Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

Some people associated with the nonprofit organization Prison MATCH of North Carolina, Inc. want to change the name. The main reason is that the name is not descriptive of our mission and some people think we are a dating service for inmates. MATCH is actually an acronym for "Mothers and Their CHildlren," and the people who already know us are aware of that. Most people call us MATCH or Prison MATCH for short. But when we reach out into the community, it takes a long, convoluted explanation to tell how the name relates to the mission. We help children of incarcerated mothers stay connected to their mothers and offer a child=friendly homelike visitation center at the women's prison. We also teach parenting classes and assist caregivers with the expense in bringing children from across the state and also other states to visit. There has been a lot of resistance to change on the part of those who have been with MATCH since the beginning in 1992. But our donor base from that era is aging and we need to be able to reach out to younger people, who really think we re match.com for prisoners.

The suggested name right now is Families Inside Out, with keeping MATCH as the name of our center and the parenting program here. Another alternative would be to rename the organization Mothers and Their Children.

I would appreciated feedback on these two names, suggestion of other names, and also encouragement in the process to bring the nay sayers on board.

Thanks.