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

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

“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

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

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.

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.

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.