Issue 2: Brand Trust

About two years ago when our new CEO came onboard, he set up a meeting with me to learn more about the work I was doing. At that point, I had a mishmash of obligations that touched on product integrations, consultant referrals, and industry relationships with entities like Giving USA and the National Council of Nonprofits.?

“You’re going to focus on corporate brand,” he said.?

“Great, what the hell is that?”

I quickly learned that brand is not the things that are produced or the visuals that get put on websites or the marketing activities that are done to make people aware about a company or nonprofit.?

Brand is trust.?

It is the work that goes into telling the story of who you are and what you do. And I’ve seen many important discussions happening about brand, trust, and the ways this can be broken when a nonprofit’s leadership misunderstands what that actually means.?

In today’s newsletter, I wanted to set some foundational insights into what brand is and how it can build trust. If you’re interested in what I feel is the best articulation of brand in or outside of the nonprofit sector, then I’d highly recommend watching Marty Neumier’s video explanation on the subject .?

Generosity in Action

Visual storytelling is going to become one of the most important investments that a nonprofit can make to assist in establishing a clear narrative around their brand and the trust it should instill for its audience. Yet, many nonprofits overthink what exactly needs to go into making a video story.?

That’s why I was excited when our community member Julia Ramer, Development and Communications Coordinator at Groundwork Jacksonville, shared the following YouTube video in our Slack channel.

Here’s how she described it in her own words:

This is Groundwork Jacksonville's 2023 Year in Review video, showcasing some of our successes throughout the last year. We cover a lot of ground here in Jacksonville (no pun intended!) so it's nice to be able to share a recap with our donors and supporters to really drive home all of the amazing things that we accomplished together during the year. This video was really fun for me to make! I joined the organization in May of 2023 so I was only around for a little over half of the year. I enjoyed adding the things that happened before I joined the team to the video, and then transitioning to photos that I had taken myself of activities I was directly a part of! It's a reminder to me about how far GWJAX has come as an organization in just one year, as well as how far I've come in my personal journey with GWJAX.

Tips & Tricks

Mission statements get a bad rap. They tend to be argued extensively about in meeting after meeting when they are being designed but then don’t get translated into practical applications. Let’s look at one practical change you can make today to get your mission more front and center in communicating your brand’s uniqueness.

Your mission should be front and center on your nonprofit website and online donation pages. If it’s not already, the launch of a new mission statement is a great reason to redesign your website.?

An excellent solution for nonprofits who already have a mission statement as their website’s focal point and for those who cannot redesign their website is the use of pop-ups or banners.

This is a website feature that creates a temporary message at either the very top of a webpage (banner) or that occludes your screen until you close it (pop-up). If you go this route, be very selective about which pages you include banners or pop-ups, it can be irritating to a user to see the same pop-up on every page of your website.

This example of a popup banner on Mikva Challenge’s website is a great example. It stands out by being a separate color from the rest of the webpage but is not invasive to the reader. You can also easily close it by clicking the x. As with any website update, make sure that you’re creating an accessible experience for all users, including those with disabilities.?

Data Dive

I recently stumbled upon a fascinating read titled "Nonprofit Brand Strength: What Is It? How Is It Measured? What Are Its Outcomes?" by Walter Wymer, Hellen P. Gross, and Bernd Helmig. Since academic journals are, unfortunately, usually cost-prohibitive for weird reasons , I asked my network to help me get access and wanted to summarize a bit for your benefit.?

The article introduces the idea of nonprofit brand strength. It's defined as how well-known, favorably perceived, and remarkable a nonprofit brand is to its target audience. I found it to be an interesting expansion on the usual framing as “brand is just the logo.”

The authors identify three dimensions of brand strength:

• Familiarity: How well the brand is known.
• Attitude: How favorably the brand is viewed.
• Remarkability: The brand's ability to stand out from its peers.

Let’s break this down a bit further.

Familiarity: How Well the Brand is Known

Familiarity in the context of nonprofit brand strength is about the level of awareness and recognition a brand holds within its target audience. This dimension assesses how readily the nonprofit is recalled and recognized by potential donors, beneficiaries, and the general public. A high degree of familiarity suggests that the nonprofit's brand is prominent in the minds of its stakeholders, making it easier for the organization to engage in successful fundraising and advocacy efforts. Familiarity is crucial because it lays the foundation for a nonprofit's ability to effectively communicate its mission and attract support.

