The Terry Fox Foundation is moving toward a more cohesive look for its 35th anniversary this year, selecting Toronto agency Scratch Marketing to overhaul its digital assets and connect more with a younger demographic on social media.

The foundation, which raises money for cancer research, holds events throughout the year, and is well-known for its National School Run day, which sees three million Canadian students participate each year.

Scratch will be working on developing creative for the events, improving navigation and efficiency on the foundation’s website, revising the donation process, improving the site’s overall architecture, and improving SEO, all while giving the foundation a more unified look.

“They’re going to help steer almost every aspect of our digital message,” says Glenn Vogelsang, director of digital marketing and social media for the foundation. “We’re always looking for creative ways to help tell Terry’s story,” he notes, adding that the foundation has a bare bones budget for marketing. “It was really important that I find the people who really understand how important Terry’s legacy is and how delicate of an issue it is on getting his message out.”

The foundation has a loyal following on Facebook, with about 46,000 likes on the page. “If you simply post something on there, the amount of likes (and) comments is amazing to watch,” says David Riabov, partner at Scratch.

While useful, the demographic using it also skews older and the next step will be to engage more with younger people like the students participating in the runs. “They’re going to help us speak in a language that’s more kid friendly,” Vogelsang says.

Currently, the foundation gives out kits and enrollment forms for its events to schools, but now wants to bring that all online. The idea is to take the foundation’s imagery and other content and engage more with young people through Twitter, Instagram and SnapChat. The foundation is also looking at making its events more interactive, by adding live streaming of certain events to the site.

“They know who Terry Fox is – I think everyone knows who Terry Fox is – and they know his story, but I’d like to make it a little more personal,” Riabov says.

The idea is more to have a unified look and widespread storytelling, while still being respectful of the Fox family and the desire not to have Terry Fox’s image made into a brand. “We’re very, very protective of Terry and his legacy,” Vogelsang says. “You’ll never see a logo beside Terry Fox’s name or on the same page as him.”