systems. Many of us have been raised and educated in spaces that espouse ownership of assets, and consuming items extracted from a façade of “infinite” resources.
Every day, however, we’re closer to reaching critical breaking points environmentally, economically, and socially. From unprecedented natural disasters to housing crises to heightened threats faced by the 2SLGBTQI+, BIPOC, and disability communities, these issues stem from a disconnect between the wisdom of the past and what a good life truly entails.
“We need to right size our relationship with each other, we need to right size our relationship with Mother Earth, and we need to right size our relationship and heal our relationship with the ancestral world,” says Paul Lacerte, Founding Managing Partner of Raven Indigenous Capital Partners, the first and only Indigenous-owned and -led venture capital firm in North America.
We were honoured to sit down with Mr. Lacerte for this issue of Make The World Better Magazine to learn more about the work Raven Capital does and the importance of Indigenous economic participation.
Historically Excluded from the Conversation
Indigenous Peoples were the first, and, to this day, remain essential caretakers of the land. From managing wildfires to protecting waterways, they continue to hold this knowledge from their ancestors, which could sustain this beautiful land for generations to come.
According to Lacerte, “There’s this incredible richness that is resident in Indigenous epistemologies and ways of thinking and being that actually, if I’m being totally honest, […] it’s possible that Indigenous ways of knowing and being is our only hope to avoid the apocalypse.”
Unfortunately, the economic systems in place have excluded Indigenous Peoples from having a seat at the table due to centuries of historic injustices, including stolen land, denial of basic rights, and residential schools, of which Mr. Lacerte himself is a first generation survivor, along with being a day school survivor.
In addition to the generational trauma of these historic injustices, the effects of decades-long exclusion from economic participation are felt to this day.
“There’s a seven-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada. Seven years. I want to live those seven years, and I want my loved ones to be able to live those seven years — and my kids,” Lacerte tells us. “And so, poverty, and the lack of access to own-source capital is one of those big drivers.”
He goes on to say, “Economic exclusion and poverty is [also] a big driver for violence against Indigenous women. And we’ve had a whole national inquiry as to why so many Indigenous women are murdered or gone missing, and I have that lived reality in my own family. So there’s a lot of urgency.”
Framing Capital as Medicine
The founders of Raven Capital seek to bridge this economic gap faced by Indigenous Peoples. Their mission is “to empower Indigenous entrepreneurs with the capital and expertise they need to succeed,” with a vision of a revitalized Indigenous economy. The Raven Capital team works closely with Indigenous entrepreneurs to get them investment-ready, then helps facilitate the investor-entrepreneur relationship.
“We’ve really been pretty heavily engaged in looking for the kind of medicine that we need to create the straightest line to a better future than the past that we’ve had. Because there’s such a big gap in Indigenous-owned capital and Indigenous-managed capital, so that we can change the way that it behaves for our people, that we can change the experience of entrepreneurs, so that it’s less extractive and harmful, and so that the money acts a lot more like love and healing. There’s just a big gap in that space,” he explains.
“And so, we saw the opportunity and the right time to approach investors and see if, in this reconciliation climate, that there is a level of confidence and readiness to invest in an Indigenous-owned venture firm, and acknowledging that we’re going to behave differently and that the capital might look a little bit different.”
From left to right: Paul Lacerte, Jeff Cyr, Stephen Nairne
Operating from an Indigenous Worldview
To help tell the story of their viewpoint to investors, Raven Capital shares the following on their website: “As an Indigenous intermediary, we honour the Seven Sacred Teachings and operate from an Indigenous worldview. We follow traditional Indigenous protocols, work for the well-being of people and the planet, and acknowledge our responsibility to the next Seven Generations and weave that into our investment process.” The Seven Sacred Teachings guide them toward mino-bimaadiziwin, which roughly means “to live a good life,” and are represented by the Eagle (love), the Buffalo (respect), the Bear (bravery), the Sabe (honesty), the Beaver (wisdom), the Wolf (humility), and the Turtle (truth).
It was important for Raven Capital to integrate the Seven Sacred Teachings into their business practices, not only to honour the teachings for themselves but to also build a trusting relationship with the Indigenous founders they work with.
When Mr. Lacerte and the Raven Capital team approach Indigenous entrepreneurs who are looking for capital, they say that the words these entrepreneurs share with them are medicine.
So, instead of asking, “are you looking for capital?”, Raven Capital would approach with something like, “can you please share your medicine of making a change in the well-being of our people?” Instead of “meetings,” they come together to lift up Indigenous Peoples, which, for them, is sacred and, therefore, a form of ceremony.
“When our team says that to Indigenous founders, there’s almost an immediate healing that starts to happen because of the love and dignity and humility and respect, and some of those Seven Sacred Teachings start to become activated. And because those teachings are activated in our conduct, in our words, in the way that we create the condition for communication and information exchange, it starts to become way less extractive and hierarchical and imbalanced, and it starts to become really loving and safe.”
Speaking the Same Language
Raven Capital also works with non-Indigenous investors who do things in congruence with the Western economic systems in place. Therefore, the Raven Capital team is focused on helping both groups speak the same language when it comes to capital.
According to Lacerte, decolonizing the exclusionary business lexicon is a necessary step, and Raven Capital is committed to doing just that. “One of the ways that we are decolonizing the process and bringing forward Indigenous values and the Seven Sacred Teachings is to change the way that we talk. And that is also risky because the ecosystem trades in the space of confidence, and confidence is often derived from mastery of those acronyms and mastery of the commercial concepts, and so people look for that. And so, the approach that we’re taking is to redefine the way that we speak with each other.”
And the approach that they’re taking is working. In January 2023, Raven Capital closed a $100 million Indigenous venture capital fund, backed by some of Canada’s most prominent foundations and financial institutions, which provides patient and growth capital, as well as support, to start-up and growing Indigenous businesses.
Indigenous-Led Social Enterprises Driving Positive Change
Not only does Raven Capital’s fund directly support Indigenous social enterprises, these social enterprises also create meaningful and quantifiable impacts in Indigenous communities and beyond.
For example, Cheekbone Beauty, a company in Raven Capital’s portfolio, is the very first Indigenous-owned and -founded cosmetics company. They have a theory of change to empower people with make-up by making them feel seen and connected with others, and, thus, less likely to inflict self-harm, a cause near and dear to Cheekbone’s Founder, Jenn Harper.
True to Cheekbone’s mission to make a difference in the lives of Indigenous youth and women and to better the planet, Cheekbone has donated over $250,000 to important causes, uses recyclable packaging, and works with corporate leaders in the cosmetics industry to reduce the level of racism against Indigenous women.
And Cheekbone Beauty isn’t the only social enterprise in Raven Capital’s portfolio that’s advocating for and empowering marginalized groups.
