Ritter Center Non-Profit Homeless Organization; Repositioning for Market Acceptance and Growth

It is easy for any organization to fall into a rut and find itself doing the same thing over and over again because of the "that's the way we've always done it" approach.

Organizations and corporations must constantly seek innovations and new ideas with provides new rejuvenation and ideas to make their organizations relevant to the people and clients they serve and the employees and shareholders that employ them.

This is what happened during the summer of '02. A Board member of Ritter House, a Marin County, California non-profit agency dealing with low/no income publics, came to me and said simply "we need some PR". I asked "why" and the response I got was surprising to me. She said they were in a funding crunch and needed to get the word out to get more cash donations and general support in order to continue serving the community. Even in one of America's most wealthy counties, the funding was drying up. Many Ritter House services were at risk of being cancelled.

It was clear from our very first conversation that Ritter House was there for the less privileged, but while very well intentioned, a real focused reason for being seemed elusive. It was clear to me that Ritter House needed more than "a little PR", they needed basic positioning and marketing.

We initiated our Dialogue Marketing process with interviews with their Chairman, other Board members and key employees to find out what Ritter House stood for. As we've found in numerous corporations, no one had a clear, easy to communicate "elevator message".

Most of our answers came in the form of attributes…"We take clothing donations and give them to those in need." "We offer people in need free groceries, medical assistance, emergency rent money, showers, lockers, and even voice-mail, addresses and internet access." So, I wondered, is this a homeless shelter? A food bank? Another form of Goodwill Industries?

Further research found that most people thought Ritter House was a homeless shelter despite the fact it really didn't provide that type of service. In fact, we found that over 66% of Ritter House "clients" were actually working poor struggling to avoid becoming homeless. Most of Ritter House's activities were actually directed at preventing homelessness.

Inward conducted a full day Dialogue Marketing Workshop™ with members of Ritter House's board as well as its director and other key employees for the purpose of developing a new, clear positioning for Ritter House which could be communicated to all its publics, including potential donors. We started with the leaders of the organization, who had the vision and purpose and the sense of responsibility to create an institution that serves their audience rather than the other way around. We examined the target audiences for services as well as for solicitations, the competitive frame of services and how they differed from Ritter House. We selected desired personality traits to help Ritter House stand out and lastly we identified the key features and attributes that separate Ritter House from other services in the community.

The result of the workshop was a re-positioning of Ritter House as a leading agency working to prevent homelessness. The group enthusiastically agreed that this was the essence of its existence but that no one had been able to focus or articulate this positing in the past. In addition, this approach was thought to be far more attractive to potential donors, local business and grant givers than one of "another homelessness shelter to encourage more homeless people to move to Marin County".

Inward didn't stop there. We created the second half of the Dialogue Marketing Workshop ™focusing on getting the message out. All attendees were given the opportunity to create ways of communicating the new message. Specific media were agreed upon and dates and commitments were made to execute the strategy.

The team working with Inward also suggested to the Board that the name of Ritter House be changed slightly as it sounded like a homeless shelter (which it is not). The name Ritter Center was adopted along with a new theme line written by us: "Ritter Center. The Marin Safety Net". Inward's partner, Mez Design, developed a new logo and complete business system. They also located a talented web design group, Mojotown, to completely revamp Ritter Center's web site adding new features including on line commerce for merchandise sales and donations.

Inward also located a stellar Public Affairs person to help with Ritter Center publicity.

Ritter Center's staff, having been a part of developing the new positioning, immediately and enthusiastically incorporated the new positioning in donation solicitations.

The results? In a very down economy, Ritter Center's development success this quarter has set new high dollar records. It surpassed their most optimistic projections. They believe the fund raising success came directly from the incorporation of the new positioning in their donor appeals.

As Katie Smith, the Development Committee chair said "It was not until Chuck helped us with repositioning of Ritter Center that we had a clear and consistent way to talk about the agency. Prior to that, even the Board and staff did not have a ready answer to the question, "What does Ritter Center do?" By helping us articulate the fact that our core mission is to prevent homelessness, he found a way to broaden the agency's appeal in the community.

The Ritter Center Board was so appreciative of Inward's work, it has elected Inward's representative in San Francisco, Chuck Riley, to the Ritter Center Board of Directors.