February 22nd, 2008
Branding the Non-Profit
I’ve been working with several national non-profits lately, helping them to refine or redefine their brands. Many non-profits don’t think of themselves as needing a brand — they’ve ingested the "because we’re good, they will come" Kool-Aid.
Too bad that the world doesn’t work that way anymore–if it ever did. An interesting article in Shelterforce Online, has this true/false quiz:
Our organization understands the value of
raising the visibility of its brand among
clients, constituents, policy-makers and
funders.
Audiences we’d like to reach clearly
understand who we are and what we do.
Our brand generates a positive feeling
about our organization to the point that
people trust and respect what we say and
do, and therefore want to help, support
and do business with us.
Unless you can answer TRUE to each of these statements, your non-profit probably can’t respond effectively to the question, "so what does your organization do?" Seemingly simple, but it’s surprising how tongue-tied most of us get when the brand itself is unclear.
