JobTrain Case Study

JobTrain

A Job Training Organization Increases Its Revenue

Ongoing fundraising and communications strategies are helping this organization elevate its brand, leverage AI, and raise more money.

Organizational & Brand Strategy
Fundraising Messaging
Capital Campaign Messaging Strategy
Annual Fund & Spring Appeal Campaigns
Fundraising Event Promotion
Annual Impact Reports
Internal & External Newsletters
Videos
Custom AI Solutions
AI Technology Adoption
Strategic Consulting

Fundraising Results

61% increase

in total amount raised v. prior year

2024 YEAR-END CAMPAIGN

400% return on investment

and reclaimed 3 long-lapsed donors

2025 SPRING APPEAL

Fundraising Results

61% increase

in total amount raised v. prior year

2024 YEAR-END CAMPAIGN

400% return on investment

and reclaimed 3 long-lapsed donors

2025 SPRING APPEAL

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.
- Thought Leadership Videos (click and scroll down)
- Client stories
- Services videos
- New Sites
- Other Videos

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

Integrated Campaign Promotes Early Childhood Mental Health

How do you help low-income parents pay attention to their young child’s mental health?

You need a message that doesn’t stigmatize, patronize, or scare them off.

A positive message helps parents see the good inside their child despite the frustrations that they might be feeling at the moment.

We also created brochures to reach doctors and other professionals who could refer their patients to the clinic.

A coordinated media approach included billboards and transit advertising to create awareness.

We used a combination of print and digital ads in local newspapers and websites to reach parents.

AdWords and social media campaigns with the YourChildsSmile.org URL drove traffic to a mobile-friendly landing page.

The landing page was integrated as a part of The Jewish Board’s website so that visitors could learn about their full range of services.

Participation in local events such as BayFest was an opportunity to engage people directly.

The 2-month campaign fulfilled the client’s goal of reaching a large number of people in a short period of time.

735,954

total people reached

Doubled

the average intake calls to the counseling center in the first 2 weeks of the campaign

Brand Update Promotes Largest Educational Organization In India

Pratham USA

Promoting the Largest Educational Organization in India

Pratham USA wanted to strengthen its image and give its 15 chapters the communication tools they needed to be more effective in raising money for the organization. Red Rooster Group was brought in to develop a comprehensive brand, marketing strategy, and fundraising materials.

Services

Discovery
Workshops
Communications Assessment
Communications Plan
Marketing Plan
Brand Strategy
Brand Architecture
Core Fundraising Messaging
Case for Support
Donor Brochure
Donor Presentation
Annual Report
Website
Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Building Marketing Foundations for Success

Pratham has taken on one of the worst problems in the world — literacy — with innovative yet proven tactics. It is one of the few nonprofits in the world that invests in Randomized Control Trials, an expensive but accurate way to assess effectiveness.

Pratham’s methods are used in 14 countries on three continents. The results guide government policy as well as help ascertain the best methods to teach reading to children.

Pratham USA raises money to support these efforts. Because the challenges are so great — 300,000 children in India cannot read — Pratham needed a marketing and fundraising strategy to get the word out about Pratham’s impact and expand its base of supporters.

We developed a marketing strategy as well as fundraising and communications plans and marketing materials to drive their outreach efforts.

Conducting Research

To find out why fundraising had plateaued and laid the foundation for their marketing and fundraising strategy, we conducted the following research to identify the challenges and opportunities.

Researched similar organizations in the sector.
Conducted a survey of donors.
Conducted workshops for national and chapter leaders.
Reviewed the past year of email and other communications with donors.
Determined marketing priorities.

Communications Plan

During our research, we found that communications with donors were sporadic and visually inconsistent. We developed a 24-month communication plan that coordinated the outreach of the national office with that of all the chapters. The communications schedule ensured that donors were not hit with multiple asks and that all events and campaigns were well-publicized. In addition, we provided templates for each chapter so their outreach would be visually consistent as well as timely.

We strengthened their brand, updated their messaging, and gave each chapter the tools needed to fundraise effectively.

Unifying the Visual Identity

Pratham lacked guidelines for their logo, which resulted in different typefaces, colors and layouts being used, as well as inconsistent treatments for the names of chapters and affiliates.

While Pratham has a clear mission, a logo, and brochures, the organization conveys a very fractured image. This can confuse donors and represent a lost opportunity to build equity in the brand. Another factor is that Pratham in other countries convey their brand slightly differently as well, with different typefaces for the logo and different designs for the website.

BEFORE

AFTER

During the brand review, we assessed that the logo was used in a wide variety of ways in the marketing materials, creating a fractured image for the organization. And chapters were setting their names in different typefaces and colors, undermining the professionalism of the organization.

To address this problem, we developed a comprehensive brand architecture for the organization that defined the relationship of the logo and tagline, created consistency for the chapter names and their treatment in the logo, and determined how international affiliates should be styled. We then developed versions of all the logos (15 chapters plus international partners) with and without the tagline in formats for print and web use.

Message Development

A core part of the strategy for Pratham USA was articulating Pratham’s global impact in developing and validating new tactics to increase literacy. To help Pratham and all the chapter heads tell their story in a compelling way to appeal to donors, we developed the following messaging tools:

A Case for Giving that describes the problem that Pratham addresses, how Pratham helps, Pratham’s impact, and ways donors can get involved and make a difference.
Brand Story that summarizes the case for giving.
Boilerplate that can be used to remind donors of Pratham’s mission and impact and urge them to donate.

