Branding

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.

In this feature, "Tag(line), You're It," from September 2007, copywriter and creative consultant Richard DeVeau explains why that little statement underneath your organization's name has to be powerful and to the point.

Hat tip to Oreo for its relevant marketing during Sunday's 30-minute Super Bowl blackout. Relevance rules! But where were nonprofits? Radio silence on the social channels, ideal for right-things, right-now marketing. Take a look at the possibilities: The Oreo marketing team posted this photo ad on its Facebook page within a few minutes of the blackout. It was exactly the right message for viewers at  exactly the right moment.

So you may be asking yourself, what does an ancient Greek genius have to do with my nonprofit? At first glance, not a whole lot, but a nonprofit could learn a thing or two from one of history’s brightest minds. When it came to rhetorical persuasion, Aristotle believed that an effective argument encompassed three critical components — ethos, logos, and pathos.

“From the minute the first elevator zoomed up in 1853, people have been polishing their elevator pitches. The idea was that if the big prospect ever strode into your elevator, you’d be able to  smoothly explain your organization and your role there by the time you reached your floor.”

But that elevator pitch is dead, and you need to take a radically new approach. Here’s why, and how:

Listen in as some of fundraising's freshest thinkers take on some of the sector's toughest topics — the things that should be top of mind in the new year.

If we don't figure out how to differentiate ourselves in the minds of our donors, and then prove to them over and over again that their confidence is not misplaced, we're on a collision course with failure.

The new Smithsonian Institution branding campaign, “Seriously Amazing,” makes a central bet: Visitors and would-be visitors across the country have questions, and the Smithsonian has answers.

Its icon is a question mark, and it features red, green and spacesuit-silver characters, all asking for info:

What has given us water from Mars and daggers from India?”

“How is hip-hop like the microchip?”

“What exactly does a bear do in the woods?”

The $1.4 million campaign, which has been two years in the making, launched Thursday with a preview for staff, regents and directors, and a new website.