If your not-for-profit wants to make an organization-wide New Year’s resolution for 2025, how about this: Strengthen our brand. Although branding strategies usually are associated with the for-profit sector, they can be just as critical in helping your nonprofit stand out in a sea of organizations seeking funding and attention.
What it is
Branding uses language, visuals, ideas, associations and other devices to strategically differentiate an entity from its competitors and mold public perceptions of it. Your organization’s size, mission, constituency and support base will affect which branding activities make sense. But there are some basic strategies for all branding campaigns.
Before you do anything else, make sure your nonprofit communicates:
- What it cares about (your mission),
- What it does (your programming),
- How it’s effective (your results and impacts), and
- Why donors should support it rather than another organization.
Your task is easier if your charity is the only one representing a particular cause, such as being the sole animal welfare advocate in your geographic region. But most nonprofits have competitors and need to emphasize smaller differences. For example, does your food pantry welcome corporate volunteer groups while similar nonprofits don’t? Does your school operate under a distinctive educational philosophy? Differences in geography, programming and ideas can all provide a launching pad for a strong brand.
Engaging your audience
Next, make those special qualities the focus of your outreach. For instance, if your homeless facility has embraced renewable energy, that’s your hook. You might use a logo that features a house with solar panels or a wind turbine. You might post success stories on your social media accounts or in newsletters about the cost savings you’ve achieved by involving residents in recycling certain resources.
You should tell stories your audience can easily identify with. For example, a cancer charity’s annual report might profile a senior fighting lung cancer and how your staffers support her or how volunteers distributed skin cancer-prevention fact sheets at outdoor summer events. Most people will know or have known cancer patients and will understand the emotions involved.
It’s also critical for your audience to see possible opportunities to participate in your mission and brand. You might provide potential brand ambassadors with the tools to create their own “fan” webpages to tell the part your nonprofit played in their stories. Or you could enable large donors to “design” the timing of their gifts and the specific programs they’ll support.
Relationship between message and mission
In all of your nonprofit’s communications — print, social, website, text and email — your message should tie directly to your mission. In addition, you need to be flexible and prepared to pivot when good branding opportunities come along. Innovation is important because it’s all too common for nonprofit missions — and audience interest — to drift. To that end, review and upgrade your branding tools regularly.
