Shawn Van DaeleCurriculum Vitae

National nonprofit serving children and families facing serious illness, trauma and crisis. Leads a four-person team owning integrated brand, marketing, communications and creative across 26+ programs, fundraising campaigns, events, media and donor communications.

• Conceived, wrote, designed and delivered the inaugural Rosh Hashanah Meal Program campaign across direct mail, print, email, organic social and paid - $140K+ net against a $40K goal
• Supported $7.5M+ in annual fundraising through campaign optimization, donor messaging and cross-channel execution
• Built segmented acquisition, onboarding and stewardship journeys across Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Salesforce, Feathr and Blackbaud
• Multi-channel campaigns reaching 30,000+ donors annually: +25-40% engagement, +15-25% audience, +20-30% CTR, -15-25% CPM
• Directed Bike4Chai creative across 500+ coordinated deliverables - signage, environmental graphics, stage/screen, sponsor, digital and print
• Created executive messaging, donor comms, digital content and reusable AI-enabled workflows that protect brand and editorial standards at speed

Technology-enabled fundraising platform serving 20+ nonprofit, healthcare, education and community accounts across Canada and North America. Led a five-person creative team directing strategy, narrative and execution across web, email, social, video, campaigns, launches and sales.

• Directed creative strategy and execution for seven-figure fundraising campaigns; recommendations influenced investment across TV, digital, direct mail, print and OOH
• Campaign ecosystems supporting $3B+ in fundraising impact across nonprofit and healthcare clients
• Helped secure major healthcare and nonprofit partnerships including SickKids, Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation and Tim Hortons Foundation Camps
• Led launch of RoundUp automated micro-donations - 20-35% MoM onboarding growth through clearer positioning
• Built reusable messaging frameworks, briefs, templates, approval workflows and AI-enabled production systems; governed Asana across 10+ concurrent initiatives
• Personally developed pitch decks, strategy documents and creative concepts, travelling across Canada to present and defend integrated communications strategies to CEOs, executive teams and Boards

Community-based healthcare nonprofit - end-of-life care, grief, bereavement, fundraising and public education. Served as the organization's central brand and communications leader, partnering daily with the CEO to align reputation, fundraising, community engagement, clinical priorities and family experience.

• Rebuilt the low-converting website around four clear actions - Give Help, Find Help, Contact Us and Donate - reducing friction for families in crisis
• Created the enduring brand platform 'We are here for you...because of you,' strengthening community ownership, emotional connection and donor engagement
• Reimagined the in-person Hike for Hospice as a Virtual Hike during COVID-19 - raised 3x+ its goal, program's strongest year
• +15-25% growth in donor onboarding and reactivation; campaigns achieved up to 2x fundraising goals through stronger messaging and donor journeys
• Led CEO/Board counsel and internal + external COVID-19 communications with speed, accuracy and compassion
• Partnered with culinary staff to launch a practical YouTube series supporting bereaved people learning to cook after loss

Independent practice serving 50+ organizations across healthcare, hospital foundations, nonprofit, education, government, consumer, editorial and cultural sectors - including SickKids Hospital, SickKids Lottery, Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation, University Hospital Foundation and the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

• Founded and scaled a two-studio creative business to ~$1.5M annual revenue across Toronto/Milton and Cambridge, owning strategy, operations, marketing, sales, talent, customer experience and creative quality
• Led a 20-person team - 14 photographers, two studio managers and four editors - delivering up to 750 shoots annually
• Built the complete commercial engine - brand positioning, audience development, lead gen, paid media, publicity, partnerships, referrals, sales conversion and portfolio strategy
• Advised founders, executives and boards on brand strategy, positioning, campaigns, websites, annual reports and presentations
• Directed identities, photography, video, digital experiences and high-stakes hero assets from concept through final QC
• Integrated advanced AI-enabled workflows into select consulting projects to improve speed, scale and creative consistency

Led global creative direction for 18+ household brands - including Crock-Pot, Coleman, Sunbeam, Oster, Bionaire, Black & Decker and FoodSaver - across packaging, retail, POS, product launches, sales enablement and multi-market campaigns.

• Led and mentored a 4-6 person in-house creative team responsible for international brand, packaging, retail marketing and product-launch execution across an 18+ brand portfolio
• Served as final creative authority across packaging, shelf talkers, end-caps, POS, product photography, food styling and internal documentation
• Directed national campaigns and product launches for Crock-Pot, Coleman and Sunbeam, translating commercial priorities into distinctive customer experiences for Walmart, Costco, Home Depot and Canadian Tire
• Managed outsourced photographers, food stylists and regional translators while coordinating manufacturing partners in China across time zones, languages, legal requirements and production schedules
• Balanced strategic brand stewardship with hands-on typography, layout, image-making, compositing and final artwork

Internationally recognized charitable storytelling initiative turning drawings and lived experiences from 60+ children facing serious illness into compassionate visual narratives. Many participating children were treated at SickKids.

• Global media coverage including The Today Show, ABC World News and MTV News (filmed on-site at SickKids over three days)
• Partnerships with hospitals, foundations, families and consumer brands
• End-to-end: concept, family collaboration, photography, art direction, production and media rollout

Agency and in-house creative roles across consumer, healthcare, education, government and cultural clients - plus early music/entertainment publicity photography and album artwork connected to Sony Music. The range that underpins today's leadership work.

#1 Amazon Bestseller. Long-form editorial project translating addiction, treatment, shame, resilience and dignity into human storytelling. Owned voice, narrative, editing, art direction, production and launch campaign.

Developed and taught third-year curriculum in compositing, typography, visual storytelling, critique and professional production practice. Mentored 20-30 emerging designers per term.

Governance, fundraising support, marketing and communications counsel and direct youth mentorship for an organization focused on youth potential, equity and lasting community relationships.

Contributing marketing, fundraising communications, community outreach and participant-engagement perspective to campaign awareness and the supporter experience.