Branding

What if we are making the world a better place by simply trying to raise money? In our quest to get people to raise more money, we might be making them nicer people. This is the latest social science treasure that the Turnkey resident neuropsychologist, Otis Fulton, noted to me (yelled from the kitchen).

Make sure people know what you want them to know about you. Try to control the message before it controls you.     

        

In the nonprofit fundraising world, here are some of the trends we’ll be watching for and responding to in 2015.

When making an organizational shift, we almost always want to start with a process, a thing that is easy to see and, hopefully, immediate in its impact. The place to begin, however, is with understanding the principles that are involved and operating in the situation.

I have scary news for you: Brand Experts are looking for you. These slick professionals from the commercial world see your organization the way a hungry lion sees an overweight, three-legged zebra. They’re salivating at the prospect of creating a new brand for you.

Nonprofits know they must emotionally connect with their constituents. Now, for-profit brands are focusing on emotional marketing, or as Fast Company calls it, "sadvertising."

You’ve probably heard a zillion times by now that the best marketing communications involve telling stories. Stories that define your brand. Stories that your customers/donors can readily absorb and respond to emotionally. Stories penetrate. So, are you telling stories? And how effectively?

Here’s a branding creative, Chad Cipoletti, writing on the subject, "Three Questions Every Brand’s Story Must Answer."

His questions (plus my slight rewrites) and explanations  …

Are you inward-focused or outward-focused with your marketing and fundraising?

If your organization's style standards restrict your ability to create highly emotional messages, you’re leaving money on the table. Here are seven ideas that will help your organization develop branding requirements that will make your life a lot easier:

A strong brand isn’t about having the right logo, tagline, messages or other things you’ll use to communicate. First and foremost, a strong brand is your reputation, and it emerges from your work, which has to be clear and should be excellent.

Over the past 20 years, it’s become obvious to me that a good organizational development process is critical to making sure the organization is still clear about its vision, mission, values and objectives.