Branding in non-profits
If you are a fund raiser or a non-profit development director the last thing you want to hear is that your prospective donor does not want to contribute to your cause. The second worst thing is when they say they were interested in the cause but they didn’t understand your mission and now it is too late for this year’s budget.
The second case is where strategic branding and marketing programs can ensure that all your constituencies have a clear understanding of who you are, what you provide and why they should care. Most agencies start with a small group of donors and many of those people are brought in by the founders. But as time goes by, the services they provide to deliver on their mission grows and sometimes so do the number of people they support. At that point word of mouth is less effective because not everyone served by the agency receives all the services. Even if they are happy and speak highly of the agency, they may not be sharing the story the way you need it to be told.
There are no better ambassadors for the agency than happy recipients of your support and no better attractor of good employees than the happy employees you currently have. But it is also important for the agency to tell an ongoing story about its mission, how they fulfill on it and why it has value to the community. One of the best brand executives I knew in the for profit world once told me, “We don’t have to bother positioning our brand, our competitors will be very happy to do it for us.”
Although non-profits in the community tend to be a little less competitive, the best group to define and communicate your brand story is your development team with support and guidance from the functional executives. They can help you ensure your messages are clear, support the mission and are targeted effectively. The important thing is for the full executive team to realize this is an important task for everyone and provide input as needed on a timely basis.
Once the messaging is established a plan can be made to deliver it. Today this is often delivered in person, through traditional media and through digital media. The important thing is for the agency to make a proactive plan for ongoing dialogue with its constituents, execute it and get feedback. If you can’t afford formal feedback, make a point of identifying individuals in each constituency and collect informal feedback from them.
The information from the marketplace will be critical to fine tuning the messaging and ensuring that you are using the appropriate media vehicles. It will also be the source of new creative ideas so you can grow audience size and ensure your “brand” is clearly understood by everyone.