Children are the most vulnerable group of people in the world. For many, their futures are limited by violence, illiteracy, and inequality. While the stats may seem difficult to believe, the reality is that 150 million boys and girls are engaged in child labour worldwide, 37,000 girls become child brides every day, and there are an estimated 300,000 child soldiers across the globe. But Right To Play empowers millions of children to rise above this oppression and these dire statistics. To show the world how powerful their work is, we created an Uprising that had never been seen before: The Child Uprising.

Children are the most vulnerable people in the world. For many, their futures are limited by exploitation, child labour, early marriage, illiteracy and gender inequality. And while in recent years we’ve seen numerous social movements promoting the rights of other disenfranchised groups, countless children remain without a voice.

But through the power of play Right to Play helps 2.1 million children a week rise above their oppression. We needed to seize this opportunity to stand up for the millions more who were still without a voice.

Our idea was to create The Child Uprising.

Concurrent to creative development, we developed a robust communications plan informed by audience barriers, media consumption habits and brand objectives. Our strategy consisted of three unique but complementary communication streams – Inspire, Believe and Act.

The goal of our first stream – Inspire – was to overcome brand awareness and comprehension barriers. Tactics in this stream needed to establish an emotional connection with potential donors by shedding light on the need and RTP’s role in addressing that need. The second stream – Believe – needed to establish the credibility and credentials of Right to Play. This meant we needed tactics that would educate potential donors on the play-based learning methodology and the impact Right to Play had already made around the world. Then finally, our third stream – Act – would compel people to donate. This would require a detailed donation strategy specifically timed and aligned with the launch.

The Child Uprising needed to begin with a call to arms. So we created an anthem video that served as a mission statement that both shed light on the dire circumstances far too many children find themselves in, and also inspired people to join a movement helping them rise up.

The anthem was launched around the world using a combination of donated media and Right to Play’s network of athlete ambassadors. It was complemented by two additional videos, one telling the story of a child soldier and one telling the story of a child labourer.

The Uprising was also supported by out of home, a new website and more traditional donation appeals via direct mail, email, door to door and events. Facebook’s decision to use our Child Uprising to launch their ‘donate now’ button in one of our key markets added further fuel to our fire.

The impact of our campaign was significant and immediate – particularly in Canada which has historically been Right to Play’s largest contributing country. Within the first three months traffic to the Right to Play website increased by 412%. Right to Play saw a 40% increase in online donation size and a 42% increase in new donors. Total individual donation revenue increased by 21%.

Our campaign has already made significant contributions to Right to Play’s mission of helping children rise above adversity through the power of play-based learning. Worldwide in our first three months we raised enough money to give 40,000 kids a year of play.