Programs with a service area they are obligated to cover.
Our clients are not brands with markets. They are publicly or privately funded intervention programs with a boundary drawn by statute, a population named in an award, and a renewal that asks what the outreach produced.
The funding source changes. The problem does not.
Not a funded outreach program?
STRIVE3 has built the infrastructure, strategy and campaigns for nonprofits, associations, colleges, businesses and federal agencies since 2005. See Full Capabilities or the Mission Acceleration Blueprint.
Three things every client we take on has in common
- 01
A defined geography
A county, a catchment area, a set of ZIP codes, a state. Coverage is measured against that boundary, not against a general audience.
- 02
A named population
Veterans, families in crisis, uninsured adults, people who are not connected to care. Eligibility is written into the award, so reach that lands outside it is not performance.
- 03
A reporting obligation
Someone above you asks annually what the outreach dollars bought. That question is the reason this firm exists.
Seven kinds of program, and what each one is up against
If one of these describes your organization, the Reach Audit will look familiar within the first week. If none of them does, say so on the first call and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right firm.
Profile 01
County and city health departments
Behavioral health, prevention, and crisis services delivered inside a jurisdiction set by statute. Outreach is usually one line in a division budget, competing with staffing.
- Held to
- Allowable-use documentation and a public accounting of what the prevention line produced.
- Where it breaks
- Spend is documented, results are not. The invoice proves the campaign ran. Nothing proves anyone came in.
Profile 02
Community Services Boards
Regional catchment areas, mandated services, and intake volume that has to be reported upward on a fixed schedule.
- Held to
- Service counts against a catchment population, and access standards for how fast a person is seen.
- Where it breaks
- Whole parts of the catchment area never hear from the board, and no one can name which parts.
Profile 03
Veteran-serving nonprofits
Grantees delivering housing, employment, and support services to Veterans across a defined region, scored at renewal on outreach and engagement.
- Held to
- Renewal scoring that asks whether the grantee was effective in conducting outreach and increasing engagement.
- Where it breaks
- The narrative describes effort rather than result, because the intake record was never connected to a source.
Profile 04
Grant and program directors
The individual who writes the outreach section of the renewal application, and who owns the number in it. Usually our first call.
- Held to
- A funder’s questions, a board’s questions, and a deadline that does not move.
- Where it breaks
- Reconstructing a year of outreach from memory and email in the two weeks before the application is due.
Profile 05
State agency communications leads
One small team responsible for reaching an entire commonwealth, typically with no in-house production capacity and a procurement calendar to work inside.
- Held to
- Statewide coverage, accessibility conformance on every asset, and legislative or executive-level reporting.
- Where it breaks
- One message written for the whole state, which fits the capital and lands nowhere rural.
Profile 06
Prevention and awareness programs
Naloxone access, safe storage and disposal, youth prevention, stigma reduction, overdose awareness. The intended outcome is a behavior that changes or a harm that does not occur, so there is no referral to count.
- Held to
- Priority segment reach, message recall against a defined baseline, distribution and uptake of the specific resource, and partner activation.
- Where it breaks
- Measurement borrowed from an engagement program, which produces a referral number nobody can defend and a report that misses what the campaign actually did.
Profile 07
Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics
CCBHC applicants and grantees, whose service area is described in the application and filed as a required map attachment, and whose certification criteria cover outreach, engagement, and access.
- Held to
- Timely and meaningful access across the described service area, acceptance of all patients regardless of ability to pay or place of residence, and reporting against both.
- Where it breaks
- The service-area map is written once for the application and never measured against, so the outreach-and-engagement criterion has no evidence behind it at renewal.
Where we are the wrong firm
We turn work down. It is cheaper for both of us to find that out on the first call than in month three.
- No defined service area
- If reach is not measured against a boundary, our core metric does not apply and a general agency will serve you better.
- Nowhere to count
- If no one can record how a person found you, we build that first or we do not take the engagement. Referrals cannot be counted retroactively.
- Awareness as the goal
- If the objective is visibility rather than enrollment, you will not get value from what we charge for.
- Outside our expertise
- Where a campaign addresses a population or clinical question we have not worked in, we say so and recommend someone who has. See the review protocol.
Both of our published engagements were run for exactly this kind of buyer: a defined population, a bounded service area, and an outcome verified by someone other than us.
Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center
VA Vet Centers
Find out who you are missing.
The Reach Audit takes three weeks and costs $8,500. You get a map of your service area, a baseline cost per qualified referral, and a message risk register. It is yours either way.
Victor Rogers, Founder and President
Reston, Virginia · info@strive3.com