I first met Tracy Clegg in early 2019 when Clear Space had the privilege of partnering with the Markham Stouffville Hospital Foundation to develop their most ambitious fundraising campaign yet. As the Vice-President of Community Engagement and Operations, she was a key leader in the campaign working group, collaborating closely with the CEO and the marketing team. I’ve worked with many senior executives on branding and creative projects over the years, with varying results—ahem, not always great. But Tracy just gets it. We connected immediately. Over three years, we built a professional relationship grounded in trust, respect, and radical candor. So, when Tracy transitioned in 2022 to become CEO of the Ontario Shores Foundation for Mental Health, she knew exactly who to call when it was time to refresh their brand image: Clear Space.

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Rooted in her own personal connection to mental health Tracy’s vision is to ignite change at a time when demand for mental health is at an all-time high. I‘m delighted that Tracy is able to join me for a conversation about how branding and design is helping her mission to bring mental health awareness to the forefront.

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Will Hum: Hi Tracy, good to see you, and thank you for doing this.

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Tracy Clegg: It’s a privilege to do anything with you or for you.

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Will: That’s so nice!

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Tracy: I mean it.

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Will: Thank you. For more than 25 years, you’ve held leadership roles in major healthcare foundations including World Wildlife Fund, Markham Stouffville Hospital Foundation and now Ontario Shores Foundation for Mental Health. Tell me what initially drew you to Ontario Shores and what excites you about your work here?

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Tracy: So, I landed at Ontario Shores after I had a very intriguing call from a recruiter and they asked me if I would be interested in applying for the Foundation CEO position. My first response was, “No, I’m never leaving Markham Stouffville because that was my home.” The recruiter said to me, “Why wouldn’t you at least have a conversation?” And then I thought, “I’d heard of Ontario Shores, but I didn’t really know much about it. So, why wouldn’t I have a conversation, and learn more?”

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Then I met with several of the board members. And those chats were what actually drew me to this need for changing the perception of Ontario Shores and bringing some awareness about it. What I very quickly learned was it’s a place, or rather, a beacon of hope. I mean, nobody, including myself who lives in Durham Region, knew anything about it. I literally didn’t even know that it was a public hospital.

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Then I had a second interview where I actually visited Ontario Shores and walked the halls, and it went from, I didn’t want to leave Markham Stouffville to, I need to go to Ontario Shores and raise awareness and tell the story of what this hospital is all about.

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It became a complex learning journey for me. Raising hope and awareness for a hospital that is so deserving of the same kind of support as CAMH and of other hospitals that have this incredible community surrounding them. We needed to be part of the conversation and we needed to start telling stories about this incredible facility.

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Will: It sounds like the Ontario Shores mission aligns with your own personal mission. And that’s how you connected with the place. It was the right time for you to make a move.

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“I think I’ve shared with you previously that MSH is where I’d had my babies and I started my own mental health journey. I had developed post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression as a result of two near-death experiences.”

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Tracy: I started at World Wildlife Fund where I was going to save animals and wild places, had my babies at Markham Stouffville, learned that government doesn’t fund equipment and many other essentials that we assume the government funds for hospitals. And then I followed my heart to Ontario Shores because mental health requires and needs as much funding and support as all the other great charities. Mental health is in a crisis mode and they deserve loud voices and big personalities to talk about the issue. And myself, being British you know, can speak personally about the discomfort about talking about things I was taught to believe you shouldn’t really talk about and this is so deep rooted in the stigma and fear of conversation surrounding mental health. I thought I can lend my own personal and lived experience to something that’s quite honestly uncomfortable. People struggle in silence, but I can’t. I need to talk about it quite broadly from lived experience, at a hospital that deserves a voice like mine. And I can use my platform and my colleagues and connections to share.

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Will: We first worked together at MSH back in 2019, on a variety of projects including an ambitious fundraising campaign. And then we did a bunch of stuff including the alignment of the Foundation brand with the bigger Oak Valley Health rebrand. What lessons or experiences from that work together have you carried over to Ontario Shores?

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Tracy: My gosh. I will say I have learned so much from you and Paul, and from our experiences together. I probably have in my lifetime four or five people that have influenced my career and my perspective on everything from branding to, quite honestly, life. And you are one of them.

