Top Tips for Successful Branding of your Nonprofit

When people start nonprofit organization, branding is never a major concern at the inception stages. The thoughts of the individual are consumed with a burning desire to improve the world or change a particular situation that will in turn leave the world a better a place. But once the nonprofit picks up steam, branding become inevitable as there is need to attract the right kind of donors to help the organization meet its goals.

Additionally, branding becomes imperative to gain the support of the public also in standing together with the nonprofit in its endeavors. But since most of the nonprofit founders are not well versed with the intrigues that rule the marketing and branding spheres, they end up creating a logo and think that would be sufficient to meet their branding needs.

In as much as logo is a good starting point for branding a nonprofit, more is required and below are top tips for successfully branding a nonprofit organization.

Differentiate yourself

By differentiating yourself or the nonprofit, you are showing the world how you are different from the other nonprofit organization in your industry. You need to demonstrate what the nonprofit will be offering differently and how you will be doing it so that you convince potential donors that they, indeed, deserve to support your cause and not your competitors. Differentiate yourself by having a clear mission, vision and goals that no other nonprofit is currently focusing on.

Personalize the organization

Personification is something which can no longer be ignored when it comes to branding nonprofit organizations. Personification makes supporters feel part and parcel of the organization, for instance, by allowing supporters to create their pages on the organization websites to post their photos and stories, they will feel more welcome and it will be easy for them to help drive the agenda of the organization forward.

Still on personification, the nonprofit can give donor various options of the projects they would like to invest in. Essentially, this is simply feeding the donors ego by letting them think that they have control and they can choose where to channel their donations, based purely on their personal preferences.

Engage the stakeholders

For you to brand your nonprofit successfully, you must engage those who are truly passionate about your activities or mission. You should learn how to identify the stakeholders in the industry and also other individuals who would be interested in supporting the activities you are undertaking. But this does not meant that you should close the door to any other person who would be willing to talk to you but is not in your industry. Keep your doors open and engage as many people as possible.

Refine your message thoroughly

Just like branding in any other business, you must have a compelling user selling point to attract the attention of the target audience. In charity branding, your user selling point should be your organization’s main message. While branding the nonprofit, the message should not just be a tagline to accompany the organization’s logo. It should be clearly crafted, simple, meaningful, and powerful and compelling enough to tell the potential donors what the organization is all about while at the same time giving them a reason to channel their resources towards the missions of the nonprofit.

Use the power of story telling

Story telling has a way of creating strong connection between people in different places and under different situations. Nonprofit organizations usually deal with global issues, but sometimes they concentrate in certain specific areas or regions. By using story telling effectively, the nonprofits develop the ability to highlight their concerns in a more subtle way and attract the right donors, who are able to connect with the situations or problems depicted in the stories.

Unleash the power of volunteers and the social media

At this current age of advanced digital technology, it goes without saying that every serious nonprofit organization should be participating actively in the social media platforms. Nonprofits can harness the power of social media to build a decent amount of followers, whom they can then ask for volunteers who would be interested in furthering the course of the organization. Definitely, there will be individuals passionate about the organization and who would love to share more about the organization in the social media. If you can get a good number of such volunteers, you can have a social media marketing team that can increase the popularity of the organization in the internet leading to the discovery and acquisition of more donors.

Consistency

Finally, with all the branding strategies you will have in place for the nonprofit organization, implementation must be on a consistent basis. Disjointed branding efforts will just work for the short time, but for longevity and good results in the long run, branding the nonprofit must never stop.

Learn about these top trends in business card designs!