CEED, a nonprofit organization based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, supports small to medium-sized entrepreneurs through programs, loans, and events designed to foster business growth.

With a 4,000-contact email list, CEED knew email marketing was essential to rallying the local entrepreneurial community. However, they needed a reliable solution with fair pricing, insightful analytics, and values that aligned with theirs.

So why not go with a Canadian solution like Cyberimpact?

The Challenge: Finding the Right Email Marketing Partner

CEED already understood the power of email marketing. As Aiden Duncan, Entrepreneurship & Communications Coordinator at CEED, explained, they “send out a monthly newsletter to over 4,000 clients, promoting events, sharing entrepreneurship tips, and spotlighting success stories from the community.”

But their previous platform, Mailchimp, wasn’t cutting it. The team faced frustrations that slowed them down:

• Limited support: “With Mailchimp, if you ever had an issue, you just go to an FAQ or an AI chatbot, and it would never really help,” Aiden shared.
• Unclear value: The platform wasn’t meeting their expectations for ease of use or community alignment.
• Missing the Canadian connection: For an organization dedicated to supporting Canadian entrepreneurs, using a platform that didn’t share those values felt like a missed opportunity to set an example.

CEED needed a solution with all the essential features for email marketers and was easy enough for their growing team to manage.

Making the Switch: Why Cyberimpact Stood Out

When Aiden was tasked with evaluating Cyberimpact, it didn’t take long to see the difference.

“After a couple of days on it, it was very obvious that it was on par, if not better than Mailchimp, and it was a no-brainer to switch after that.”

Here’s what won them over:

User-Friendly Statistics Dashboards

The CEED team could easily check open rates, click rates, and track each link’s performance without getting lost in confusing menus. When CEED sent out an email blast through Cyberimpact to promote their Startup Smarter Bootcamp, the results were undeniable.

Real Support From a Local Team

Unlike the impersonal FAQ pages and chatbots they dealt with before, Cyberimpact offered hands-on onboarding and real-time support.

The team had an Onboarding call to walk through the platform, ask questions, and get comfortable with all features. That kind of personalized support reassured CEED that they’d made the right choice.

Customizable Templates and Compliance

CEED needed flexibility to create branded newsletters while staying compliant with Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). Cyberimpact’s drag-and-drop editor, email templates, and built-in consent management made this process easier for the team.

“The fact that you can categorize contacts in your email groupings and that it automates that way is very important to my job,” Aiden noted.

The Impact: Real Results for the Halifax Entrepreneurial Community

“The value of having email as part of your stack is that owned relationship you have with your audience, and the flexibility you can play with it.”

The team is excited about exploring automation next—nurturing entrepreneurs throughout their journey with CEED, from discovery to program completion and beyond.

A Partnership Built on Shared Values

For CEED, the decision to switch to Cyberimpact went beyond features and pricing.

“It would almost be hypocritical not to support a Canadian business,” Aiden admitted. “If the product is just as good or better, why not choose the Canadian option?”

CEED’s mission is to strengthen Halifax’s entrepreneurial scene by empowering local startups and individuals. So when they found a platform that offered the same—or better—functionality as their previous tool while supporting a fellow Canadian business, the choice was easy.

Cyberimpact’s commitment to data sovereignty, bilingual (English and French) human support, and community-driven features means Aiden can focus on CEED’s students and alumni rather than troubleshooting software problems.

Plus, knowing their contacts’ data is hosted on Canadian servers with strong privacy standards gives the team peace of mind and sets the standards for the next generation of entrepreneurs who want to continue investing in local talent and economy.

“Our entire client base is Canadian entrepreneurs,” Aiden explained. “Our role is to help the Canadian economy. So why wouldn’t we put our money towards a Canadian company, not a US one?”

The Bottom Line

Beyond an email marketing platform, Cyberimpact has become a partner that shares its values, supports its mission, and delivers the results they need to help Halifax entrepreneurs and businesses thrive.

Whether you’re a nonprofit, small business, or growing organization, CEED’s story proves that choosing local—and making the switch to Cyberimpact—pays off in many ways.

Ready to see what Cyberimpact can do as an email marketing solution for your non-profit? Book a personalized tour of the app to chat with our team about your needs.