You donate, we make money! (what?)

A word from FGM – February 2025

As some of you may have already noticed, we’ve recently launched an ad campaign to celebrate our 25th anniversary with the slogan You donate, we make money. In this newsletter, I’m going to take you behind the scenes of this campaign designed to boost FGM’s visibility and strengthen the general public’s awareness of what we do.

Our campaign was developed in partnership with Republik, a creative agency we chose for their commitment to creating social capital—and the perfect ally to increase the Foundation’s presence in Greater Montreal’s philanthropic environment. If we are to fulfil our role as a community foundation and serve the diverse causes and communities of Greater Montreal, we must ensure that as many people as possible know about us and our work.

One of our core missions is to democratize philanthropy. Our services are open to everyone in Greater Montreal, but you’ll have a hard time accessing them if you don’t know they exist! We deliberately chose a surprising, even startling, slogan to grab the public’s attention and make an impression that will carry over to the Foundation’s brand image.

Donating to FGM is different

But there’s more to it than that. You donate, we make money also explains our philanthropic model, which increases the impact of every dollar donated, as well as what makes it uniquely advantageous for donors. The operations of foundations like FGM combine two seemingly distant worlds—finance and philanthropy—so that compound returns increase the value of donations. It’s important to demystify this complex model.

That’s why this campaign’s seemingly simple slogan doesn’t just explain how a donation to FGM generates a greater financial return over time: above all, it explains how we increase the social, environmental, and community impact of each donation. In other words, You donate, we make money highlights an alternative way of doing philanthropy and acts as a reminder that the Foundation of Greater Montréal is here for everyone in the region and dedicated to serving them.

I encourage you to explore the content of the campaign and share it with your networks. You can find it on our website. And if our approach has resonated with you and you’d like to entrust our team with helping achieve a philanthropic project you care about, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Until next time,

Karel Mayrand
President and CEO