A small investment, an 84% increase in revenue, and plenty of room to grow during Year End campaigns

From underperforming to blowing past industry benchmarks

When Toronto Humane Society first partnered with Public Outreach, it had some challenges:

1. Limited brand reach and growth opportunities due to fixed geographic service area
2. A tight and limited budget for digital marketing Giving Tuesday and year end campaigns
3. A need to hit higher revenue with new platforms because of the Canada Post strike

They needed some extra paws to get them through the critical year end giving season.

In 2024, together we raised $166,089 via paid marketing for Giving Tuesday through Dec. 31.

Public Outreach didn’t stop there.

In 2025, Toronto Humane Society and Public Outreach raised $304,770 with only an additional $8,500 in ad spend when compared to the previous Giving Tuesday and year end period.

The results: year long consistency fed performance

Throughout Q4 of 2024 and and all of 2025, Public Outreach worked with Toronto Humane Society to grow brand awareness online through digital advertising awareness and fundraising conversion campaigns. Monthly donor growth was a critical part of the ground work because it meant there was a committed donor base supporting one time gifts all year long. 

New visual assets and an evergreen campaign helped share Toronto Humane Society brand, mission, and values with new and existing audiences, and growth continued month over month. Better brand awareness and connectedness made it easy for animal lovers in Toronto and GTA to choose Toronto Humane Society for year end giving — because the audiences had been choosing them consistently all year. 

Together, THS and Public Outreach went to work building, testing and optimizing throughout 2025 so that by Giving Tuesday the strategy, creative, and approach were fully optimized for performance. 

In 2025, THS raised 84% more than the year previous with only a 44% total increase in investment for Giving Tuesday through Dec. 31.

Toronto Humane Society crushed industry benchmarks in the final two months of the year

• ROAS performance: 270% better than the nonprofit industry average
• CPA performance: 47% less than the industry benchmark
• Revenue: 84% year-end campaign growth
• ROAS: 30% increase (record smashing $10.94 ROAS)
• Direct and assisted conversion: 88% growth
• CPA: 25% drop in cost

Multi-tactic plan to crush performance

• Leaned on past learnings to optimize advertising all year long
• A deeper investment pushed revenue up — with further room to scale
• Adding more creative assets and including video at maximized the ROAS growth and helped Meta generate the most donations of any platform for the year end campaign
• Strategic timing meant timing budget spikes with anticipated performance spikes, which allowed us to make the most of a limited budget
• Kept the focus on high-intent windows and allocated additional budget to PMax tax return ads on Dec. 26 which drove performance through the end of the year
• Maintained a $10 plus ROAS on Google ads, despite a 69% increase in Google spend compared 2024 — bucking more typical patterns where higher spends lead to lower ROAS. 

The Insight: Room to grow with deeper investment

THS can continue to scale and grow in revenue — performance in 2025 shows that audiences want more opportunities to love and support animals and the work being done to support them. Against all industry trends, the higher spend lead to higher ROAS and revenue, with no immediate ceiling in site. 

Toronto Humane Society still has room to scale with investment, and to grow its digital advertising program before market saturation. Currently, efficiency is not degrading with scale. Building brand recognition, creating a strong supporter base, and going hard with optimized ads at the end of the year pays off.