Award-Winning Marketing Agency Achieves National Women’s Business Enterprise Certification While Celebrating Its Twenty-Third Anniversary
Rizco is proud to announce that they have been granted certification by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC); the leading non-profit organization dedicated to helping women-owned businesses thrive. This certification is meant to celebrate diversity and promote innovation, open doors, and create partnerships that fuel the economy.
Rizco was founded in New York City in 2000 by husband and wife team Debra and Keith Rizzi and reincorporated in New Jersey in 2003, where Debra resumed the position of President to deliver strategic design and marketing services to Monmouth and Ocean counties and the surrounding areas. This month they are proud to celebrate twenty-three years in business and almost two and a half decades of evolution. In 2007, Rizco was named the Agency to Watch by Graphic Design USA (GDUSA), yet this was just the beginning of recognitions and accolades the agency would receive to solidify their position in the ever-changing marketing landscape.
In addition to their commitment to growing businesses through marketing, Rizco is also passionate about the communities in which they live and serve. Since their early days of operation, Rizco has been involved with the creative industry’s environmental movement, especially with sustainable decisions that start in the design phase that impact resource consumption, such as paper. In 2007, they became the twelfth design and marketing firm to be admitted into the EPA’s Green Power Partnership for their use of one hundred percent green power in their office, and in 2008, they became the first graphic design firm in the U.S. to be admitted into the EPA’s Climate Leaders program. Throughout the years, they have also been on the cusp of the latest digital strategies and have been pioneers in proprietary services such as their customized brand audit process that launched in 2010.
In 2020, like other agencies, Rizco’s team went fully remote. However, this shift did not hinder their presence in the community, as that same year; President Debra Rizzi was honored with the NJBIZ 50 Best Women in Business Award. This acknowledgment, coupled with their latest WBE Certification, is meaningful to the entire team since the Rizco staff is currently eighty percent female.
In regards to the WBE certification, Debra Rizzi states, “For Rizco, this certification is about access. It gives the agency the ability to expand our client footprint by aligning with companies that embrace diversity in their procurement process. It also affords us the opportunity to expand our network to collaborate with female leadership that will inspire future professional growth. We feel honored that decades of work have been validated on a national level.”
The WBENC was founded in 1997 to develop a nationwide standard for women-owned business certification. They are now the largest third-party certifier of businesses owned, controlled, and operated by women in the United States and a leading advocate for women-owned businesses in corporate and government supply chains.
Rizco is proud to join this community of successful women-owned businesses in their twenty-third year and looks forward to the opportunities this certification will provide.