Birchwood Trust Canada - nonprofit website design for a Toronto-based charitable trust

Birchwood Trust Canada is the Canadian edition of a donor-advised fund sponsor, headquartered in Toronto and serving donors from St. John's to Victoria. It builds on the US edition, as Canadian English does, then changes what matters: Canadian spelling (colour, centre, cheque, but -ize), provinces and territories, postal codes, CAD amounts, CRA charity registration, PIPEDA with Quebec Law 25, and CASL consent. The giving account stays at the centre, now with Canadian tax rules and a footer ready for French.

Project facts

• Client: Birchwood Trust Inc. (fictional registered charity)
• Sector: Philanthropy / Donor-advised funds
• Markets: Canada: Toronto head office, with philanthropic advisors for Toronto, Quebec, Atlantic and the Prairie provinces, and grants across all 13 provinces and territories
• Services: Market localisation · Copywriting · Brand adaptation · Nonprofit website design · Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA) · SEO foundations
• Templates: 12 page templates shared with every Birchwood Trust edition
• Stack: Hand-built HTML, CSS and vanilla JavaScript; one strings file and one theme file per market

The brief

Close to American, but unmistakably Canadian

Canada sits between the US and the UK, so the edition starts from US English and applies Canadian spelling automatically. Then the content changes: a Toronto address at 220 King Street West, Suite 900, a donor team reachable weekdays 8:30am–6pm ET, and a grantmaking model built on CRA-registered charities. The comparison table now speaks in net income percentages (up to 60% cash, 30% appreciated assets), the FAQ cites the five-year carry-forward and five-business-day grant payment, and the report draws on CRA T3010 filings from 1,157 charitable sponsors. The palette shifts from the US forest green, cream and terracotta to a cooler spruce, sage and restrained red, with Source Serif 4 and Inter for a crisp, civic feel.

Designing for Canada

What actually changed between the US and this edition

• Story - US edition: US markets and states · Canada: Toronto head office; advisors for Toronto, Quebec, Atlantic and the Prairie provinces
• Spelling - US edition: color, neighborhood, center · Canada: colour, neighbourhood, centre (with -ize kept)
• Currency - US edition: USD amounts · Canada: CAD amounts, e.g. $2.4M CAD; GST/HST noted where relevant
• Tax rules - US edition: US deduction limits and DAF rules · Canada: Up to 60% of net income for cash, 30% for appreciated long-term assets, five-year carry-forward
• Institutions - US edition: 401(k), IRA, SSN, Medicare · Canada: RRSP, TFSA, SIN, provincial health plan
• Legal - US edition: US privacy law and US charity rules · Canada: PIPEDA + Quebec Law 25, CASL, CRA charity registration, AODA accessibility
• Places - US edition: Ohio, Arizona, Oregon, Maricopa County · Canada: Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Calgary region
• Look - US edition: Forest green, cream, terracotta, Fraunces + Libre Franklin · Canada: Spruce, sage, paper and restrained red; Source Serif 4 + Inter

Brand adaptation

The same Birchwood Trust, with a local accent

Spruce green and sage carry the interface; a single restrained red is used only for italic emphasis and small accents, so the palette reads Canadian through restraint rather than maple leaves. Source Serif 4 and Inter give a crisp, civic, highly legible feel. The Philanthropic Trust descriptor stays.

Homepage and key journeys

A family photograph opens the site; the headline promises giving that grows for generations. Three animated counters show contributions, grants and countries reached, followed by a Grants in Action carousel with Canadian stories: early childhood in Ontario ($2.4M CAD), health and aging in Alberta ($860K CAD), and conservation in British Columbia ($5.1M CAD). Link clusters route donors, advisors and the curious. The most distinctive flow is the giving account explainer: Contribute → Invest → Recommend grants, with a side-by-side comparison against a private foundation and an FAQ that answers Canadian tax questions before anxiety sets in.

Compliance, accessibility and trust

• Privacy policy under PIPEDA, with Quebec Law 25 noted for Quebec residents and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as the complaint route.
• Express consent for commercial email, as CASL requires, with a clear unsubscribe line.
• Charitable registration: Birchwood Trust Inc. is a fictional registered charity created for a design portfolio; CRA registration number shown as a placeholder.
• Accessibility statement aligned with AODA and WCAG 2.2 AA, including reduced-motion support.
• Passes automated WCAG 2.2 AA checks on every page at 360, 390, 768 and 1440 px: no contrast failures, no unreachable controls, no horizontal scrolling.
• A language switcher built from hreflang sits in the header on desktop and in the footer on phones.

One system, twelve markets

Every visible string lives in one file per market, and every colour and typeface in one theme file. This edition needed no new templates or components: a strings file, a theme, regional photography and local legal content made it a different brand experience. For a charitable foundation with international plans, a new market becomes a content project rather than a rebuild.

Deliverables

• Market profile: language, formats, legal and seasonality
• Full localised copy across 12 templates, header, footer and forms
• Brand adaptation: palette, type pairing and logo descriptor
• 27 regional photographs (Pexels, credited in credits.json)
• Local legal content
• Accessibility pass (WCAG 2.2 AA, automated) and QA at four screen widths
• Portfolio media: stills, full-page captures, scroll video, OG image, brand board