At its core, branding is all about differentiation. It’s about identifying what makes you unique and then showing that off to the rest of the world. At a time when funding and grant money is increasingly harder to secure, differentiation is a nonprofit’s greatest tool.
Hopefully (as an exercise in self evaluation) we’ve all asked ourselves some variation of the question: Why should a foundation or donor or volunteer give their time or money to your organization over another?
If you’ve followed any of our workshops or writings, you should know the answer to this. If not, here’s another freebie: your brand is your promise. It’s not just a logo or a flashy website or a nice color palette paired with attractive type. It represents the soul of your organization. It tells your story. It evokes an emotional (albeit sometimes subconscious) response from everyone who encounters it. It gets people involved and connected to your work.
So when someone cares about keeping oceans clean and wants to make a donation to the cause, you want to ensure that they are going to chose your organization. You’re the one that’s different, the one that connects with them. You have an added value that no one else in your field has, and your showing it to them. You’re making them feel it.
Research has shown the impact that successful branding and marketing has on a nonprofit’s fundraising, and it’s impressive. Nonprofits with the largest operating budgets are spending the greatest percentage of their budget on branding and positioning compared to others in their field. This correlation is not a coincidence. They are doing something right. Their spending on these strategies is paying off, and they have the track records to prove it. (The State of Nonprofit Marketing: A Report on Priorities, Spending, Measurement, and the Challenges Ahead.)
When budgets are tight, it makes sense that intuition tells us to conserve, and give every last penny to our programs. Trust us, we understand the concern of not delivering to your beneficiaries. After all, that’s the bottom line, right? As it should be. But you’re not going to be able to deliver anything to them if your funding has dried up by the third quarter in 2010. Branding is an investment, but differentiation these days is priceless.
So go ahead, give yourself an edge over competitors (yes, competition exists in the nonprofit world too, and no, it’s not a dirty word). Stand out. Set yourself apart. Fly your freak (think individual) flag as high as you can. If ever there was a time to invest in branding, now is it. Your organization’s survival may depend on it.
More Resources:
Branding Matters, by Social Edge
(see last two sections)
Image Credit: Th@nen@h