Bobbie Racette, a queer Indigenous woman, is the Founder and CEO of Virtual Gurus, a marketplace of talented Canadian and American virtual assistants. Lacerte tells us that Bobbie’s theory of change is investing in people across the DEI continuum, betting on people that others have given up on.
“For Indigenous and non-Indigenous people along the gender continuum, when they see role models like Bobbie, I think that [it] is empowering, enabling, and it’s charting a pathway that other folks see and can walk in her shoes,” says Lacerte of Bobbie’s success in leadership roles.
Not only are these social enterprises in Raven Capital’s portfolio paving the way for more Indigenous representation in the broader economy, some, like OneFeather Mobile Technologies, are directly facilitating Indigenous participation through their services to ensure more Indigenous people have a spot at the decision-making table.
Lacerte states that OneFeather, “is removing barriers to participating in democratic processes by enabling Indigenous people to vote on their cell phone. And that, because of the mobility of Indigenous people, that is reducing barriers around travel and distance, it’s reducing our carbon footprint, and it’s enabling more fulsome participation in […] land-based decisions.”
“That wisdom, and the fulsome of the democratic process for Indigenous people to participate in land management decisions, is really good for Canadians, […] and enabling the voice of Indigenous people who often act as stewards and sometimes the last line of defence around sacred waterways, around sacred sites, around old-growth forests. And there is huge strength that’s being built in the Supreme Court of enabling Indigenous jurisdiction, but that jurisdiction can get given expression by removing barriers through technology and enabling people to vote with their phones, renew their status card on their phones, and make sure that the legal framework inside the jurisdiction of what we know as Canada is not allowed to continue to exterminate our people through legislative and regulatory processes.”
By making democratic participation accessible for all Indigenous Peoples and economic participation accessible for all purpose-driven Indigenous entrepreneurs, positive change happens, environmentally, economically, and socially — something that benefits everyone, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike.
Members of the Raven team at Raven’s CEO Retreat, 2023.
What’s Next for Raven Capital
Upon closing the $100 million Indigenous venture capital fund, Raven Capital will be deploying roughly $60 million of that in Canada and investing about $40 million in the United States.
Raven Capital has also updated their impact measurement framework, called Raven Impact Measurement (the RIM), which was published in December 2022. The RIM speaks to their epistemology, philosophy, investment practices, and alignment to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It’s open source, so Lacerte invites everyone to go to Raven Capital’s website and download the RIM document to use it for their purposes.
“The idea is that we’re gifting that medicine into the ecosystem for folks to be able to draw those lessons and those teachings and use it to strengthen their own life, use it to strengthen their own personal investing practices, use it to understand that every dollar that you spend as a consumer is an investment decision. And we can start to shift people’s paradigm of the way that economic strength, for every single dollar is used, and that it can start to lean towards this reconciliation space and this regenerative economy and restorative economy.”
Additionally, Raven Capital recently brought together their portfolio companies for a three-day, land-based retreat to heal on the land, do some ceremony, spend time with elders and knowledge keepers, and engage in training and skill-building to prepare for the uncertain economic climate and scale companies for impact. Lacerte says the goal of these retreats is to focus on wellness, prevent mission drift, and continue facilitating the decolonizing trajectory.
“The inertia in the capital markets and the commercial ecosystem […] is towards extraction, the inertia is towards profit, the inertia is towards individual wealth as opposed to community well-being,” Lacerte tells us, pointing to his right. “And we want to go this way,” he adds, pointing to his left with a laugh. “We want to shift a lot of those things, but it takes a lot of intentional effort to do that.”
How You Can Get Involved
Reconciliation has been part of Canada’s discourse for years now, but many non-Indigenous Canadians may not know where to start or how to deepen their work. With a plethora of content to parse through, there’s one resource in particular that Mr. Lacerte recommends for everyone to engage with.
“Here in Canada, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is now legislated, as of June 2021. And so, we are going forward now, inviting both individuals and companies, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to familiarize themselves with the 46 articles of the UNDRIP and then understand where there are opportunities to take action to implement one or more of those 46 articles.”
He continues, “It’s been since 1982 ‘til today that there’s been this effort to bring this global consciousness about the fundamental rights that Indigenous people have and the way that there is mutual benefit. The more we give expression to those rights and remove the barriers to the fundamental human rights of Indigenous Peoples, the better off our land will be, the better off our society will be, and I think we’ll have a society that we can be proud of because we’re taking our foot off of the throats of Indigenous Peoples and good things will happen for all of us the more we do that.”
Additionally, if you’re an investor or are simply in the market for new consumer goods and services, Lacerte says there are plenty of opportunities for you to use your dollar to support Indigenous-led initiatives. “For investors, there is certainly going to be an opportunity this coming summer to engage and participate [with Raven Capital’s initiatives]. And, obviously, shop Indigenous. If there are opportunities going forward, folks can familiarize themselves with the Raven Capital portfolio and Indigenous marketplaces all over Turtle Island. There’s this massive opportunity to transform the Indigenous economy as consumers, as customers, and as allies, so there’s lots of opportunity in that space.”
We thank Mr. Lacerte and Raven Capital for the opportunity to listen and learn about the important work Raven Capital is doing, as well as the incredible Indigenous social enterprises within the Raven Capital portfolio. We appreciate you sharing your time, wisdom, and stories with us and our readers.
Making the world more diverse, equitable, and inclusive is a collective effort. That’s why it’s important to educate ourselves, assess our personal and professional DEI efforts, and find actionable ways to participate in and support the cause.
We’ve compiled a list of helpful DEI resources you can use to deepen your understanding and enact positive change.
DEI Resources from Organizations Featured in Make The World Better Magazine
Check out these inspiring guides, toolkits, ebooks, and DEI resources from individuals and organizations that have been featured in Make The World Better Magazine.
Bakau Consulting – Resources Toolkit: Bakau Consulting has compiled an exhaustive list of DEI articles, books, podcasts, and other resources covering a wide range of topics, from fundamentals of anti-oppression to strategies for 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion and everything in between. Available in English, Spanish, and Russian.
Benevity – Belonging: The Third Piece of the Diversity & Inclusion Puzzle ebook: Benevity fosters a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging and is sharing this fundamental part of their workplace culture with everyone. This guide, directed at corporate social responsibility leaders, teaches companies all about belonging, its importance, and how it benefits the workplace.
Diversity in Sustainability – Mamadou Abou-Sarr: Bringing Intentionality to ESG:This interview with Mamadou Abou-Sarr, international financier and Co-Founder of V-Square Quantitative Management, explores the importance of sustainable investing, pressing issues in sustainable finance, and his experiences, achievements, and advice.
