Branding

City Harvest of New York City took a leap of faith when it decided to expand its anti-hunger programs. Teamwork and strong branding helped raise the funds it needed to be successful. The collaborative approach to developing messaging not only helps secure the City Harvest brand, but it creates an easier transition as donors mature in their relationship with the organization.

At this year’s Sustainable Brands conference, you could find answers about how brands can evolve in order to thrive in the 21st century and meet the needs of today’s consumers and donors. Here are 10 factors that drive sustainable brand success.

To measure the effectiveness of a brand based on a single channel or a single campaign strategy is a terrible mistake. And, honestly, I'd like to see the media report on what matters — not just something that has a shock factor.

The biggest mistake people make in brand storytelling is they forget the party shaping your brand story is the person experiencing the brand — and not your marketing department. Bad brand storytelling is simply stating a vision or mission statement, spewing jargon that describes what you do rather than why it matters to someone else, or not interesting. Good brand storytelling is telling stories that emotionally plunge your audiences right in the middle of your cause and stir them with your value to others. It has a heartbeat.

Funny how such a simple, five-letter word (brand) can be so complex and so much more than just a logo.

In in August 2010 Easier Said Than Done column, "You're Not Nike — Get Over It," Jeff Brooks pulls no punches in reminding fundraisers that corporate-style branding hurts nonprofits and flattens fundraising.

In her To the Point column from the June 2009 issue, fundraising and marketing maven Katya Andresen addressed the problem of being "Brand Slammed" and outlined what to do when you've been dissed online. The key is to respond quickly, honestly and appropriately.

In keeping with our big-picture case study theme for the Engage Conference, it feels appropriate to look back on a rebranding effort that combined innovative strategies and a development department overhaul by the ASPCA. In our April 2006 cover story, "Fundraising Unleashed!" FS Editor-in-Chief Margaret Battistelli Gardner spoke with Jo Sullivan, then the VP of development and communication at ASPCA and now a fundraising consultant and co-chair of the FS Editorial Advisory Board, about how ASPCA stays ahead of the curve in fundraising.

In the June 2008 issue, Katya Andresen put on her Marketing Maven cap to answer some tough questions in "Dear Marketing Maven … "

I'm gearing up for tonight's season finale of the quirky little Betty White sitcom, "Hot in Cleveland," so here's an Editor's Note from the October 2010 issue where I managed to include the inimitable Ms. White and the branding/communications lessons fundraisers can learn from her.