We used one disaster: the 2014 US presidential election; to draw attention to another: the Syrian refugee crisis.

In the run up to the 2016 presidential election, the prospect of a Trump presidency had more Americans searching “Moving to Canada” than ever before Using Google Adwords.

So we hijacked the moment people were thinking of leaving, and brought them face to face with refugees around the world who were actually forced to leave their country.

On social media, we created timely posts responding the the day’s latest news and tweets, to drive more people to our website.

Visitors were then given the opportunity to fund the medical supplies desperately needed. When Trump won, Canada’s immigration site crashed. But we were ready and our site traffic went through the roof. Donations went up 190% with 90% of donations coming from first time donors.