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There’s one thing in particular – presenting concepts and taking feedback. So typically, I have a hard time articulating with excitement and passion because I get caught up in the detail. I overshare because of my excitement. I have learned from you, and I have not by any way mastered this yet, to slow down, pause, be comfortable with uncomfortable silences and let people react. And also, when I don’t agree with what people are saying, to be more diplomatic in how I’m responding to that feedback. So that is one of the things I have learned from you. In all of my years of working, you are the master of this.

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I have seen you, in particular, do this exceptionally well. Paul does this exceptionally well too. People always have various opinions. Sometimes, taking that feedback can be challenging. Even if we don’t agree or have the background to support why we did or didn’t do something, listening is important. Through the Markham Stouffville process, we heard lots of feedback with varying levels of expertise and perspectives. We also dealt with some very strong personalities.

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Will: Right, many of our clients’ extended stakeholder groups aren’t used to reviewing creative, or talking about creative comfortably, and that’s what makes it more challenging. The lack of understanding or articulating their thoughts can lead to roadblocks.

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Tracy: The level of maturity at Markham Stouffville is significantly more advanced than what I’m working with at Ontario Shores given the history of the foundation’s existence and success. I say that with respect. Much of what we are doing at Ontario Shores has never been done before. From what I understand they’ve never had such strong foundation creative work, executed a campaign, or undertaken brand development. Everything felt outdated. Any change, no matter how small, is often met with some resistance.

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To navigate this, I’ve started adopting strategies I learned through the Markham Stouffville process. I’m building in more time for messaging and delivery. I’m also working on being more confident in accepting feedback, even though I find it challenging. My personality would typically lean toward being more defensive, but I’ve learned to approach it differently. That has been one of my biggest lessons. Accepting the feedback and working to embrace different ideas that may be counter to what I previously believed to be right or required.

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I’ve also had to be less rigid with timelines. At Markham Stouffville, I could stick to my schedules and processes. At Ontario Shores, I’ve had to accept delays and even disappoint people, including partners like yourself when it comes to timelines and delivery. I’ve learned to let go of the need to please everyone, which is especially difficult in an environment with resources at a premium and desire to do so much.  This is counter to my personality and past practice and something I struggle with daily.

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Ultimately, I’m applying what I learned at Markham Stouffville to a less mature environment. While the process requires adjustments, I’m still using the framework we developed together to achieve the desired results.

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Will: And have you seen progress and successes based on that strategy?

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Tracy: Absolutely. We always meet our objectives. Last night at the hospital board meeting I presented the campaign case for support that your team created and basically got full endorsement – and with excitement. Everyone is pleased with our progress and sees and acknowledges the quality of the work we are creating together.

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Will: Over the past two years, you’ve been educating the team at Ontario Shores on fundraising and branding through our collaboration. Some stakeholders now seem more receptive, likely due to the time they’ve spent hearing and engaging with your ideas. Do you think this is simply a result of repeated exposure to the same messages, leading to gradual acceptance? Or do you believe it’s a deeper understanding stemming from the way you’ve positioned the strategy and communicated the thought process?

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Tracy: I think it’s a combination of factors. First, we’re producing high-quality work, and I’ve heard people say this is the first time they’ve seen the Foundation achieve this level of excellence. Our standards for quality are exceptionally high – uncompromisingly so!

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The second factor is the relationships I’ve introduced you to. It’s not just, “Tracy says.” Instead, I’ve brought in experts to explain the why, which builds confidence. Your expertise reinforces that confidence and supports the brand work we’re doing, along with the quality of the product.

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Now, when I tell them they’ll be meeting with you, I see smiles and trust. They know I’ve told them Clear Space chooses its clients carefully and has chosen to work with Ontario Shores. That endorsement speaks volumes. It’s not just something I’ve said—they now see the quality for themselves, like a seal of approval.

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So, it’s a combination of relationships, time, and the tangible results of the work we’ve done together.

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Will: One of our core goals with the Ontario Shores Foundation was to create a distinct brand identity to distinguish from the Hospital, one that captures the unique mission of the Foundation. Could you share your perspective on the importance of distinct branding in the nonprofit healthcare space?”