Raven Indigenous Capital Partners – Raven Impact Measurement Framework: Raven Capital’s framework, the Raven Impact Measurement (RIM), provides insight into how they measure the impact the businesses in their portfolio are having on Indigenous Peoples, communities, and on the ecosystem, along with sharing their epistemology, philosophy, investment practices, and alignment to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
AccessibleEmployers – Workplace Accommodation Guide: This guide provides actionable ways to accommodate for both visible and invisible disabilities, proving that increasing workplace accessibility doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive.
LinkedIn – Inclusive Language For Marketers: A Pocket Guide: LinkedIn has created a guide to help marketers incorporate a more inclusive lexicon in all of their communications. The guide includes best practices and alternatives to common exclusionary language.
McLean & Company – DEI Strategy Research: This DEI guide helps HR leaders create a people-first DEI strategy, empowering them to assess their current efforts and gaps, determine a clear purpose and how to carry it out, implement organization-wide DEI, and measure progress.
UBC Sustainability Scholars Program – Exploring a Just and Inclusive Circular Recovery: Part of the UBC Sustainability Scholars Program, this report explores the benefits of the circular economy and the social enterprises that intersect with it, offering insight into the jobs that a transition to the circular economy can generate and share, reuse, and repair businesses within marginalized communities.
Veza – Anti-Racism Sample Statement: Equity, diversity, and inclusion organization Veza Global has provided an anti-racism sample statement, which companies can adapt to create their own anti-racism commitment statement and steps.
Sparx PG’s Resources
Since DEI is so important to Sparx and a crucial part of our DNA, we have created some DEI marketing resources of our own that we hope will benefit you and your purpose-driven organization:
Why and How to Add More Diversity Into Your Marketing Efforts: There are many benefits to adding diversity to your marketing efforts, but in order to avoid performative or disingenuous “woke-washing,” we’ve created a guide on how to do it in an authentic, actionable way to truly make the world better.
How to Avoid “Rainbow-Washing” during Pride Month: June is Pride month, which means it’s a great time for your organization to live its values and support the 2SLGTBQIA+ community. However, it’s important to make sure your efforts aren’t “rainbow-washing.” Be sure to read our guide on how to be a true ally this Pride month, and beyond.
Join Forces with Sparx
Sparx would love to work with your purpose-driven organization to build a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable community. Want to team up? Give us a shout for a free consultation. Together, we can help make your diversity story shine.
Fathers make the world better. With Father’s Day coming up, it’s the perfect time to express your love and appreciation for the father figure in your life. Purpose-driven gifts are a great way to show your care for your dad or the dad in your life and the causes that matter to you both.
Sparx has compiled a list of sustainable and zero-waste gift ideas that will bring dad joy while also benefiting people and planet.
Food & Drink
Treat the dad in your life to something deliciously purpose-driven with these sustainable gifts.
Image: Cococo
Cococo Chocolatiers Father’s Day Collection – These gift boxes are filled with premium chocolate confections, which are handcrafted in Alberta with Rainforest Alliance Certified™ sustainable and fair trade cocoa and cocoa butter. Plus, Cococo supports community initiatives, following their values of “cocoa, communities, and confections.”
East Van Bees Neighborhood Honey – Locally made in Vancouver using sustainably-extracted, chemical-free, raw, urban, multi-floral honey from bees kept ethically and in a sustainable setting. Each of these two jars is hand poured. Check out their Instagram for conservation tips.
Kozlik’s Canadian Mustard – Find a mustard that perfectly suits your father figure’s tastes with this Canadian-made, locally sourced, all-natural condiment that is handmade in small batches and comes in a variety of spicy, sweet, and savoury flavours.
Image: Salt Spring Coffee
Salt Spring Coffee – Give the dad in your life a cup of goodness with Salt Spring Coffee’s 100% certified organic, shade-grown, fair trade coffee. With their Coffee Bag Recycling Program and goal of becoming zero waste by 2026, dad’s sure to get a boost of both energy and purpose with every sip.
Sriracha Revolver – Indigenous- and woman-owned, these sauces come in a range of unique flavour combinations, are handmade in small batches in Vancouver, and use all-natural ingredients with no added colour or preservatives. The purpose-driven father in your life may especially enjoy the Habanero Hot Sauce, as a donation is given to organizations supporting the Indigenous community for every batch made.
Personal Care
Help your father figure get some much needed rest, relaxation, and recovery with these eco-friendly gift ideas.
Attitude Mineral Face Sunscreen Stick SPF 30 – This unscented, reef-friendly, vegan sunscreen stick comes in plastic-free, biodegradable packaging. Plus, Attitude is on a mission to decrease their energy footprint and has planted over 1.5 million trees since 2020.
Bamboo Switch Safety Razor – Made from sustainable and ethically-sourced bamboo, this razor comes in plastic-free and recyclable packaging. Plus, all shipping materials are biodegradable and 5% of the company’s profits go to Sea Shepherd. Now that’s a clean shave.
Marseille’s Remedy Thieves Balm – Look out for dad’s health with this all-natural balm that’s made with a Canadian beeswax base, good for reducing inflammation, treating bug bites, easing bruises, and even cleaning hands. Handmade in small-batches and chemical-free.
Old Soul Soap Company Muscle Rub – This all-natural, ethical, and sustainable muscle rub is a great way to show you care both about your father figure’s health and the planet.
Image: Rocky Mountain Soap Co
Peregrine Supply Co. Beard Box Care Package – These all-natural and safe beard care sets come with face and beard soap, beard oil, and a tin of beard balm. Peregrine Supply follows the Guardian Model and has strict sustainability and responsibility standards, so it’s a great sustainable gift idea for any eco-minded father figure.
Rocky Mountain Soap Co. Foot Butter – Keep dad on his feet with this GMO-free, Canadian-made, cruelty-free, 100% natural and 71% organic foot butter.
Yukon Soaps Yukon Man Trio – These soaps, handcrafted by Indigenous-owned and -operated company Yukon Soaps, are sustainably sourced, all-natural, and come in eco-friendly packaging, making this collection of three scents a great choice for the father figure in your life.
Home & Decor
Enhance dad’s purpose-driven routine with these zero-waste gift ideas that will make any home greener.
ChopValue Zero Waste Kit – ChopValue transforms chopsticks into eco-friendly items. Their Zero Waste Chopstick Kit is made from 500 recycled chopsticks and is loaded with zero waste goodies. Plus, the shipping is carbon neutral. The kit contains a cheese board, two coasters, two keychains, two bamboo chopsticks, two bamboo toothbrushes, two stainless steel straws, and two straw cleaners.
