A fresh face for Upside
The Upside Foundation of Canada was co-founded in 2013 by three individuals in the business and venture capital sector looking for a way to encourage their portfolio companies to give back, noting that this generation of entrepreneurs strives to make an impact. Drawing on the experience of similar organizations internationally, they designed a model built by Canadians for Canadians to enable ambitious entrepreneurs through a model that encourages entrepreneurship and risk to contribute back to their communities at a time of ultimate success for a company, a liquidity event. In 2015, The Upside Foundation became the Canadian Partner of Pledge 1%, a global movement inspiring early-stage corporate philanthropy.
Entering its second decade of operation, the organization undertook a visual identity refresh to more accurately reflect its value and vision of long-term growth as a partner of Canada’s startup community and to communicate the organization’s offering to the target audience of disruptive, growth-minded startup founders across Canada.
The process began in 2023 with a Community Consultation with various stakeholders — members, board members, partners and more — led by Executive Director Juanita Lee-Garcia and Brand Strategist Daniel Francavilla, who was brought on given his experience in both the non-profit and startup communities. This was supported by a generous gift from Prospect, a non-profit organization that helps connect the world’s tech talent with Canada’s fastest-growing startups, after it became acquired by Communitech.
Feedback on the organization's strengths and opportunities were shared during the session, where key terms of community, forward-thinking, connection, impact and growth were discussed. There was a clear opportunity to improve the visual identity to better align with the organization’s current state, and the simple, clean branding of other startups and organizations within the tech ecosystem today. There was a general understanding that the existing branding was dated and may not align with the innovative nature of Upside’s members and current initiatives — and as a partner of countless events and initiatives each year, the existing logo was not easily incorporated into partner materials.
The new visual identity uses clean lines and shapes to align with the innovative spirit of tech startups and growth while maintaining a connection to Canada. Rather than representing the Canadian flag’s red as a default, a warm yellow was selected as the new primary brand colour along with grey to ground it. The overall theme is upward, with the word Upside being split into two plains, rising upward.
How Canada's startup and tech community gives back
The longer legal name of “The Upside Foundation of Canada” remains, but the tagline of “Share the Upside” was reimagined for 2024. The recommendation was to simplify the logo text to state “Upside”, with a byline stating “How Canada's startup and tech community gives back,” to bring back the innovation industry focus for which the organization was designed.
Upside is how Canada’s startups and tech community share their success for social good.
At Upside, we envision a Canadian tech ecosystem that contributes its financial success with charitable causes to promote more innovation and long-term Canadian prosperity. We provide the infrastructure for founders of high-growth Canadian tech companies and VCs to allocate equity so that proceeds from a successful exit are donated to a charitable cause of choice while benefiting from a network of like-minded leaders.
