Does your organization have a recognizable, unique and sustainable brand? Your brand is not your name, logo, and website – your brand is how others perceive your organization. Both pubic and privately funded institutions have a responsibility to the public and require community approval and support for their actions. In particular, philanthropic organizations that rely on the pubic for financial contributions are directly accountable for their program and expenditures.
Too often nonprofit organization leadership assumes the public image of the work and value of the programs and services is self-apparent to the public. Until an effort has been made to assess how your organization is perceived, you may be missing a significant part of your target audience – or in some cases sending a message that is totally misunderstood by potential donors and supporters.
In this short article, Dr. Lucille Maddalena will share her experience working with nonprofits during the past twenty years. She provides guidelines and suggestions to help you build a Brand Team that will assess how your organization is viewed and build the brand name you need based upon your organization’s Mission Statement.
Learn how to ask the right questions to clearly define the purpose and scope of your brand, and then develop a set of best practices that will guide the implementation of a unique and sustainable brand for your organization. Developing your organization’s brand will enable your target audience to understand the organization’s mission and engage their support to achieve its goals.
Branding for the Nonprofit Organization
By Lucille Maddalena, Ed.D.
www.pgresources.com
WHAT IS A BRAND?
Your nonprofit’s brand is much more than its name, logo, or the services it offers. It is what others think, share and feel about the organization: it is the impression people have of your work that influences their response to every message sent, action undertaken and project supported by your organization. The well-known phrase “perception is reality” may best describe the concept. 