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Tracy: When we talk about brand equity and recognition, there’s a clear difference between Markham Stouffville and Ontario Shores. At Markham Stouffville, brand equity was already embedded—it’s a beloved community hospital. Ontario Shores is not so much. We’re making progress and building our story, but there’s still a lot of work to do.

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Many people don’t even realize Ontario Shores is a publicly funded hospital. They often mistake us for a rehab center or a long-term care facility. The role of the Ontario Shores Foundation for Mental Health and its support for mental health initiatives remains unclear to many.

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“Building the brand is about the story behind it. That narrative is essential. When we started our work together, I prioritized the story over the logo. Getting our story out there was, and still is, the most important aspect of building our brand.”

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Will: We both know that branding isn’t just about logos, or colours, to your point. However, in this case, a change in colour of the logo did play an important aspect to your evolution.

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Tracy: Right, we started by looking for a distinct and compelling story. Changing the green from the Hospital logo to blue for the Foundation brand logo helped to leverage our geographic location of being by the lake and water. From that, you established the story of how water is symbolic of healing, support, and buoyancy. Now the Foundation has a distinct voice and image to use in connecting with audiences. I use that all the time now when describing us. It’s beautifully stunning and stands out in the community. You see our ads, when we’re in the Toronto Star and you’re flipping, you can stop and see our stuff now. We stand out.

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Will: One of our most recent collaborations is the the Faces of Ontario Shores campaign, where we highlight real patient stories to generate public awareness and empathy for mental health causes. Could you share a memorable story or piece of feedback from that campaign that really stayed with you?

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Tracy: the Faces of Ontario Shores campaign came about very organically, as you’ll recall, during a meeting between your team and ours. It was truly your idea. We talked about capturing faces and expressions that change depending on a person’s mood or experience, a concept that resonated deeply. It became a powerful and organic representation of hope, symbolizing the range of emotions anyone might feel in moments of mental health struggle or healing.

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I feel like the Faces of Ontario Shores has now become central to our identity. I hope you take full credit for this, as it poetically and thoughtfully uses art in motion to reflect what we’re doing at Ontario Shores. It’s also become our tagline—Change the Face of Mental Health. This concept has inspired what we now call the mental health movement, igniting hope and sparking change.

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As for a memorable story? I think about Grace.

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Grace shared her story very openly with us and she has continued to stay very very close to our Foundation. She continues to share her ups and downs with me from her journey as a nurse, and the struggles with her children. She comes to all of our events. We have built a very strong friendship and relationship. I actually believe that we have helped her with her mental health journey because of the relationship that we’ve built and we’ve given her that profile and that voice. She is and continues to ask us to be part of what we’re doing.

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So, to me ultimately what we’re trying to do is help change people’s lives. And I know that this campaign helped change Grace’s life because we gave her a tool and a voice.

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Will: We’ve felt really privileged to be able to meet these people and see how courageous they are in willingly putting themselves out there and participating in this because they believe in what you guys are doing.

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Tracy: Yeah. We gave them safety to talk about something.

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Will: That’s really beautiful. To hear that the things we do with creative can help make a change and impact how people wake up every morning and get through their days. That’s awesome.

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Tracy: People are struggling in silence and this campaign has given them a voice.

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Will: We’re also excited to be working on the larger Reach the Shore campaign with you. Could you tell us about the goals for this campaign and what it means to Ontario Shores and the Foundation?”

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Tracy: Yesterday, I was asked a question I’ve been hearing for months: “When does the campaign actually start?” So, I conducted an education session on the campaign timeline. I explained that we’re already in year two of the campaign. The process follows a campaign theory—first, there’s planning, then engagement tools are implemented, and so on. This is the catalyst for transforming Ontario Shores from a small, immature foundation into a robust, recognizable force for mental health. It’s about putting Ontario Shores on the map.

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As you know, the Faces initiative and other elements have been instrumental in building brand recognition and awareness. With Reach the Shore, we’ll take a bold step forward. In a year, we’ll come out publicly and declare: Ontario Shores needs you and your support. It will be the first-ever campaign for Ontario Shores—bold, visually compelling, inspirational, and hopeful.

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This campaign also sets us apart from CAMH. Their campaign is powerful yet has a different tone and feel. From the start, we’ve focused on ensuring that Reach the Shore resonates. It’s symbolic, evoking the imagery of Lake Ontario, and carries an emotional weight that gives people goosebumps. It’s so poignant and meaningful that I believe we should consider copyrighting it.

