The percentage of people in the public who have trust in nonprofits is sitting at about 56% currently, and although that's a number that appears to be stable, this number provides a very inadequate measure of confidence in the sector.
Gen Z donors are only about 25% as confident as the average donor in nonprofit organizations, and as we continue to see increased demands for more transparency with respect to ways in which nonprofits are operating (such as the adoption of AI), it becomes clear organizations can no longer rely on their mission statements to secure funding.
Nonprofits will have to carefully consider how best to market themselves to the general public through an effective nonprofit branding strategy which combines their visual identity with a deep understanding of the impact they have made to their donors and the overall financial stability of the organization.
Understanding How Donor Trust Affects Your Nonprofit Branding Strategy
Successful nonprofit branding strategies will be dependent upon how well the leadership team understands their constituents and the environment they live in. The success of any nonprofit brand strategy will depend upon a thorough understanding of public sentiment and how quickly public support can fluctuate based upon current events.
The Generational Gap in Donor Trust
The gap between donor trust in nonprofit organizations and general philanthropy is 27% and is widening. While the trust level in nonprofit organizations is stable and strong for all generations, it is increasingly common for younger generations (Generations Y and Z) to have much lower levels of trust and feel a greater amount of skepticism toward charitable organizations.
In order for nonprofit organizations to continue to bridge the generational gap, they may want to look to successful brands like St. Jude, which have consistently ranked amongst the highest in terms of public trust across all generations.
St. Jude's success is largely due to its willingness to focus solely on the impact that St. Jude has made through the years, rather than on the emotional appeals that may or may not appeal to individuals.
Adapting to Current Events and Technology
Many nonprofit organizations have seen increases in public support based on their adaptation of services in response to recent news events. For example, legal assistance services for immigrants who have entered into the US illegally have seen a 7% increase in public support. Brands that are transparent with regard to their operational focus have the best opportunity to embrace the changes associated with the public’s evolving interests.
As we enter the "artificial intelligence era," there is an increased expectation for organizations to provide transparency regarding the use of technology to support their missions. Technology has become a primary factor affecting how people view nonprofit organizations.
As more nonprofits adopt AI technologies, donors are requesting organizations to provide total transparency regarding the use of these technologies. According to recent survey results, 76% of Americans believe that nonprofits should disclose their use of artificial intelligence in its entirety.
The Importance of Public Technology Policies
Organizations that do not include technology policies in their brand guidelines pose an immediate risk. The number of Americans who have reported that they would be less likely to trust an organization that did not disclose its AI usage is 37%, while 22% view ethical technology usage positively.
As a result, it is crucial for any modern brand guide to have a public-facing technology policy that clearly states how the organization produces content. A public-facing technology policy provides protection for the brand’s equity and offers assurance to significant donors that their donations will be used ethically and responsibly.
To successfully update their nonprofit brand, organizations must follow a strict six-step process. Proceeding directly to logo creation without establishing the strategic framework for the organization’s brand will lead to a waste of resources.
Researching Your Brand and Finding Your Audience
The first step is to perform a thorough brand audit. Teams should assess their current identity, how they align with their audience, and the level of consistency in their messaging. Simple scorecards can assist leadership in clearly identifying where the brand is failing to connect with its audience.
It is important to note that audience segmentation does not simply mean looking at their basic demographic information. Organizations should identify separate messaging tracks for different types of customers, such as regular donors, corporate sponsors, daily volunteers, and community partners.
Trying to create a single general message for all these audiences will fail to motivate any of them without a targeted nonprofit branding strategy.
Creating Your Main Brand Message
The positioning statement for a nonprofit organization is the statement that outlines what the organization does, who it serves, and what distinguishes it from other similar organizations. Nonprofit organizations commonly fail to differentiate themselves by using very similar language such as “We support (insert your community)” and “We are passionate about (insert cause or mission)”.
To distinguish yourself from other local organizations in your sector, leadership must determine where other organizations occupy the same space within the community. For example, if three other local charities are using the same color scheme and claiming to have the same mission, then your unique selling proposition must emphasize a unique operational advantage.
Building a Flexible Story System
Storytelling within an organization needs to have a systematic approach, and not rely on random ideas generated by the marketing team, but rather via a structured narrative system. The narrative system defines key themes associated with each brand, accepted vocabulary in communications, and specific proof points to support the organization’s mission.
Donor conversion rates increase when an organization’s stories are based on verifiable data. The narrative system provides a clear framework for evaluating proposed marketing campaigns. If any proposed marketing strategy does not adhere to the approved structure of the story, the proposed campaign will be rejected.
Designing Your Look and Choosing the Right Tools
The strong strategic foundation created must be converted into recognizable visual elements. Visual consistency across digital platforms and traditional print media establishes maturity within your organization to potential funders.
Keeping Your Design the Same Everywhere
Visual identity consists of logo development, typography, color palette selection, and image selection. An organization with inconsistent visual designs appears chaotic and financially insecure to potential donors. Everyone in the organization must understand how to use the visual identity properties correctly.
To eliminate this confusion, a brand book needs to be created. The brand book should contain strict guidelines regarding logo usage, acceptable color schemes, etc., and removes subjective input from design decisions.
Storing and Using Your Design Files
To effectively manage all visual identity elements, it is critical to have the right technology solution in place. Attempting to store all logo files on personal desktop computers creates a significant challenge when attempting to manage multiple versions of logos. Dedicated asset management tools like Smartsheet and Brandfolder help organizations centralize their files.
