Housing and Community Development
Nonprofit Merger and Launch

Nonprofit Merger and Launch

Two affordable housing organizations were at a crossroads. Both groups provided a variety of support and advocacy for organizations and individuals committed to affordable housing development and homeless services. After separate strategic reviews, the groups recognized that a merger could ensure their ability to leverage additional resources to meet their missions and make a more substantial impact. Gray Ryan provided strategic consulting throughout the merger process and identified a new name, branding, and messages to help the new organization not just retain all current members but grow.

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Housing Families First

Housing Families First

Homelessness is a complex and challenging issue. There are many contributing factors that push people into homelessness. Serving those experiencing homelessness is difficult work and made even harder but persistent and inaccurate stereotypes about individuals and families experiencing homelessness. Many homeless services agencies wrestle with how to tell compelling and concise stories about their programs and impact. Housing Families First, a Richmond, VA nonprofit that serves families with children experiencing housing instability and homelessness, wanted to build greater awareness and support for its work.

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Greater Richmond Continuum of Care

Greater Richmond Continuum of Care

The Greater Richmond Continuum of Care (GRCoC) is the Richmond region’s coordinated and collaborative network of homeless service providers. The network includes 34 local, mission-driven agencies. Given the complexity of homelessness services and the pernicious stereotypes about individuals and families pushed into homelessness, clear and concise messages from all partner agencies is crucial to ensure key audiences understand the reality around homelessness and how the region is successfully and compassionately responding.

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Capital Campaign and Expansion

Capital Campaign and Expansion

Housing Families First, a Central Virginia nonprofit that serves families with children facing housing instability and homelessness, was approaching the end of a highly successful capital campaign. The campaign, which was the largest in the organization’s history, raised over $4.5 million to expand its campus and programs serving families. Housing Families First wanted to build on this momentum and celebrate its newly expanded campus.

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Homeward’s Pandemic Response

Homeward’s Pandemic Response

Fearing the deadly impact of COVID-19 on one of Central Virginia’s most vulnerable populations, individuals and families experiencing homelessness, Homeward and the Greater Richmond Continuum of Care (the region’s network of homeless service providers) launched and managed a massive and coordinate response. A variety of programs were created or adapted to ensure the health and safety of those experiencing homelessness and the frontline workers serving them. Among the strategies was the launch of an emergency pandemic shelter and consistent public communications with important facts about the pandemic response.

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Bermuda Estates

Bermuda Estates

Challenge: : Bermuda Estates is a 7.8-acre manufactured home park with 46 units located in Chesterfield County. Due to ongoing health and safety risks in the park, it was purchased by project:HOMES in 2020. Project:HOMES made significant investments in the park including the addition of a new community center, the integration of supportive services to residents including ESL classes, and the replacement of several manufactured homes with energy efficient units. The organization was seeking to highlight these enhancements and demonstrate to potential donors that additional resources were needed to complete the revitalization of Bermuda Estates.

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5000 Families Pilot Program

5000 Families Pilot Program

Challenge: The Virginia Housing Alliance is seeking support from the Virginia General Assembly to launch a new pilot program designed to provide $100M in rent relief over a two-year period to 5,000 low-income families with school-aged children across Virginia. Managed by the Department of Housing and Community Development, the 5000 Families pilot program will empower families and set up students for success. To build support for the 5,000 Families program, a comprehensive and strategic advocacy and public relations campaign would be needed.

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Supportive Housing Campaign

Supportive Housing Campaign

Challenge: Virginia Supportive Housing is the largest statewide non‐profit organization that serves homeless adults by providing permanent, supportive housing. In conjunction with its 25th anniversary, Virginia Supportive Housing was seeking to expand its footprint in Hampton Roads with the development of several new communities. To facilitate that growth, it needed to communicate the importance of permanent, supportive housing to both the general public in the cities of Virginia Beach and Norfolk as well as elected officials.

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Georgetown South 50th Anniversary

Georgetown South 50th Anniversary

Challenge: Georgetown South is a master-planned, townhome community home to 1,000 residents in the city of Manassas, just 30 miles from the heart of Washington, D.C. As a result of the Great Recession, the community was facing a crisis due to high foreclosure rates, increased crime, and deteriorating conditions of the amenities. A housing advocacy group built a coalition of financial partners including Bank of America and the Virginia Housing Development Authority to stabilize Georgetown South through the development of new amenities, crime prevention programs, and the introduction of new financing tools which would allow the homes to remain affordable.

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Richmond Regional Housing Framework

Richmond Regional Housing Framework

Challenge: Similar to many communities around the country, the Greater Richmond region in Central Virginia was facing a growing housing crisis. Yet, awareness and urgency to act was lagging. The Partnership for Housing Affordability (PHA) recognized the need to galvanize support around this issue and provide tangible solutions. The result was the Richmond Regional Housing Framework, a report that addressed the region’s shared housing challenges and provided dozens of regional and hyper-local solutions.

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