Brand Story

At a time when half of the children in India cannot read, Pratham provides a low cost method to address the problem effectively on a large scale. Pratham is the only organization that empowers individuals through education as well as driving systemic change through a bottom-up approach. By training 60,000 volunteer teachers in 21 states, we are able to provide support for educating the entire population.

Pratham’s successes break the cycle of poverty for families in villages and cities and contributes to the economic and political vitality of India. Pratham has successfully reached more than 34 million children across India. Millions of children who could not even recognize the alphabet when they began now read fluently and with passion. Pratham’s methods have been recognized by leading foundations, including Skoll, Gates, and Hewlett, as a model worth emulating. Pratham’s methods are now being employed to help other countries facing similar educational challenges. Pratham USA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a four-star rating (the highest possible) from Charity Navigator, accepts tax deductible contributions from U.S. donors. We depend upon generous donors like you to create educational reform throughout India and the world.

Boilerplate

Pratham is one of he world’s leading non-governmental organizations working to provide quality education to underprivileged youth. With a budget of less than $15 million, we use very low cost and scalable methods and work in collaboration with the government, local communities, parents, teachers and volunteers across the country to educate hundreds of thousands of children every year. Pratham USA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a four-star rating (the highest possible) from Charity Navigator, accepts tax deductible contributions from U.S. donors. We depend upon generous donors like you to create educational reform throughout India.

Case for Support

We developed their Case for Support around what the donors need to know:

The Problem: What is the problem that the organization is addressing? We humanized the problem of widespread illiteracy in India by telling a story about one girl’s plight. We also provided a visually demonstrated the problem by creating a graphic showing the cycle of poverty that plagues many in India.
The Solution: What is Pratham doing about the problem? We describe Pratham’s programs to build literacy and create systemic change for education in the country
The Impact: How effective is the organization in addressing the problem? To demonstrate Pratham’s success, we presented a chart showing the results of Pratham’s signature program, Read India II, in 21 states across India.
The Appeal: How can donors support Pratham? We describe the different ways that people can support and get involved with the organization.

We designed the document to be easy to read and support Pratham’s brand, with photos that help to help people understand what Pratham does — overall a clear and compelling case for supporting Pratham.

Brochure

We created a brochure that could be handed out widely at galas and other events for fundraising purposes. The brochure makes a bold statement about the the vast scope of illiteracy in India, and describes how Pratham is addressing it.

Annual Report

We redesigned the organization’s annual report as part of an overall brand refresh for the organization. The theme of Raising the Bar on Hope was aimed at reinvigorating interest in the organization’s donor base which was experiencing some fatigue with Pratham’s message.

Marketing Templates

We created a consistent brand look for all materials so that donors can recognize them as Pratham’s. This reinforced the brand in people’s minds and made it easier for staff to create collateral materials, such as:

Email Newsletters
Email Blasts
Print Newsletters
Gala Invitations

Clarifying Roles & Responsibilities

Plans are only as good as their implementation. We helped Pratham USA put the structure in place that would facilitate implementation.

Identify the required roles and clear assignment of marketing tasks.
Determine what can be handled in-house and what needs to be outsourced.
Establish accountability for delivery.
Develop procedures for creating, reviewing, and approving fundraising materials.

Board Development

Pratham had not fully utilized the board as brand and fundraising ambassadors. We suggested ways in which board members could improve their fundraising effectiveness by giving them succinct messaging and collateral materials to guide them as they talked with potential donors. During our time, Pratham USA attracted Fareed Kazaria to its board.

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

We promoted their readathon by creating materials for recruiting local hosts, as well as promoting the readathon locally in the community through digital and print materials. We increased the average donation from $76 to $102 over the prior year’s event.

RESULTS

36% Increase

Over Prior Year

Cancer Group Raises Funds and Awareness with Fundraising Campaign

Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation

Raising Awareness and Funds for Breast Cancer Research

Our multi-faceted campaign raised awareness of the cause, motivated 100 people around the country to host fundraising events, and raised $200,000 for the organization.

Event Branding

A clean symbol of a dove made from three parts, each with three arcs reinforces the concept of Triple Negative Breast Cancer.

Event Microsite

To encourage peer-to-peer fundraising, we updated the organization’s fundraising platform with bold, energetic graphics, and lots of resources to help people host successful events.

Emails

We redesigned the emails to be more attention-getting and more personal, with appeals from others in their communities. Each had a clear call to action. These efforts dramatically increased the response rate.

Before

After

All the emails we designed followed suit, with clear, compelling graphics that reflected the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Day brand while warmly welcoming people to the community and making clear the actions people could take.

Social Media

We produced a comprehensive social media campaign to generate interest and motivate people to host events and donate.

Printed Materials

We developed a range of print materials as part of the overall marketing outreach to support people who were producing local events.

Public Relations

A vigorous public relations outreach campaign to publications, websites, and blogs achieved a wide range of local and national coverage for the organization. As a result, more than 100 events were held around the country, raising more than $200,000 for the organization.

State Proclamations

In addition, to create credibility for the cause, we reached out to state governments to declare March 3 as Triple Negative Breast Cancer Day. Eleven states issued proclamations, which we touted on social media to bolster community and awareness in those states.

Opening Bell of the New York Stock Exchange

To gain even more publicity for the organization, we arranged for the client to ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange. The ceremony was covered on network and cable broadcast news, with the organizational logo featured prominently.

Media Coverage

CNBC Squawk on the Street
CNN American Morning
FOX NEWS Your World
FOX KTVU Morning News (San Francisco)
ABC KXTV News 10 Good Morning (Sacramento)

Results

As a result, more than 100 events were produced around the country, raising $200,000 and greatly increasing awareness of the organization and its cause.