Helping a Homeless Organization Reach New Heights

LifeMoves

Helping a Homelessness Organization Reach New Heights

We helped one of the largest providers of services for the homeless in the country reach unprecedented levels of growth to meet increased needs in Silicon Valley.

  • Organizational & Brand Strategy
  • Brand Positioning, Design & Management
  • Fundraising Campaigns 
  • Fundraising Event Promotion
  • Corporate Sponsorship Materials
  • Strategic Messaging & Presentations
  • CEO Letters & Communications
  • Annual Reports & Newsletters
  • Thought Leadership & Client Success Videos
  • Website Pages & Enhancements
  • Google Ad Grant Management

A growing homelessness crisis demands effective approaches and funding. LifeMoves tapped into our strategic branding, marketing, and fundraising services to propel the organization to take on this challenge. With a new CEO at the helm, we helped position LifeMoves for success. Over the four years we have worked with this nonprofit, its annual revenue grew from $38 million to $118 million due largely to new government contracts.

Select Results

19% increase

in total amount raised v. prior year

2020 YEAR-END CAMPAIGN

42% increase

in total amount raised v. prior year

2021 YEAR-END CAMPAIGN

43% increase

in average gift amount for lower-level donors

2021 YEAR-END CAMPAIGN

65% increase

in average gift amount for higher-level donors

2021 YEAR-END CAMPAIGN

100% increase

in number of donations by lapsed donors v. prior year

2020 SPRING APPEAL

100% increase

in amount donated by lapsed donors v. prior year

2020 SPRING APPEAL

43% increase

in monthly givers over 2 years

2021 – 2023

475% increase

increase in the amount raised v. prior year

2021 RIDE TO END HOMELESSNESS

73% increase

increase in the amount raised v. prior year

2022 RIDE TO END HOMELESSNESS

The Challenge

LifeMoves first brought on Red Rooster Group to improve its fundraising in March 2020, just as COVID started. The organization needed to keep its 7,000 clients safe and re-trench for the new realities of lockdowns. Since then, the closing of businesses exacerbated the already unprecedented homeless situation due to rising home prices in Silicon Valley. LifeMoves needed to raise money for the short term and develop its brand and fundraising outreach to address growing needs.

Transforming an Organization

Over four years, Red Rooster Group has worked to enhance the organization’s strategic perspective, brand story, fundraising outreach, and marketing communications.

Our brand repositioning work helped reshape perceptions of the organization from a provider of services locally, to a leader that has been recognized by the state with solutions that can be adopted elsewhere. LifeMoves built one of the first modular, interim housing facilities in Northern California (whose opening was attended by the Governor) and won contracts for six more sites, including one of the largest in Northern California.

We have managed fundraising campaigns that have brought back lapsed donors and increased the amounts raised, including their largest campaign ever, and promoted fundraising events that attracted key audiences such as high-level donors and elected officials.

Our strategic advice, research, and communications have elevated the organization as it introduced its strategic plan, attracted new corporate and community partners, and set a strong foundation for success.

By introducing new fundraising ideas and best practices, we have increased the organization’s level of sophistication so that it can continue to improve results.

How We Helped

Strategy

Organizational, Fundraising, Marketing, Branding, & Thought Leadership

  • Leveraged the CEO as an authoritative voice on the issue to position the organization as a national leader on homelessness.
  • Developed strategy presentations to convey the needs of homelessness in Silicon Valley and attract funding from corporations.
  • Supported the organization’s strategic plan by creating a presentation, summary document, webpage, and promoting a series of online events to introduce the strategic plan to high-end donors, government officials, and community partners.

Individual Fundraising

  • Produce two campaigns per year (spring and year-end), including developing concepts, narrative, and theme, writing and designing direct mail packages and email series, producing videos, creating landing pages and donation pages, social media posts, and handling campaign management. Introduced personalization, custom gift arrays, and efficient mailing techniques.

Major Donor Fundraising

  • Promote two Principal Giving events annually including all digital strategy, outreach, presentation, journals, and sponsorship packages. Created customized materials and managed customized emailing for 7 Principal Gift Officers.

Fundraising Events

  • Promote the annual Ride to End Homelessness peer-to-peer fundraising event. Created brand strategy, designed new event logo, developed segmented email strategy and managed all emails, and design other promotion (advertising, banners, etc.). The ride has grown from $40K before us, to $400k in revenue.

Corporate Giving

  • Support the corporate sponsorship department with a range of strategic and marketing initiatives to shore up corporate support including researching and developing a presentation on homelessness in Silicon Valley and materials to promote sponsorship opportunities for the new interim housing sites and other opportunities.
  • Created materials to solicit sponsorship naming rights on LifeMoves facilities.

Brand Management

  • Evolved the organization’s brand to be more authentic — from merely showing happy outcomes to conveying the vulnerabilities of people experiencing homelessness and the complexities of their circumstances.
  • Balanced their story of interim housing sites with their services, crafting the narrative around their customized, and comprehensive approaches to helping people achieve stability.
  • Stewarded their brand and updated their colors and overall look to be more dynamic.

