H O W T O D E V E L O P Y O U R N O N P R O F I T ’ S B R A N DW H E N Y O U D O N ’ T H A V E A N Y T I M E

A N T I O N E T T E G . K E R R

T H E W R I T E F O L K S / B O L D & B R I G H T M E D I A

I N T R O

I am a former executive director,

communications manager,

syndicated journalist and CEO of

The Write Folks & Bold & Bright

Media.

After a decade of serving as an

executive director my passion for

storytelling led me back into the

world of nonprofit writing,

consulting and publishing. I

continue to serve as a board

member for Women AdvaNCe

and WFDD Public Radio.

Thewritefolks.net

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BRANDING: A TALL ORDER

• No Time ?

• No Budget?

• No Clue?

Picture from The Lexington Barbecue Festival

BRANDING BASICS

WHAT IS BRANDING ANYWAY?

WHAT IS BRANDING?

On The Surface:

A brand is all about a visual identity including your

name, logo, and tagline.

Deeper Dive:

A brand is a psychological construct held in the

minds of all those aware of the branded product,

person, organization, or movement.

Brand management is the work of managing these

psychological associations.

BRANDS WE LOVE

NONPROFIT BRANDING

Stanford Innovation Social Review

The Role of Brand in the Nonprofit Sector

“A nonprofit brand is most powerful when the organization’s internal identity and external image

are aligned with each other and with its values and mission. As brand consultant Will Novy-

Hildesley describes it, “Brand is an exquisite bridge between program strategy and external

communications.”

NONPROFIT BRANDING

Stanford Innovation Social Review

The Role of Brand in the Nonprofit Sector

Many nonprofits continue to use their brands primarily as a fundraising tool, but a growing

number of nonprofits are developing a broader and more strategic approach, managing their

brands to create greater social impact and tighter organizational cohesion.

WHAT IS BRANDING? A NAME

Memorable and instantly recognized, many of these names still resonate around the world.

What do these names have in common?

• They embody the mission of the program within the name, such as "peace" in Peace Corps and "environmental protection" in the EPA. No head scratching with those names.

• They use short, powerful and descriptive words.

• They are easy to remember and to say, or they can easily revert to memorable acronyms.

Some nonprofit names are so powerful that their acronyms alone are universally recognizable. Just think of SPCA, EPA, AA, and AAA

NAMES WE LOVE

Teach for America

Kiva

Americorps

Feed the Children

Doctors Without Borders

World Wildlife Fund

Save the Whales

charity: water

DonorsChoose

Stand Up to Cancer

Special Olympics

Best Friends Animal Society

Save the Chimps

WHAT IS BRANDING? A NAME• Change in website address

• Change social media

• Change in stationary

• Rebranding program titles

A NOTE ON ACRONYMS

Design a name that produces a memorable acronym. Use it often, and it might turn out to be

your brand. Just like Triple AAA (American Automobile Association). Or NPR (National Public

Radio). Acronyms can also be cleverly designed to capture the essence of your mission. Just

consider M.A.D.D. (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) or CARE, once known as Cooperative for

Assistance and Relief Everywhere.

AND THE WINNERS…

WHAT IS BRANDING? A TAGLINE

That's a tagline, a short, memorable

description hopefully gets stuck in

people's brains. A good one may be used

for years to come, tossed into

conversation, long-living reminders of

the product they're attached to.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-ND

WHY USE A TAGLINE?

Taglines are created and intended to leave a lasting effect during a short encounter with the

recipient. When one is formed correctly, it will capture the overall benefit of what is being

advertised, whether it's a product, business, service or idea. A tagline offers information that can

be easily remembered. In the end, it should help the audience understand the bigger picture and

leave them enticed and wanting more.

Name Logo Tagline

THE BASICS OF YOUR BRAND

AND THE WINNERS…

The following were Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Award Winners.

Organization: Indiana Association for Community Economic Development (IACED)

Tagline: You Make a Difference…(We Make It Easier)

IACED’s tagline cuts through the clutter as it conveys the value of membership, while giving

subtle kudos to the community-focused work of member and prospect organizations.

AND THE WINNERS…

Organization: Wounded Warrior Project

Tagline: The greatest casualty is being forgotten.

This distinctive tagline from the Wounded Warrior Project provokes anger, compassion and a

desire to help, in just six words. It’s an excellent example of a mission-driven tagline.

AND THE WINNERS…

Organization: Lake Champlain International (LCI)

Tagline: Clean Water. Healthy Fish. Happy People.

Lake Champlain International’s tagline highlights the value of its work and impact by connecting

clean water with healthy wildlife and food, and satisfied swimmers and boaters. Such cause and

effect is seldom so clearly articulated by environmentalists.

BRANDING AUDIT FOR BUSY PEOPLE

Answer These Three Questions:

•Who are we?

•What do we do?

•Why do we do it better?

BRANDING AUDIT FOR BUSY PEOPLE

Does Your Name:

•Reflect your mission?

•Reflect your purpose?

•Reflect your values?

BRANDING AUDIT FOR BUSY PEOPLE

Is Your Logo:

• Aesthetically pleasing

• Distinctive

• Memorable

• Timeless

• Scalable

• Simple enough for use with multiple mediums

• Adaptable (color and black and white)

• Communicates qualities of the brand

BRANDING FOR BUSY PEOPLE

A Few Quick Branding Tips:

• Your Owned Media: Take a look through your own web presence, newsletters, annual reports and

other communications to see if you can make some simple changes by adding your tagline.