Coffee Sock Reusable Coffee Filter – Coffee is delicious, but unfortunately coffee filters generate a lot of waste. The coffee sock helps solve this problem. Handmade from 100% USDA Certified organic cotton, this two pack of filters is made to last and will enhance the flavour of dad’s coffee. Each sock is expected to last around a year and replaces 4–12 boxes of paper filters per year.
Image: Flowerink
Deer Dad Plantable Card – Express your appreciation for the father in your life with this meaningful, plantable card, embedded with wildflower seeds. It even comes in an envelope made from sugarcane residue.
Eighteen Hundreds Candle Co. Candles – These eco-friendly candles have a lot of personality. Handcrafted in Gastown, Vancouver, each candle is made of North American grown soy wax, natural cotton wicks, phthalate-free fragrances, pure essential oils, and comes in reusable vessels. Plus, every candle sold online helps benefit a local charity.
WallyGrow Eco Wall Planters – These 100% leak-proof wall planters are durable and made in North America from 100% recycled plastic. Thanks to these planters, WallyGrow has diverted 10+ million plastic bottles from landfills since their inception in 2007.
Clothing & Apparel
Weave more purpose into dad’s wardrobe with these eco-friendly gifts.
Goodee x KOTN The Goodee Hoodie – From Black-owned B-Corp Goodee, in partnership with Kotn, comes this cozy hoodie made from sustainably sourced Egyptian cotton. This hoodie also supports a number of causes, including community engagement, corporate reporting, natural materials, and water conservancy.
Kotn Spring/Summer 2023 Collection – Kotn is a certified B Corp with the fourth-highest B Impact Score of apparel brands in North America. Not only is the spring/summer collection made from sustainable Egyptian cotton and biodegradable fibres, each order helps with job creation, poverty alleviation, and sustainable growth for the communities they source from and are a part of.
Image: Province of Canada
Province of Canada Sweatpants – Forget fast fashion. Find your father figure the perfect pair of comfortable sweatpants, socks, and hats curated for dads, made in Canada and shipped in certified compostable packaging. Plus, the majority of their cotton is knitted locally and sustainably grown and organic.
Vessi Waterproof Shoes – These waterproof shoes from Vancouver-based, Asian-owned brand Vessi are made from vegan materials. The brand also partners with factories that share their sustainability values and goals to reduce waste and energy. Plus, their packaging is 100% recyclable.
Bonding Time
One of the greatest gifts you can give this Father’s Day is spending time with the dad in your life. There are a lot of zero-waste ways to spend time together, such as having a sustainable barbeque using fresh, organic, and locally-sourced foods; making a dessert together that uses ethically-sourced and sustainable ingredients, like EMKAO cocoa beans; going on an eco-friendly trip; or engaging directly in a planet-saving activity, such as litter clean up in the park or at the beach.
Giftwrap Your Messaging with Sparx
Engaging in purpose-driven efforts to make the world better? The experts at Sparx can help package up your message and deliver it to your audience. Contact us for a free marketing consultation.
If we want to make the world better, we need to transition to the circular economy.
Sparx is determined to help amplify the good being done by purpose-driven organizations like yours — we even have our own 3Ps of Sustainability Practices (Philosophy, Possibility, and Profitability) which we use to approach marketing in the circular economy space. As such, we’ve written articles over the years to help changemakers share their sustainability stories, educate individuals about the circular economy, and expand their reach to a wider audience.
We’ve compiled this masterpost to share advice and highlights from several of our circular economy articles and to provide quick and easy access to each blog post. Keep scrolling for tips you can start using right away!
Overcome Challenges Unique to Sustainable Marketing
When it comes to convincing people to choose your company, you may face specialized marketing challenges as a purpose-driven organization.
Here are some ways to overcome these challenges:
Communicate Your Value to Customers: Include an “About” page on your website that showcases your backstory, goals, and impacts. Periodically share this page and related content on your social media platforms, emails, and advertisements to educate new customers and remind existing customers of the impact of your good work.
Rise to the Challenge of Meeting Higher Customer Expectations: Ensure your marketing-adjacent user experiences, such as your website and your customer service channels, are solid and easy to use, so customer satisfaction is not only met, but exceeded.
Stand Out From the Competition: Focus on what makes your company unique – and get specific. Communicate these differences, and their impacts, through your marketing efforts. Make sure you have a distinct visual identity (i.e. logo, fonts, imagery, and colour palette), and tone of voice that fits with your values and resonates with customers. Keeping up with trends can also ensure that you’re also keeping up with (or getting ahead of) the competition.
There is a growing trend of brands making unsubstantiated green marketing claims, which leads them to be under scrutiny for false or misleading information, known as greenwashing. This can lead businesses to lose money and customers, receive negative reviews, and even be the target for class-action lawsuits.
To avoid being misconstrued as greenwashing, you can:
Get Your Business Tested and Certified: Before you go to market with your green product, it’s advised to get your product certified. CSA Group is a Canadian standards organization “dedicated to safety, social good and sustainability” that can evaluate your product and give you a sustainability mark.
Communicate Your Sustainable Efforts to Customers: Communicate your sustainable efforts in an accessible, honest, and repetitive way for your customers and stakeholders.
In order to empower consumers and businesses to choose purpose-driven products and services over the “default option,” brands need to provide resources that will educate consumers about true cost. Once made aware of this information, perceived value will begin to shift and purchasers will be equipped to decide if a brand’s impact is really worth their investment.
Explain Return on Investment: Consider treating customers more like investors. Investors want to feel that the reward is greater than the risk, they want to see tangible impact, and they want to know they can trust your brand. Also, by reframing customers as investors, the end game for companies and brands shifts to ensure they’ve considered how their customers can feel invested in seeing the brand they support thrive.
Draw Lessons from Luxury Brands: Consumers of luxury goods spend their money because it allows them to make a statement about the vision they want to project. If purpose-driven brands follow this example and clearly communicate why their products or services are worth the premium price, it will encourage customers to invest.
Report Your Impact: Whether you use social media, press releases, e-mail newsletters or other documentation, your steps to live out your vision can’t be taken in secret. They have to be a part of your communications flow, ingrained into your online presence, and something your audience can easily access through your website. Seventh Generation, for example, publicly presents their Climate Impact Report.
Build Trust with Third-Party Recognition: Certifications such as 1% for the Planet, along with other recognitions such as third-party partnerships, programs, initiatives, and event participation all indicate to your customers that they can trust they will have a real impact when they invest in your brand’s goods and services.
Sparx attended the Zero Waste Conference 2022, which got us inspired about building a waste-free future.
One of the most inspiring moments of the conference was when Katie Treggiden presented her closing remarks on rethinking and recategorizing waste. By redrawing our mental model of the idea of “waste” from something that should be discarded into something that has value, we can rethink all points along a production sequence to move towards circularity.
