Desjardins is looking to make inroads in communities outside of Quebec by offering surprises to the small business owners receiving this year’s GoodSpark grants.

The company’s latest spot features people who support three different small businesses – a burger joint, a yoga studio and a bee keeping shop – and a poet who pens odes to each of these establishments inspired by the role they play in people’s lives.

Then the surprise comes, revealing to the businesses that they are one of the recipients of this year’s Desjardins GoodSpark grants.

This year, Desjardins awarded another 150 GoodSpark grants, worth $20,000 each, for a total of $3 million. The program is focused on providing funding to small businesses that are making an impact in their communities, fostering sustainability and helping local employment.

The brand is a community caregiver, says Chris Dacyshyn, ECD at Bleublancrouge, Desjardins’ AOR, who says it wants to get this concept across to consumers outside of Quebec, where the company is deeply woven into the fabric, but which has less awareness more broadly.

“We try to not just talk about being a community caregiver, but demonstrate how much we care,” she says, and that grants help honour community and the entrepreneurial spirit.

“We want to be more than about the money,” she stresses, and sometimes that is not always communicated in other surprise and reveal-style spots. Dacyshyn tells strategy that was the impetus for also including lovingly crafted verse that an establishment could prominently mount in their store.

The campaign runs until May 14 and will be seen on TV, cinema, online, digital, social and radio, with a small component on elevator screens. Media was handled by Glassroom.

Ad spend is in line with Desjardins’ other CSR-related outreach, such as last fall’s youth initiative, which citied the $50 million in contributions Desjardins makes to youth-focused endeavours annually.