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Will: It’s so unique to you guys. It can only be owned by you.

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Tracy: We honestly love it. Every time I share it, people are like, wow. And nobody has a lake. Nobody has all the beauty that we have.

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“No matter what kind of day I’m having, I look at our Reach the Shore creative and I’m like damn, this is the best work we’ve ever done together.”

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Reach the Shore and everything we’re building around it is setting us up to be truly comparable on a larger scale. This campaign is the catalyst for our next step. With its tools and pillars, we have a framework that’s adaptable—we can update or evolve it as needed. The Within Our Reach component you introduced adds a critical layer of hope. It ties everything together: Reach the Shore and the idea that what we’re striving for is achievable.

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To me, the first three to four years of this campaign represent stage one. From there, we hope to extend it for another five years, transforming it into one of the largest campaigns in the GTA. It’s step one of a massive outreach effort, expanding beyond Durham Region to all of Ontario. This campaign isn’t just about growth—it’s about positioning us as a major player, putting Ontario Shores firmly on the map.

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Will: I can really hear the passion in your voice when you talk about this.

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Tracy: I’m so excited.

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‍Will: To me it's the tip of the iceberg; it’s time to take off. Ontario Shores has been under the radar for decades, now is the time to start boasting about all the great stuff you guys are doing and letting people know who you are.

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Tracy: And you’ve given us the tool to do that.

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Will: As a leader in the nonprofit mental health sector, what are your hopes for the future of the Foundation and how do you see branding playing a role in that journey?

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Tracy: Brand is key because you want to be associated with something highly credible, visible, and exceptional. Historically—though less so in the last three to five years—the stigma around mental health and Ontario Shores often deterred people from engaging with our work. The negative connotations tied to Ontario Shores needs to be reframed.

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Our goal has been to shift that narrative through positive storytelling—focusing on hope, recovery, and Ontario Shores’ mandate of support and transformation.

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“I believe we’ve made significant progress. While there’s still much to do, the brand work we’ve done, including the inspiring and hopeful imagery associated with Ontario Shores, is helping us attract attention and support. This storytelling approach is critical to drawing people in, including potential donors.”

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Will: Since you’ve joined, you’ve added new team members. Can you talk to us about the people who have joined you?

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Tracy: It’s definitely been a challenge. I’ve restructured the team, and now we’re in the process of recruiting new board members. The focus has to be on passion—everyone involved needs to be deeply rooted in it. They also need to be goal-oriented, because we can’t afford any weak links.

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We were talking the other day about staff ratios—those who are just “there” versus those who are truly exceptional. And while I know it’s unrealistic to expect an entire team of exceptional people, that’s still what I’m aiming for. Of course, that comes at a high cost—both in terms of resources and the effort it takes to keep refining and weeding through to find those high performers. At the same time, I’m mindful of the risk of burning people out. It’s a delicate balance.

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Will: To that point about attracting quality of people, do you think improving and evolving your brand has created awareness to the community to say, “Hey, something’s happening over here. Ontario Shores Foundation is doing this amazing stuff. I want to be part of this.”

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Tracy: I submitted to our governance committee this morning expressions of interest for our board. Last year, it was all we could do to get two new board members. This year we have four strong candidates for two open positions, and I have a wait list because people are excited, and these aren’t just okay people. These are the high-caliber people who are going to make a difference and ignite change. So, it speaks to the work we’re doing. It speaks to our brand building.

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Will: It’s so exciting to see the transformation. This is really important work. We are just in your wake and just stoked to be partnered with you. It’s what gets us up and out of bed every day. This is what we do. Telling stories, supporting leaders like you. We’re so happy and thankful that you brought us with you.

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Tracy: I couldn't do it without you. You and your team at Clear Space are creative geniuses. And I trust you with the relationships. I trust you with the positioning. That’s not easy for me. I like control to ensure outcomes are as expected. You are one of the very few that I can say, Will and his team has got this. And he has every well-intention to get us where we need to be. You’re not about getting that dollar. You actually want to help us achieve our goal.

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Will: Tracy, thank you so much for this conversation with you. It was a pleasure.

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Tracy: All right my friend, talk again soon!