By starting with the end in mind and recognizing that what we view as disruption is actually going back to the way we used to do things (i.e before mass production methods became the norm), we can start making tangible progress. Somewhat poetically, we have to go back to where we came from in order to truly move forward.
Another important piece of advice given by Treggiden was that we are all capable of sustainably effecting change, and the best way to do that is to find the intersection of what we’re good at, what the world needs, and what we love doing – a piece of wisdom that is very close to the Japanese concept of ikigai.
Marketing the Circular Economy: We heard it in the words of Shane Koyczan that “stories burn lessons into our memories, they become how we remember.” These words resonate with our view that storytelling and marketing will be essential to moving hearts and minds to get on board with embracing the circular economy.
Storytelling will help you better engage, inspire, and lead your audience on the long journey to the day when the circular economy just becomes “the economy.”
Know Your Target Market Audience(s): Break down your audiences into primary and secondary groups through segmentation. It’s important that you get specific with your various audiences to understand who will have the most impact, and, therefore, who you should be reaching and creating resonance with. Depending on what sector you’re in within the circular economy space there may be unique audiences you’ll want to target.
Determine Your Current Challenges: What are the current challenges/problems your organization is facing that marketing/communications could help overcome? Knowing these challenges can help you focus on a story that would appeal to your target audience and cause them to perform a desired action.
Use Storytelling to Reach Your Impact Goals: Storytelling allows you to activate the imagination of your audience, which can help you stand out from the noise, establish a deep connection, and ultimately get their buy-in.
Looking for marketing services to share your circular economy story or give a specific project a boost? The experts at Sparx would love to help amplify your efforts. Contact us for a free consultation.
Moms and mom figures make the world better. With Mother’s Day coming up, it’s the perfect time to celebrate everything they do, and there’s no better way to thank them than to give them purpose-driven gifts that support causes you both care about.
Sparx has compiled a list of sustainable Mother’s Day gift ideas that will make the mom(s) in your life happy while also benefiting people and planet.
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Food & Drink
Image: Bangin’ Bannock
Make the mom in your life a sweet and eco-friendly treat with these delicious sustainable gift ideas. You can even try making them together.
Bangin’ Bannock Mixes – These Indigenous frybread mixes, made by Indigenous women duo, Bangin’ Bannock, are easy to make and come in eco-friendly packaging.
Bush Berry Mother’s Helper Tea – This tea is made specially for postpartum but is a beneficial and soothing blend for anyone who needs a little energy and well-being boost. Plus, it comes in 100% backyard compostable packaging from a plastic-free, farm-to-cup, BC-based brand.
Image: Susgrainable
Susgrainable Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix – Moms’ cookies may be famous, but we’ve found a purpose-driven rival. Make mom a delicious batch of Susgrainable’s sustainable cookies, made from upcycled barley flour, to help save the planet and give a gut-friendly gift, loaded with dark-chocolate chips.
MUMGRY Chocolate Peanut Butter – Made by Black-owned and -operated brand, Mumgry, this protein-, vitamin-, and fibre-rich, all-natural chocolate peanut butter is made with moms, at all stages of motherhood, in mind. Delicious, healthy, and packed in sustainable glass jars.
Blume Latte Mixes – These organic and inventive superfood latte mixes are like a garden in a cup. They’ll keep both the mom in your life and the environment healthy, as Blume has partnered with CleanHub and Green Worms Waste Management to divert plastic from the ocean — with 7,000 lbs diverted in 2022 alone.
Personal Care
Moms and mom figures do so much for us. This Mother’s Day is the perfect time to pamper them with the gift of relaxation, sustainability-style.
Sealuxe Beach Glass Soap – Transport mom to the beach with this unique moisturizing hand soap. Each soap looks like a piece of beach glass and is made from sustainable and natural ingredients. Packaged in a glass jar, it’s both beautiful and environmentally-friendly.
Rebels Refinery Mother’s Day Gift Set – This gift set is loaded with Canadian-made, all-natural, sulfate- and paraben-free personal care items that will help mom feel pampered and healthy. Plus, each item comes in either refillable, recyclable, or reusable packaging. Contains: cotton bag, teal heart and pink stick natural lip balms, moisturizer, refillable hand sanitizer, face cleansing oil with reusable cotton pads, strawberry tinted lip balm, non-greasy hand lotion, and salt soap.
Image: Little Fox Apothecary
Little Fox Apothecary Milk Baths – Help mom relax with these 100% all-natural milk baths, made with Canadian and organic ingredients, essential oils, and Himalayan salt, and packaged in reusable/recyclable glass jars. A biodegradable bag is included to collect the petals.
Image: Epic Blend
Epic Blend Salted Chocolate Caramel Lip Scrub – Vegan, Canadian-made, and in recyclable packaging, this lip scrub is packed with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and vitamin-rich ingredients, meaning it’s good for mom’s skin and tastes like dessert.
Loa Skin Botanical Recovery Mask – Formulated for all skin types, this vegan, non-toxic recovery mask is packed with microbiome-friendly ingredients and contains no palm-derivatives. And it’s a beautiful shade of purple. Plus, Loa Skin uses recyclable glass bottles and paper, custom-shape shipping materials, are partnered with Ecologi to help with reforestation and carbon dioxide reduction projects, and they measure their impact.
Bottle None Shampoo and Conditioner Bars – Canadian from the roots down, these haircare products are plastic-free, hand-made by the sister duo that owns the company, and made with clean ingredients — no phthalates or parabens here. Even the travel cases are made from 100% recycled Canadian plastic, making this a great zero-waste gift for the mom in your life.
Bare Skin Bar Garden Party Bath Bombs – With no fake colours, glitters, or foaming agents; a blend of ten different botanicals, herbs, fruits, and vegetables; and natural and reinvigorating ingredients like Rooibos tea, these Vancouver-made vegan bath bombs are an ideal choice for a sustainable soak.
Rocky Mountain Soap Co. Belly Butter – This Canadian-made, GMO-free, all-natural belly butter is a sustainable and soothing helper for the pregnant friend or relative in your life or any mom figure that wants smooth, itch-free skin.
Home & Decor
Compliment the aesthetic of the mom in your life with these eco-friendly home and decoration gift ideas.
ZOETSTUDIO candles – These container and tealight candles are a terrarium in a (food-grade, heat-resistant) glass. Handcrafted in small batches in Vancouver, these candles, made with lead-free wicks, phthalate-free fragrance oils, and soy wax make for a beautiful and fragrant gift for any mom that loves nature. Also available at Local Boom.
Fair Trade Winds Felt Flowers – These flowers never wither and are made using natural felted wool by women artists in Nepal. You can either choose a bouquet for the mom in your life or select individual flowers. Fair Trade Federation and Green America certified.
