Fundraising organizations, like businesses, rely on a consistent brand identity to help the public know who they are. But if you think creating that identity is somebody else's job, think again. Fundraising departments have a huge stake in an organization's style requirements.
When revenue is at stake, graphic standards should protect you, not restrict you. Here are seven ideas that will help your organization develop branding requirements that will make your life a lot easier:
1. Get a seat at the table. Style manuals are usually the province of communications departments, which is just as it should be. They are the experts at explicating the multifarious messages your brand should convey.
But communicating information is just the jumping off point for fundraisers. Our job is to knock people for an emotional loop so they'll do something completely irrational: give you money in return for nothing more than a temporary good feeling.
However, fundraising brings in the cash that makes everything else possible, so it behooves organizations to make graphic styles as fundraising-friendly as possible. So when your identity standards are being hammered out, make sure your savviest fundraisers are in on the discussion. This might be the most important silo you break down.
2. Have an acronym. Every so often I come across an organization whose standards require the entire name be spelled out every time it's used. I confess the rationale for this baffles me. Usually it's something along the lines of, "We're not that well-known, and we don't want people to be confused or have to wonder who we are."
Well, the point of an acronym is to give people a mental shortcut that helps them remember you. Why on earth would shoulder your public with the undue burden of remembering "Promote Humanistic Existentialism Worldwide" when it's so much easier for them to remember PHEW?
Oh, and just for the record, the rule for using acronyms is this: For the first occurrence, write the full name followed by the acronym in parentheses, e.g., World Trade Organization (WTO).
3. Be able to use your logo element without the name. Another rule that seems arbitrary to me is requiring that a logo element always be attached to the organization's name. Yes, this is generally a good idea, but you should always allow for some flexibility, simply because you never know how you might want to use it as time goes by.
Oftentimes, sharp designers develop logo elements that inextricably incorporate the name in a small space. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Goodwill Industries are good examples. But sometimes, when it increases impact, WWF is flexible enough to let its panda stand on its own as well.
4. Have a both a serif and a sans serif font. Sans serif can be simple and elegant, which can make the font great for headlines and short, high-impact copy. But if you want people to read more than a few lines, those little curlicues on a serifed font make it way easier for readers. There's a good reason why books and newspapers still use serif fonts.
5. Use two-color instead of three or four, and have a black-and-white version. This is simple economics. Using two colors in direct mail and other printed pieces saves you a fortune over time. And mail and print ads very often use one-color to great advantage, so make sure you have a black-and-white or gray-scale version as well.
And if somebody tells you need four-color to have maximum impact, consider Coca-Cola, McDonald's, the Red Cross and plenty of others who can counter that argument.
6. Create both horizontal and vertical versions of your logo. As time goes by, your creative team is going to come up with lots of cool ideas for stretching your identity in ways neither you nor it can imagine right now. If your creative designers don't, you might need a new creative team.
7. Do not spec small font sizes. Designers may love them, but readers do not.
It's cool to look cool, and it's clear that you should be clear. But as a fundraiser, you also have to be evocative, compelling and occasionally novel. If your organization's style standards restrict your ability to create highly emotional messages, you're leaving money on the table. There's nothing cool about that.
- Categories:
- Branding
- Companies:
- World Wildlife Fund
Willis Turner believes great writing has the power to change minds, save lives, and make people want to dance and sing. Willis is the creative director at Huntsinger & Jeffer. He worked as a lead writer and creative director in the traditional advertising world for more than 15 years before making the switch to fundraising 20 years ago. In his work with nonprofit organizations and associations, he has written thousands of appeals, renewals and acquisition communications for every medium. He creates direct-response campaigns, and collateral communications materials that get attention, tell powerful stories and persuade people to take action or make a donation.