Organizational Collateral

  • Crafted their organizational story and corporate collateral materials.
  • Designed banners and pop-up displays for community events.
  • Produce their annual Impact Report.
  • Write and design their quarterly print and email newsletters.
  • Write and design the monthly Keygivers email newsletter for monthly supporters.

Website

  • Set up landing pages in WordPress and donation pages in Classy to support fundraising campaigns.
  • Create new website sections and pages and update website content as needed.

Videos

  • Produce videos to tell the organization’s story and elevate its profile. Includes scripting, on-site shooting, and all post-production work.

Communications Planning

  • Conducted an analysis of all emails sent by the organization over a 2-year period by audience and results, open rate, click rate, etc.
  • Handle dozens of emails for the organization over the course of the year (developing schedules. writing, designing, testing and approvals, coordination of URLs and lists, documenting, and reporting).

Fundraising & Marketing Continuity

  • Maintained all outreach, fundraising, website updates, etc. through 2 Executive Directors, a complete turnover of the Marketing Team, and new Chief Philanthropy Officer, and several new VPs of Development, providing stability and continuity throughout the organization’s growth.

What the Client Says

“I had the opportunity to work with Howard and the Red Rooster Group team during organizational change and growth initiatives at LifeMoves, one of the largest providers of homeless services in Silicon Valley. Howard’s talent for blending analytical thinking and creative problem-solving became critical for our transformation. He was a true partner and collaborator in our success.

He and his team are strong in revitalizing brands, launching groundbreaking initiatives, and tackling complex social issues. What truly sets Howard apart is his ability to look beyond immediate challenges. He envisions comprehensive solutions that drive long-term success, blending his expertise in behavioral psychology and fundraising with a genuine passion for creating positive change.

When you work with Howard, you’re not just gaining expertise; you’re partnering with a thought leader who expands your horizons and helps you achieve audacious goals.”

Marie Amoruso Jackson, Chief Marketing Officer

“I’m finally wrapping up my day and wanted to tell you all how great you were today. You totally hit it out of the park (just like my Dodgers last night!). We heard nothing but totally positive comments afterward. Your suggestions on how to engage the team right from the start were spot on. Many, many thanks.” 

Katherine Finnigan, Development

“AMAZING….thank you Amit & Erin for making all this happen so quickly after our conversations…

Best“

Marie Jackson, Chief Marketing Officer

“This is such an understatement of what you did, Amit, what with the testing for ALL of these plus sorting out exclusions. Thank you for your amazing work!” 

Erin Hayes, Database Specialist

“This is what you’ll call a well-oiled and amazing machine!!! Thank you!”

Camille Gonzalez Kennedy | Vice President of Philanthropy

[re: our customized sending of emails for spring events]

“Brian, not sure who is doing your videos and online appeals, but I want to give a heartfelt congratulations to the folks responsible for this one. The subject heading is what I always tell nonprofits who want coverage or for people to actually read what you’ve done. As a professional in the business for more than 40 years, I don’t give kudos often. This one works.”

Rita

“You all rocked the webinar this morning…  huge thanks to all that you did as we went through all the learnings and even our ‘interesting’ glitches on the back end. Your calm and expertise really did shine…

We so appreciate you…”

Marie Jackson, Chief Marketing Officer

Helping an Environmental Organization Take Flight

American Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel

Helping an Environmental Organization Take Flight

We helped Israel’s largest environmental organization build its fundraising capacity and reach donors in the U.S. with a new brand, website, and digital campaigns.

Services

  • Brand & Website Analysis
  • Brand Positioning & Messaging
  • Membership Benefits
  • Website Copywriting
  • Website Design
  • Website Development
  • Digital Donor Acquisition Campaigns
  • Advocacy Petitions
  • Webinars
  • Fundraising Emails
  • Fundraising Direct Mail
  • Promoting Travel to Israel

3.3 Million

IMPRESSIONS

1.6 Million

PEOPLE REACHED

8,500

NEW PROSPECT EMAILS COLLECTED

“Howard’s thought partnership helped Nature Israel take a great leap forward. Our new website has brought us new major donors, including several major corporate entities. I highly recommend Red Rooster Group.”

– Rachel Canar, Executive Director

The Challenge

Established at the country’s founding, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel is the oldest and largest environmental organization in Israel. But it is not well known in the United States, making fundraising a challenge. Red Rooster Group was brought in the elevate its American fundraising arm, known as Nature Israel, and build a base of supporters in the United States.

What We Accomplished

  • Developed the brand positioning and created a donor presentation.
  • Built a new donor-focused website to improve awareness in the United States.
  • Established the Nature Israel Travel Brand, webpages, and brochures, and generated leads of people interested in their trips.
  • Significantly increased the awareness of Nature Israel reaching 1.6 million people with 3.3 million impressions.
  • Built a prospect database of 8,500 emails of people who have taken an action for the organization. (such as signing a petition).