Image: Goodee
Goodee Made in Africa Set – Black-owned B Corp-certified brand, Goodee, has a Made in Africa Set that’s a unique gift for your purpose-driven mom figure. With a Kazuri necklace made in Nairobi, a Banasco Basket from Ghana-based brand Baba Tree, and tumblers made out of recycled glass by Kenyan brand Siafu Home, this gift set is made of natural materials, helps build positive change in a number of marginalized communities, and supports community engagement and gender advocacy.
Image: Goodee
Haws The Rowley Ripple Watering Can – Crafted to water with pinpoint accuracy to help even the most delicate of seedlings, these unique watering cans are a great gift for any eco-friendly mom who loves growing plants. Best of all, these cans support both gender advocacy and nature and wildlife conservancy.
Pure Living Lucia Room Sprays – With 12 beautiful scents, bundled into two different gift sets, Pure Living’s Lucia room spray line will fill any room or scent any fabrics in mom’s home with all-natural fragrances made with 100% essential oils. Pure Living is a Montréal-based brand that uses recycled and 100% recyclable materials for all of its packaging.
Clothing & Apparel
Give mom’s wardrobe a purpose-driven boost with these sustainable gift ideas.
Laura Elizabeth Kid-Friendly Jewellery – Moms with little ones won’t have to worry about accessorizing — they can safely wear this non-toxic, durable jewellery that’s safe for tiny mouths and too sturdy to break off the chain. Best of all, this jewellery is sustainable and ethical, locally-made, and uses recycled materials and recycled and biodegradable packaging.
Image: Encircled
Encircled Dresses – Give your mom or mom figure the gift of sustainable, ethically-made fashion with these dresses by Encircled, a Toronto-based, Certified B Corp brand that uses eco-friendly fabrics and offers Canadian-made fashion. They use 100% recyclable packaging, host team park clean-ups, use eco-friendly paper and products at their office, embrace diversity, and believe in standing up for human rights as well as protecting the planet.
Image: TAMGA
TAMGA Designs Scarves and Hair Accessories – Made from sustainable beechwood fibres and GOTS eco-certified dyes, these light-weight scarves, headbands, and scrunchies are a great way to add a burst of colour to your mom’s wardrobe. TAMGA Designs is also a member of 1% For the Planet and partnered with Canopy Style and the Sumatran Orangutan Society to help protect Indonesia’s endangered rainforests.
Free Label Maternity Friendly Collection – Locally made in Toronto and Vancouver using sustainable materials and placed in 100% home-compostable packaging, these maternity-friendly garments are perfect for expecting or nursing moms and all mom figures looking for something comfy to wear.
Tentree Sustainable Activewear – For health- and sustainability-minded moms on the go, Tentree’s circular InMotion collection transforms old textiles and discarded water bottles into brand-new activewear. Great for movement and comfortable lounging.
Bonding Time
Want to give the mom in your life a Mother’s Day gift that will create lasting memories? Find sustainable activities you can do together. Go for a walk or even go out shopping for the day using your bikes to get around — taking along hand-woven Baba Tree Bicycle Baskets to carry your sustainable shopping finds.
Picnics and meals make for great bonding moments as well, and you can use Nature Bee Beeswax Wraps to safely travel to the park with your food. Or you can make your own board game together using alternative art supplies and upcycled, recycled, and recyclable materials — then test it out together!
Giftwrap Your Messaging with Sparx
Engaging in purpose-driven efforts to make the world better? The experts at Sparx can help package up your message and deliver it to your audience. Contact us for a free marketing consultation.
If you’re looking for a great way to expand your brand’s reach and impact, look no further than attending corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) events. To help give your summer plans a purpose-driven boost, Sparx has compiled a list of mission-aligned ESG events that provide valuable opportunities to deepen education and uncover unique perspectives, connect and collaborate with values-aligned professionals, and explore innovative strategies.
Keep scrolling to learn all about purpose-driven ESG and CSR events taking place both virtually and in person across Canada this July, August, and September.
Location: Toronto Pavilion, 190 Railside Road, Toronto, Ontario
Description: Hosted by the African Descent Ontario in partnership with the University of Toronto African Alumni Association, this summit seeks to advocate for and inspire people of African descent in Canada, celebrating African Canadian heritage, contributions, and culture through presentations and discussions, networking, and showcases.
Description: Share ideas and learn how to increase accessibility in the workplace for people with visible and invisible disabilities at this purpose-driven webinar.
Location: The University of British Columbia, 800 Robson Street, Vancouver, British Columbia
Description: Enjoy an afternoon of workshop and panel discussions focused on tackling climate change and the just transition to renewable energy. This event, which is sponsored by PIMS and the French Embassy of Canada, features a diverse group of leaders across Indigenous affairs, climate science, renewable energy, public policy, and economics.
Description: “Inclusion and Resilience for Everyone” is the theme of this three-day event, organized by Mulongo Diaspora Foundation. Join over 100 mental health and disability experts for presentations, networking, and problem solving that aims to improve disability services and mental well-being in Canada and beyond.
Description: Learn about the processes and requirements of becoming a certified B Corporation, discover areas of positive impact where more work is needed, and determine your submission readiness at this free virtual session.
Description: Participate in Canadian Equality Consulting’s inclusive leadership best practices session to better understand the impacts of unconscious biases and the benefits of addressing biases in hiring practices.
Location: the BAYT, 613 Clark Avenue West, Vaughan, Ontario
Description: Collaborate with business professionals, students, teachers, and parents to help counter antisemitism, and participate in workshops and presentations from prominent Jewish organizations and industry leaders.
Location: UN Headquarters, New York City, New York
Description: Kick off a new phase of Sustainable Development Goals progress with the 2023 SDG Summit. Marking the half-way point of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the event will provide policy guidance, review implementation progress and recent challenges, address the impacts of crises facing the world, and focus on ways to meet everyone’s basic needs.
Description: Join Indigenous women entrepreneurs and allies at this event that aims to uplift the voices of Indigenous women in business against the background of the emerging $100 billion Indigenous economy.
Description: “Building Impact from Scratch” is the theme of this purpose-driven virtual summit. Get the guidance you need to further your impact and turn your business into a force for good, and enjoy talks from a line-up of purpose-driven leaders.
Description: In honour of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, attendees of this webinar will learn about the seven Indigenous ways of knowing and how to cultivate workplaces that encourage this framework.
Location: CBC Toronto Broadcast Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Description: This hybrid purpose-driven event unites sustainability-minded film and television professionals from around the world to collaborate toward accelerating sustainability in the motion picture industry.