Attitude: How Favorably the Brand is Viewed

Attitude reflects the overall perception and sentiment held by the audience towards a nonprofit brand. This dimension isn't just about knowing the brand; it's about how the brand is perceived in terms of positivity, trustworthiness, and relevance. A favorable attitude toward a nonprofit brand means that the audience views the organization positively, trusts its operations, and believes in its cause. This positive perception is vital for building long-term relationships with supporters, influencing public opinion, and enhancing the organization's ability to mobilize resources and support for its initiatives.

Remarkability: The Brand's Ability to Stand Out from Its Peers

Remarkability is about the uniqueness and distinctiveness of a nonprofit brand in comparison to others in the sector. It involves how the brand differentiates itself, captures attention, and remains memorable in the minds of its audience. A remarkable nonprofit brand is one that stands out for its unique approach, innovative solutions, or impactful storytelling. This dimension is essential for establishing a strong brand identity, differentiating the organization in a crowded market, and creating lasting impressions that resonate with the audience and inspire action.

In summary, your nonprofit should think about brand in a holistic and connected way. The reality is that people unfamiliar with your work will contextualize it against what others do.?

So how can one begin that process? Let’s explore in the next section.?

Community Spotlight

Earlier this week I put out a poll to gauge people’s thoughts on uniqueness in nonprofits and received an interesting question relating to whether a focus on this aspect would force nonprofits to think about their work in more competitive ways to stand out with funders.?

I thought this was a very fair question and I’m going to drill into how to position a nonprofit’s unique theory of change tomorrow and Friday in more detail, but here’s my take.

Your nonprofit should not strive to be the best. That inherently frames things in competitive terms. Instead, think about the things that only you do.

Strive to be the only nonprofit that does what you do and why it matters most to your community of generosity. What’s the secret sauce in how you solve problems? Starting with a deep reflection of your self-worth will always give you more strength than comparing yourself to others.?

Upcoming Events

?? Raise your hand if you’re tired of webinars??

The team at Neon One certainly is, so when Abby Jarvis outlined her vision for 2024 around changing things up, I was fully onboard. We’re going to get way more hands-on this year and focus less on lecture-style content that has little immediate bearing on the work that you are doing.?

First up is our February 7 webinar on nonprofit homepage design. Your homepage is the best opportunity to make a great impression on anyone who visits your nonprofit’s website. But what on earth should it actually include??

?Join our inaugural Nonprofit Tech Circle session to find out! On Wednesday, February 7 from 1:00-1:30 p.m. EST, you’ll learn about:

• Key content types to include on your homepage
• Must-have design elements
• Tips for creating great user experiences

You’ll also see real-life examples of great homepages and receive a .PDF checklist you can use as you build your own page. After the session, join us in the Connected Fundraising Slack community to continue the conversation, share ideas, and ask more questions.

If you want to revamp your website’s homepage, this session is for you—see you there!

??????????????????????????????????????

Final Thoughts

Trust is one of the hardest things to build and the easiest thing to destroy if you are not careful. We see this all the time in our personal lives, where relationships are damaged because people were doing things that violated the core understanding of the relationship.

While I think it can be problematic to take things too far when it comes to making direct connections between relationships in our personal life and the ways that we think about donors, there are core lessons to be learned from just being a good and kind person and applying that to work you are doing with your nonprofit’s brand.?

Embrace that brand is trust-building and that every single action you take, either in the physical or digital world, will either work to establish trust or to mitigate it. And most times, people who support your nonprofit won’t actively distrust your organization if you don’t engage them. They’ll simply fade away and stop thinking about you as a primary way that they can trust the things they care about will get solved in the world.?

Nonprofits who embrace that brand building is trust building will stand out. It doesn’t mean your organization is doing expensive visual rebrands to build trust. It means that you’re putting people first and then working on the experience that builds that trust.

In a nutshell, that is what we mean about designing magical generosity experiences.?

Till next time…

Puzzle of the Week