Project Title: IEF Micro-grants
Client Name: Innovators & Entrepreneurs Foundation
Date: 2020-2023
Role: Project Manager, Graphic Designer
Context:
The IEF Micro-grants program, conducted twice a year, aims to provide financial support to operational Canadian small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) seeking to enhance their business operations. This initiative targets businesses generating revenue, specifically those led by founders from equity-deserving and/or racialized communities. The overarching goal is to assist these entrepreneurs in overcoming financial obstacles, fostering growth, sustainability, and overall success in their endeavors.
Methods:
Before the commencement of the Micro-grants, our team diligently prepares for the program. This involves creating various graphics, including an annual logo, social media banners, and tailored posts across different platforms. The team also develops essential content, such as application questions, webpage details, FAQs, eligibility criteria, and terms and conditions. Dynamic social media content is crafted to cater to different stages of the program. Additionally, we keep our webpages updated.
After the Micro-grants conclude, our team collaborates with an adjudication team to select grant recipients. Successful candidates are then notified and receive cash awards. This phase involves extensive graphic material creation to announce and promote the recipients.
Design Process:
Informed by the distinctive brand tone of the IEF, a national charity dedicated to supporting founders from racialized and/or equity-deserving groups, our design process aligns harmoniously with the foundation’s 12 theme colors, each symbolizing different communities served. The initial stages involve crafting an annual logo and a versatile theme image. We then proceed to create fundamental graphics for each grant category, employing colors associated with the unique characteristics of each category.
Given that the Micro-grants project is identified as a program with a lower priority and faster completion timeline compared to the CANIE awards, the majority of design materials are prepared in advance, before the application phase begins. These materials are not subject to significant adjustments during the program. Consequently, a variety of graphics tailored for different situations are created ahead of the program’s commencement.
Solutions:
Building upon the logo and graphics for each category, our team develops webpages and additional promotional materials throughout the program. This includes various promotional assets based on the different program stages, such as social media posts and Mailchimp emails to the audience.
Results:
Over the past three years, I’ve served as the project manager and graphic designer for the Micro-grants program, achieving considerable success. We’ve had the participation of around 4000 entrepreneurs applying for the program. In 2021, we awarded $20,000 in cash prizes to recipients. In the following year, recipients received $30,000 in cash along with $11,000 in Meta advertising credits. In 2023, the program reached a new milestone, awarding a total of $55,000.
Currently, we are in the final stages of the Fall 2023 Micro-grants. We’ll soon be receiving information from this session’s recipients, enabling me to create announcements and promotion materials for the new awardees.
Anna Ren 