Location: Multiple locations in Toronto, including Meridian Hall, St. Lawrence Centre for Arts, and the Design Exchange
Description: With a mission to connect innovators using technology to build an equitable and sustainable future for everyone, attendees will enjoy an extensive line-up of world-class speakers, including astronaut Chris Hadfield, television journalist Lisa LaFlamme, and Knix Founder Joanna Griffiths, as well as networking and evening socials.
Location: Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex at Exhibition Place, Toronto, Ontario
Description: Celebrate supplier diversity in Canada with CAMSC’s Business Achievement Awards Gala. Enjoy a keynote presentation, authentic food, and entertainment while honouring diverse-owned organizations that are driving positive change.
RSVP for a Free Consultation with Sparx
On a mission to make the world better? Our marketing experts can help make your impact story shine. Let’s talk purpose.
As a CAMSC-certified company, diversity is likely a key part of your identity and a value your brand is committed to supporting. Communicating this commitment to diversity will help drive your impact and demonstrate that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is an authentic part of your brand.
Keep scrolling to discover why sharing your DEI story is an important step on your impact journey and to learn actionable tips that will give your purpose-driven marketing strategy a boost.
Why is DEI Marketing Important?
A DEI marketing strategy is no longer a nice-to-have, it can be make-or-break. In a 2019 survey conducted by Adobe, 61% of respondents said diversity in ads was important. The majority of consumers care about diversity, equity, and inclusion and are interested in marketing that visibly communicates a company’s commitment to DEI.
Marketing that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive also builds trust with current and prospective customers. In the same Adobe survey, 38% of the respondents said they’re more likely to trust a brand with diversity in its advertising, while a Microsoft Advertising Inclusive Marketing Research study found that 70% of Gen Z consumers feel greater trust for brands that represent diversity in their ads.
Along with building trust and demonstrating a commitment to shared values, DEI representation in marketing drives up engagement and creates long-lasting emotional bonds with your desired audience. For example, 76% of Gen Z consumers are more likely to support brands with authentic advertising.
DEI marketing is important for another reason as well: it draws in loyal, like-minded consumers who share your vision of a better world, and thus, are more likely to be interested in supporting your CAMSC-certified diverse business and furthering the DEI cause. A recent Deloitte study found that 57% of consumers are more loyal to brands with a commitment to addressing social inequities and that 90% of Gen Z consumers are more willing to make a purchase they believe is beneficial to society.
When a CAMSC-certified company uses DEI marketing to communicate their unique and authentic diversity story, it’s a win for everyone. It will drive up visibility and engagement for your brand, expand your audience, and further the DEI cause, creating positive impact for all.
What Does Effective DEI Marketing Look Like?
DEI marketing should be representative of both your internal team and the audience you want to engage with your brand. So, what does that look like exactly?
Effective DEI marketing removes barriers, celebrates differences, and invites everyone to interact with you by communicating your unique story and values in a way that forms a strong emotional connection. It contains imagery and messaging that is accessible, inclusive, representative of folks from different walks of life and backgrounds, and keeps gender balance in mind.
After all, representation is a bridge to your brand. Consumers want to feel seen and heard, and will ask themselves, “can I see myself in this?,” which is why 47% of Gen Z consumers are more likely to trust brands that they feel represent them in their advertising. Unfortunately, a Top Design Firms’ study found that only 29% of BIPOC consumers feel that their race is accurately represented in advertising, and a 2021 Facebook study found that 54% of consumers do not feel culturally represented in online advertising, even though 71% of consumers expect brands to promote diversity and inclusion and 59% are more loyal to brands with diverse and inclusive online advertising.
If consumers can’t see themselves as the right fit for an organization’s product or service then they will not feel connected to a brand, and that feeling could result in decreased engagement. To build that bridge and invite in your desired audience, your DEI marketing should represent them accurately while avoiding homogenous, biased, or cliched imagery and messaging.
Communicating Your Diversity
As part of an effective DEI marketing strategy, you can communicate your diversity story with the following suggestions.
Put your CAMSC certification in places where they will be seen, such as your website footer, email signatures, social media profiles, and advertisements and collateral. If you’ve invested in certification, be sure to put it on display.
Use images that are representative of diversity, equity, and inclusion across all your content and channels. Consider doing a content audit, if necessary. It’s important to be vigilant when it comes to your visuals so that you avoid exclusionary, biased, or cliched imagery. There are a lot of different databases with stock image collections that represent different demographics and underrepresented groups. You can also use images of your diverse CAMSC-certified team on your website, instead of stock images.
Avoid exclusionary language choices. Words are powerful, which is why it’s important to carefully select each word to ensure it supports your message and welcomes your audience. Stay up to date on politically correct terms, look at how different groups refer to themselves and echo their wording to avoid problematic language, use gender neutral words, and be mindful not to include language that supports stereotypes.
Ensure that your content is accessible for individuals with disabilities. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provides the international standard for making web-based content accessible for people with disabilities. You can test your webpages and marketing collateral against these standards to help you determine how accessible your website will be for everyone. Make adjustments as needed and ensure text and visuals are clear, readable, and compatible with screen readers.
Get everyone’s input. Since your CAMSC-certified organization has a diverse team, it can be extremely helpful to give everyone the chance to provide their input. By bringing forward their unique backgrounds, perspectives, and identities, your teammates can help identify problem areas and provide innovative ways to communicate to audience segments you want to include. Just a note: don’t expect diverse employees to heavy-lift educating fellow staff and/or consumers. Be respectful of their time, energy, and boundaries, and consider how you can compensate them for their efforts if they agree to help out beyond their usual job description scope.
Conclusion
Integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion into your marketing, communications, and content is a huge part of walking your talk and sparking positive change. Creating a more equitable, inclusive, and diverse society rests on all of us. If you can demonstrate that you can do this in your business by marketing with purpose and communicating your DEI story, other people will look at what you’ve done as an example of what they can do as well.
Join Forces With Sparx
As a CAMSC-certified organization, Sparx would love to work with you to build a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable community. Want to team up? Give us a shout for a free consultation. Together, we can help make your diversity story shine.
Money and impact can be the best of friends. Recognizing that generating a profit and doing good can actually live in harmony is an important step towards creating a better world where businesses are profitable, regenerative, and equitable.
Spring Activator launched in order to provide impact-driven founders with the guidance, tools, and community they need to build and grow their businesses. We spoke with Keith Ippel, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, and Caroline von Hirschberg, Co-CEO, about how this values-driven organization has evolved and grown to support entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystems around the world to make impact entrepreneurship mainstream.
Tell us about Spring Activator’s mission.
Spring Activator was founded in 2014 with a simple but bold mission: to accelerate and amplify the activities of purpose-driven leaders to create an equitable and resilient world that is regenerative by design.
We envision a world in which every business is an impact business, every investor is an impact investor, and where entrepreneurship and investment ecosystems drive regenerative innovation.