Defining the Brand

Our first step was to leverage unique insights to establish a clear brand value. The organization had presented itself as protecting wildlife, advocating for nature, educating the public, and providing recreational opportunities in nature.

But to get the brand noticed in the United States, something more was needed.

Leveraging Israel’s reputation as a start-up nation for innovation —with its technology improving lives globally — we positioned Nature Israel as the green beacon for the world. As one of the most dense, diverse, and developed countries on Earth, Israel’s environmental solutions could have far-ranging impact for other countries.

Telling the Story

In order to engage donors in the organization’s work and impact, we created a presentation that describes its success in conservation, education, activism, and eco-tourism.

Webinar to Introduce this Nonprofit’s Brand

We created a webinar as a way to introduce Nature Israel to American audiences and generate leads, promoting it on Facebook with various audience targeting strategies. The webinar highlighted environmental technology that came out of Israel, featured the membership benefits chart we developed to engage people in membership, and invited webinar participants to visit the organization’s sites in Israel.

Creating a Fundraising Website 

We created a new website for this nonprofit to appeal to donors in the United States. This website serves as their prime vehicle for fundraising. We started from scratch, reimagining the user experience, writing all the copy, creating the design, and developing the interactive features.

The website features the organization’s current initiatives, a timeline showcasing 70 years of impact, multiple pages describing reasons to support Nature Israel, customized news feeds and other features.

NATURE ISRAEL WEBSITE

Digital Campaign to Attract Prospective Donors

To engage audiences, the website features webinars, a travel section, petitions, and other features to generate leads and cultivate prospective donors. The lead generation features are integrated into MailChimp and Salesforce to create a robust database for the organization.

Using Petitions to Generate Leads

Our fundraising goals include generating new leads for Nature Israel and cultivating them as potential donors. To accomplish this, we implemented a 2-stage process. We attracted new leads by promoting petitions, a webinar, and blog posts on Facebook.

The campaigns led people to a Facebook form or landing page where we collected emails. We used five different audience targeting strategies, and A/B split testing on all ads. This has enabled us to collect more than 7,000 leads in a short period of time. The next phase involves cultivating these prospects into donors through a series of email campaigns.

Promoting Eco-Tourism

To cultivate larger donors, Nature Israel is running trips to experience “the wild side of Israel” — its amazing wildlife and nature sites. We created a Nature Israel Travel section on the website with extensive pages about each trip, brochures, email campaigns, and social posts.

TRAVEL WEB PAGE
DOWNLOAD BROCHURE

Travel Emails

Building a Fundraising Infrastructure

As Nature Israel’s strategic fundraising partner, we are setting a foundation for their growth by:

  • Creating an Operations Manual that documents all fundraising and marketing processes and is continually updated as needed.
  • Providing critical technological support in setting up and maintaining their back-end systems, including the WordPress website, MailChimp, Classy, and integrations between systems.
  • Cleaning up lists in MailChimp by consolidating tags.
  • Creating an Editorial Style Guide to ensure consistent communications throughout the organization.
  • Developing a master Marketing Calendar including emails, fundraising, event promotion, and other activities.
  • Coordinating marketing and fundraising activities with the Israel team.
  • Creating direct mail packages, handling printing and mailing management.
  • Introducing personalization and custom gift arrays in their direct mail.
  • Producing special fundraising projects, including Tribute Books.
  • Promoting organizational events in the United States.

Achieving Results

Foundation

Nature Israel now has a clearly defined brand, an engaging website, and a solid foundation to support its fundraising.

Prospects

Our digital outreach campaigns have generated more than 8,000 emails of people who have taken action on behalf of the organization.

Travel

Our travel promotion has resulted a list of several hundred people interested in their trips as well as groups visiting Israel to see the organization’s work first-hand.

4.1 Million
Impressions

43,654
Link Clicks

8,439
Emails Collected

“Howard and his team managed a rebrand and new website launch for Nature Israel. They really helped bring our organization into the 21st century. The website that they created is just beautiful and we are constantly getting this feedback. The SEO optimization they implemented is truly awesome, bringing us many new people from organic searches. Most importantly, this has brought it new major donors, including several major corporate entities looking for water offsets and environmental organizations in the region. Howard’s thought partnership helped Nature Israel take a great leap forward and he remains a true friend of our organization. He remains responsive to this day. I highly recommend him.”

– Rachel Canar, Executive Director

Consumer Reports Emails & Landing Pages

Client: ConsumerReports.org

ConsumerReports.org is known as the unbiased source of product information for millions of consumers. When it came time to increase the response rate on their subscription renewal emails, they turned to Red Rooster Group.

We broke the mold from their typical discount offers. Taking a strategic perspective, we developed 3 different concepts that explored subscribers’ motivations for re-subscribing.

  • One concept focused on the benefit of saving time when shopping.
  • One focused on Consumer Reports’ reputation in evaluating products.
  • One was premised on the fear of making the wrong decision.

Each concept was supported by an online landing pages that carried through on the concept and design.