Coldest Night of the Year

What Coldest Night of the Year does

Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) is a national annual winter fundraising walk operated by Blue Sea Foundation, a registered Canadian charity (CRA# 819882655RR0001) headquartered in Kitchener, Ontario. Founded in 2011, CNOY coordinates 222 simultaneous walk locations across Canada, mobilizing 40,959 registered walkers, 6,521 teams, 7,190 volunteers, 141,501 donors, and 2,641 community sponsors to raise funds for local charities addressing hunger, homelessness, and community need. The current campaign has raised $15,847,988 CAD, exceeding its $15M target, with 100% of net proceeds directed to participating local charity partners.

The underlying technology stack is a third-party SaaS platform: Fundhub, powered by Frontstream, serves as the participant portal for registration, personal fundraising pages, team management, donation tracking, and thank-you communications. Donations are processed via credit card and PayPal with a 4.25% processing fee (optionally absorbed by donors), and Double the Donation integration enables employer matching gift discovery. The product surface extends beyond the base walk via the Corporate Challenge program — tiered into Challenge Team (1–2 teams), Challenge Group (3–4 teams), and Challenge Partner (5+ teams, $10K commitment) — with branded campaign pages, real-time leaderboards, and dedicated coaching, plus a parallel School Challenge for educational institutions.

CNOY operates a participant-driven, event-based go-to-market model with no registration fee and freemium-style participation (optional fundraising minimums of $75 youth / $150 adult to earn a commemorative toque). Marketing is grassroots: walkers share Fundhub personal pages with friends, family, and coworkers; corporate challenge programs amplify through workplace networks; and multi-location sponsors (Bruce Power, McDonald's, EPCOR, Capital Power, Cavendish Farms) provide community-level support. The organization has expanded into the U.S. under cnoy.com alongside the Canadian cnoy.org platform, signaling a North American growth ambition.

Name

Coldest Night of the Year

Legal name

Blue Sea Foundation

Website

https://cnoy.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Coldest Night of the Year, operated by Blue Sea Foundation, organizes an annual winter fundraising walk across 222 Canadian locations to raise money for local charities addressing hunger, homelessness, and community need, engaging walkers, teams, corporate partners, and donors nationwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Kitchener

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Donations and Fundraising: CNOY generates revenue entirely through participant fundraising. Walkers solicit donations from friends, family, and colleagues. Corporate sponsors and employers also contribute through the Challenge Program and matching gift programs. 100% of net proceeds go to local charity partners.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

CNOY organizes an annual national winter fundraising walk held simultaneously across 222 locations in Canada, with participants registering free online through the Fundhub platform, creating personal fundraising pages, and soliciting donations from friends, family, and employers. The organization distributes 100% of net proceeds to local charity partners addressing hunger, homelessness, and community hurt in each walk location. Complementary programs include The Challenge (corporate team competition) and the School Challenge for educational institutions.

Product overview

Coldest Night of the Year is a unified fundraising event product combining an annual walking event with an integrated online fundraising platform. The core offering is the CNOY walk event, supported by the Fundhub online platform for participant registration, donor management, and fundraising tracking. Additional programs include The Challenge (corporate team competition) and School Challenge, which extend the base event into workplace and educational fundraising campaigns with tiered engagement levels and dedicated coaching support.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY) Annual Walk
• Fundhub Online Fundraising Platform
• The Challenge (Corporate/Community Challenge Program)
• School Challenge

Quantifiable outcome

• $15,847,988 raised in current campaign (105% of $15M goal)
• +2 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• Blue Sea FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBlue Sea Foundation is the registered Canadian charity (CRA# 819882655RR0001) that operates Coldest Night of the Year. All CNOY operations, charity partner vetting, and event management flow through Blue Sea Foundation.
• FrontstreamcoreTechnology or IntegrationProvides the online fundraising software platform (Fundhub) used for participant registration, donation processing, and fundraising page management. CNOY's donor and participant data is owned by Blue Sea Foundation.
• Bruce PowermajorGTM or Marketing PartnerLead sponsor appearing across multiple event locations (Grey Highlands, Kincardine, Meaford, Owen Sound, Saugeen Shores). Major supporter of CNOY in Ontario communities.
• McDonald'smajorGTM or Marketing PartnerSponsor appearing at multiple locations (Stratford, Sarnia Bay, St. Marys, Comox Valley, Exeter, Orangeville, Guelph). Local McDonald's franchises support their communities' CNOY events.
• EPCORmajorGTM or Marketing PartnerMulti-location sponsor (Kincardine, Collingwood, St. Thomas, Regina, Cochrane). EPCOR supports CNOY events across several provinces.
• Capital PowermajorGTM or Marketing PartnerSponsor at Edmonton Downtown, Simcoe, Campbell River, Windsor Downtown, Newmarket, Goderich, Spruce Grove, Calgary Ogden locations. Major supporter across Alberta and Ontario.
• Cavendish FarmsminorGTM or Marketing PartnerSponsor appearing at Charlottetown, Summerside, Windsor Downtown, and Moncton locations. Maritime-based agricultural company supporting PEI and New Brunswick communities.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Movember Foundation: Annual event-driven fundraising campaign with individual and team fundraising pages, corporate challenge programs, and matching gift integration; comparable participant-driven donation model to CNOY.
• CIBC Run for the Cure: Canadian Cancer Society's flagship multi-location charity walk/run with nationwide participation and corporate sponsorship, directly comparable in format, geography, and fundraising mechanics to CNOY.
• Relais Pour La Vie (Relay For Life Canada): Canadian Cancer Society's overnight community relay event with teams, sponsors, and multi-city footprint — directly comparable multi-site charity event format to CNOY.
• MS Walk: MS Society of Canada's annual multi-site charity walk with team-based fundraising and corporate partnerships, structurally identical to CNOY's event model.
• Heart & Stroke Foundation Walk/Heart Walk: Heart & Stroke's annual community fundraising walks across Canada, sharing CNOY's multi-location walk-for-cause format and corporate sponsorship structure.
• OneWalk to Conquer Cancer: Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation's large-scale Canadian charity walk with corporate Challenge programs and team fundraising, comparable event format and audience to CNOY.
• Habitat for Humanity Canada (National Housing Coalition events): Operates community walk/fundraising events in multiple Canadian cities targeting housing and homelessness causes, overlapping CNOY's mission space and event model.

Broad incumbents

• United Way Canada: Larger established federated-giving nonprofit operating workplace fundraising campaigns across Canada for community causes including hunger and homelessness, an incumbent in CNOY's beneficiary space.
• Food Banks Canada: National umbrella for hunger-relief charities and a major recipient of community fundraising; comparable mission (hunger relief) and donor base to CNOY beneficiaries.

Others

• Classy (fundraising platform): Online fundraising platform used by nonprofits for event-driven campaigns with team pages, peer-to-peer fundraising, and matching gift tools; comparable technology layer to CNOY's Fundhub.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@blueseafoundation
• Facebookfacebook.com/cnoyorg
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/coldest-night-of-the-year

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Coldest Night of the Year