• Social Media Ions: Because this small image is what will show up in a search on social media, it

should feature your logo or name. Don’t make your audience guess if this is the right profile.

• Customize our profile: Most social media platforms offer all kinds of options to make pages your

own. It only takes a few minutes to change the color scheme and add a background image, which

will make your profile stand out.

• Brand your emails: Make sure the emails you’re using to drive people to your website and online

donation pages reflect the branding you’re trying to create. If you’re a Constant Contact customer,

you can easily upload your organization’s logo and choose colors that match your brand.

• Own a Hashtag: Registering a hashtag (#) before a keyword or phrase (no spaces between words

in that phrase) turns that phrase into a link. Clicking on that link allows you to see everyone else

who is using that hashtag. Use it often! Consider this your social media tagline.

BRANDING: THE MEDIA RELATIONS TRIFECTA

Earned Media

Paid Media

Owned Media

3 BRANDING TIPS FOR EARNED PRESS

Repeat Taglines

1

Include Boiler Plates in Your Press Releases

2

Find Friendly Blogs & Podcasts

3

THE TRIFECTA-PART 2OWNED MEDIA

Owned Media - Owned media is any

property that you can control and is

unique to your brand. Some of the most

common examples are websites, blogs,

podcasts, social media, and any

publications that your organization

publishes.This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

3 BRANDING TIPS FOR OWNED MEDIA

Make sure your taglines are front and center on your website

1

Include taglines in EVERY printed letter, newsletter and annual report

2

Make your taglines visual and memorable

3

THE TRIFECTA- PART 3PAID MEDIA

Paid Media- Advertising to promote

content in order to drive earned media, as

well as direct traffic to owned media

properties. This can include traditional

media, public service announcements or

sponsored content on social media sites like

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn

that offer advertising.

3 BRANDING TIPS FOR PAID MEDIA

Make sure advertisement includes your tagline

1

You ads should be visually appealing

(not boring)

2

Test the strength of your brand with an advertising person

3

H O W T O H A N D L E B R A N D S K E P T I C S ?D E S P I T E T H E P O S I T I V E B E N E F I T S O F B R A N D I N G F O R N O N P R O F I T S T H E R E A R E S T I L L S K E P T I C S .

GREED

First, many nonprofit leaders still widely associate branding with the commercial pursuit of

monetary gain. Brand skeptics think of the premium prices that for-profit firms charge for

brand-name products and worry that this elevation of brand over substance will debase their

work. They worry that the names of their organizations will be inflated beyond what the quality

of their work alone would support, as the pursuit of revenue becomes a goal in its own right.

They also worry that their organizations will be “selling ideas the way you sell cereal,” as Mahnaz

Afkhami of the Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace puts it.

Scholars studying nonprofit branding similarly worry about the “overcommercialization of the

[nonprofit] sector and misappropriation of techniques developed specifically for the commercial

environment.”

RESPONSE

“Every dollar raised supports the mission”

POWER

The second source of skepticism is that brand management is sometimes seen as a top-down

shortcut to avoid a participatory strategic planning process—an effort by top management to

impose greater conformity in goals and priorities. Indeed, many people we interviewed drew

contrasts between rebranding efforts and strategic planning.

These concerns can be especially great when a new leader initiates a rebranding as part of an

aggressive effort to change the way an organization works.

RESPONSE

“We will create and be committed to an inclusive branding process.”

VANITY

Third, brand skeptics sometimes worry that a focus on branding is grounded in the vanity of an

organization’s leadership rather than the needs of the organization. “I’ve seen situations in

foundations where the brand, the reputation, has become an end in itself, or just too personal to

the leadership, rather than a tool for fulfilling the mission,” says Katherine Fulton, president of the

Monitor Institute. We also found a broader concern that branding was sometimes driven by

values that are antithetical to the organization.

“Campaigns like “save a slave” seem to exploit suffering or marginalization to grab people’s

attention,” says Afkhami. Beneath both these savior-like examples lies distrust of the value that is

motivating what might be an otherwise well-intended branding effort.

RESPONSE

“Our brand exists whether we acknowledge it or not. We are not presenting ourselves as

saviors. High-quality images and branding reinforce our commitment to the mission.”

SELFISHNESS

The fourth concern skeptics have, particularly in organizations that work regularly in coalitions

and collaborations, is that one organization’s powerful brand will overshadow weaker

brands, reinforcing, rather than correcting, imbalances of power among partners. When large

nonprofits insist that joint activities conform to their idea of quality, brand management by the

larger organization can feel to the weaker organization like bullying, and these bully brands give

brand management a bad reputation.

As Ramesh Singh, former chief executive of ActionAid and now with Open Society Foundations,

notes: “There’s a tension between bigger brands and smaller brands. The bigger international

NGOs and philanthropies can (sometimes) push their own brand more, to the detriment of

other organizations that can become invisible, and it’s always resented.”

RESPONSE

“Someone has to be the thought leader in the industry, why not us?”

NOW IT’S TIME TO…

Give your

brand umph

QUESTIONS?

@

Thewritefolks.net

Boldandbrightmedia.com