We act globally, leveraging our know-how to provide the tools, knowledge, network, and mentorship needed to change the world.
What inspired you/your founders to start Spring Activator?
Spring Activator was launched to give impact founders and companies access to the tools, training, resources, and capital that was previously only available to tech companies. In parallel, Spring wanted to give tech entrepreneurs and angel investors a way to share their voice in impact.
Spring Activator team members at Vancouver Investor Social
What were some of the challenges you/your founders encountered?
Early on it was apparent that convincing entrepreneurs, investors, and partners that companies could launch, grow, and create lasting positive impact and make money was actually possible.
We needed to work hard to convince people that impact entrepreneurs were out there, that they had great ideas to solve big problems, and that they could create momentum, success, and impact.
What do you consider your organization’s biggest success?
In almost 9 years, Spring Activator has worked in over 50 communities worldwide, supporting 2,100+ founders and 200+ investors, who have raised more than $30 million. We are helping entrepreneurs and investors create impact at scale.
What makes Spring Activator unique?
Our holistic and collaborative approach to creating change. Spring Activator partners with foundations, incubators, accelerators, governments, and donors to create, launch, and grow thriving innovation and entrepreneurial communities.
Authentic change within a system is complex, involving numerous stakeholders and interest groups. We see ourselves as a conduit between governmental institutions, who are primarily responsible for implementing top-down approaches to change, and the impact business and investment community, who are attempting to create positive change from the bottom-up through their products, services, processes, and capital.
Our mission of making impact entrepreneurship mainstream is in line with the B Corporation mandate of redefining successful businesses and inspiring organizations to not only be the best in, but for the world.
In September 2017, we became a Certified B Corporation. There are over 4,000 Certified B Corporations from more than 150 industries in 70+ countries. Spring Activator was also certified by the non-profit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. We’ve evaluated how our practices impact our employees, our community, the environment, and our customers.
How do you feel your organization makes the world better?
We are committed to helping entrepreneurs make a positive social and environmental impact through our programs, global community, and by unlocking access to values-aligned capital. We do this through creating positive social impact by helping to enable and support immigrant entrepreneurs as they grow their businesses in Canada, increasing access to capital for impact ventures and encouraging investors of all experience levels to approach venture capital (VC) through an impact lens, and ensuring that early stage impact entrepreneurs are supported and align their growth with impact.
Some of our initiatives include:
Spring’s Impact Startup Visa Accelerator Program, which supports cohorts of entrepreneurs from around the world to move to Canada, apply for Permanent Residence status, and build their venture in Canada through the Canadian Startup Visa immigration pathway.
Our Impact Investor Challenge. This program is a comprehensive, 11-week program with an investor track for individuals interested in impact investing and an entrepreneur track for early-stage, fundraising startups seeking investment. The program introduces investors and impact-curious individuals to impact entrepreneurs who are seeking funding for their impact-driven initiatives. To date, over $780,000 has been awarded in impact investments to Challenge winners and more than $15 million has been catalyzed to participants as a result of the program.
Our Discovery Foundation Business Activate Program, which is designed to offer early stage impact entrepreneurs the tools and resources they need to gain confidence in activating growth. Through this program, participants receive access to resources and expertise around funding, talent, digital marketing, and other key interest areas. The program includes monthly webinars, video tutorials, actionable worksheets, themed monthly sprints, and 1:1 support calls. Thanks to our sponsors, this program is offered at a low cost, or for free, thus increasing access for early stage entrepreneurs looking to build out their skills.
Additionally, as members of 1% for the Planet, we give one percent of our gross revenue and provide in-kind consultations to environmental not-for-profits. We also work towards meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), primarily through SDG 4: Quality Education, SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities.
How can capital be used as a force for positive change?
Capital can be used to invest in companies that are focused on delivering products, services, and/or technology that make the world a better place for people and the planet. Investing capital into companies dedicated to climate solutions, healthcare, education, the circular economy, sustainable food and agriculture, and sustainable retail and supply chain initiatives will help these companies accelerate their growth, success, and impact.
We can also use capital to support thematic approaches to positive changes, such as investing in businesses that are led by or serve underrepresented communities including women, BIPOC, rural and remote communities, and persons with disabilities. As a result of this, the Spring community represents 40% women and 75% BIPOC-led businesses, with 88% of the winners of our Impact Investor Challenges being women. By investing in these businesses, capital can move the dial on equitable access to funding and finance, leadership roles, jobs, and products and services.
In short, by using capital to invest in companies that actively make the world a better place, either in what they do or how they do it, capital becomes a massive force for positive change.
Tell us about Spring Activator‘s goals.
Spring Activator acts globally as a collaborative partner to guide and empower changemakers with high-impact knowledge, tools, and a network to help them thrive. Our services span training programs, capacity-building, mentorship, advisory services, and more. No matter where you are on your impact journey – from impact-curious to impact-committed – we invite you to become a part of the Spring Community.
Are there any upcoming initiatives or projects you’d like to share?
The Women-led Impact Investor Challenge, presented by the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, is our most recent Impact Investor Challenge cohort.
This challenge focuses on stimulating impact investing in women-led impact businesses by facilitating connections between those looking for purpose-based investments with women founders working on solutions to local and global problems. The goal is to promote gender diversity in the impact investor and startup ecosystem. The competition includes a cohort of aspiring and serial impact investors and a group of 15 women founders seeking funding. After a series of pitches, the cohort of investors puts forward a $100,000+ investment to the winning women-led company.
In 2023, Spring Activator will be collaborating with Foresight Canada, Cycle Canada, and HSBC Foundation to run the inaugural Quebec Cleantech Investor Challenge.
We are also excited about the launch of the Spring Investing Collective – an organic extension of the Impact Investor Challenge. This collective will bring together impact investors and high-growth entrepreneurs seeking funding to facilitate deal flow, connections, and foster impact-driven innovation. This community-centric approach to capital is something we see as missing in the world of VC.
On the entrepreneur side, the Impact Startup Visa Program (ISV) remains one of our largest programs. ISV combines a traditional startup program with processes and support to help entrepreneurs solidify their business in Canada. The ISV Program operates under the banner of Canada’s Start-Up Visa – a Canadian immigration channel.
What do you most want people to know about Spring Activator?
Spring exists to change the world through innovation, and we love to roll up our sleeves and get to work with investors and entrepreneurs to make that happen.
How can people help or contribute to your organization’s mission?
Become an impact investor! Become a partner!
We run programs like the Impact Investor Challenge to grow the impact investor community and introduce investors and impact-curious individuals into impact investing by providing a learning experience that culminates in making an actual investment in a high-impact company. The program not only educates investors, but helps fund impact entrepreneurs so they can change the world through innovation.