A consistent brand presence across donation platforms, such as GoFundMe Pro, Zeffy, OneCause, and Anedot, is critical to the success of campaigns. It is essential for the branding team to ensure that the checkout experience on any donation platform closely resembles that of the organization's primary website.
Overcoming Internal Team Challenges
Internal resistance, misaligned expectations, and a lack of governance are the primary reasons why branding initiatives fail rather than poor design.
Board members may have differing opinions on subjective design changes, resulting in delays of months before an organization can proceed forward. Executives need to create conversations that minimize personal preference and emphasize sound audience data and strategic objectives.
A clearly articulated decision-making guideline will help to reduce delays associated with creating the board's agreement on the target audience and positioning, allowing all subsequent design choices to be viewed as a strategy-based decision, not a personal preference.
Aligning Marketing and Program Staff
Marketing and program staff groups within an organization tend to have a difference of opinion regarding how the organization's work should be depicted to the public. Program staff members will focus on technical accuracy and marketing staff will focus on the emotional connection and engagement of the organization with its supporters.
A formalized review process can bring the two groups together, and developing a shared messaging matrix will allow each group to agree upon how to distill complex program data accurately and effectively simplify it without omitting accurate information.
Protecting Beneficiaries with Ethical Consent
Protecting the dignity of beneficiaries through ethical storytelling and obtaining consent from the beneficiaries to share their stories of impact must always be a priority for organizations. Organizations must have robust consent workflows in place. Parental consent is required.
To prove ethical storytelling and create continued brand loyalty on the part of your consumers, you must acquire written consent and clearly define the period to which this consent applies when using photographs, images, or stories related to consumers. It is your responsibility to share the consent structure with all representatives of your organization.
Measuring the Success of Your Nonprofit Branding Strategy
Leadership must prepare for measuring the increase in growth associated with their branding initiatives by ensuring a direct correlation between brand initiatives and specific growth metrics. For example, vague phrases such as "increasing brand awareness" will not be acceptable; the improvements in the brand's performance need to be connected to specific metrics.
Setting Goals Before You Launch
As part of the process of launching a new brand, teams should conduct a thorough audit of all established baseline metrics related to their brand. Key performance indicators will include: web traffic referrals, email open rates, the value of earned media mentions, etc.
Brand Awareness Surveys
Brand awareness surveys serve as a foundational reporting tool for tracking the success of your branding strategies. The results of these surveys before and after the campaign will provide you with an accurate measurement of how consumers' views of your brand have evolved since the launch of your campaign.
How Good Branding Brings in Money
There are numerous marketing firms, such as Prosper Strategies, that continue to document the financial success of well-defined branding strategies. When companies like Feeding America refine their brand positioning, they often see significant financial impacts (on average a 17.1% increase in contributions and grants).
The Earthfire Institute experienced increased fundraising revenues of over 400% following the re-strategization of their corporate message. SeriousFun Children’s Network reported a 19.8% increase in financial support after updating their corporate identity. Comer Education Campus reported a 13.8% increase in their year-over-year fundraising efforts following the successful implementation of a new communications plan.
Planning Your Rollout Based on Your Budget
Every business models agencies differently so we must execute by our current staff capacity and financial resources.
Simple Steps for Small Nonprofits
Businesses with zero to five thousand dollars ($0-$5,000) should adopt a do-it-yourself approach to their branding initiation. Their emphasis should be only on updating the core messaging, while ensuring the basic visual consistency of their business.
Such businesses likely have access to inexpensive fundraising platforms such as Zeffy, and can use easily accessible platforms to create simple brand guideline templates. The objective is to minimize confusion with prospect donors, rather than to receive awards for design.
Steps for Medium and Large Nonprofits
Often organizations that fall between small- and large-size (mid-tier) are operating with fragmented and inconsistent communication across all regions. As budgets increase into five thousand dollars ($5,000-$25,000) the primary focus should be the unification of tone, along with the development of comprehensive brand books that govern the individual regional chapters.
Enterprise-sized businesses need to involve all stakeholders as well as conduct in-depth market research before transitioning their brands. They usually engage specialized external agencies to assist with their new nonprofit branding strategy. Agencies such as Mission Minded, Whole Whale, Briteweb, HelpGood, and Elevation have the appropriate social sector expertise to successfully navigate the complexities of high-profile brand transitions.
Final Thoughts on Leading Your Brand
To develop strategic imperatives for nonprofit brand leadership prior to obtaining long-term funding, it is essential that organizations go beyond simply establishing a great mission. Organizations need to view brand equity as an asset requiring the establishment of operational discipline, continual management and data-based positioning, and strict internal governance.
Executive teams can remove the subjectivity of decision-making by implementing structured frameworks, as well as by developing clear, consistent measurement standards. Creating an absolute commitment to total transparency around new technologies and ethical storytelling is a natural way to bridge the generational gap of trust.
Nonprofit organizations that successfully apply these core strategies will ultimately excel in acquiring donors, expanding public awareness, and achieving measurable financial growth relative to their peers.
Q&A: Perfecting Your Nonprofit Branding Strategy
How can we develop baseline brand awareness measures if we don’t have the funds for costly research studies?
Begin with the information you already have. Track the organic search volume of your organization’s name, and also track the direct traffic to your website. Monitor the amount of engagement your organization is receiving via social media after 90 days. Another quick, low-cost option would be to send out a simple email survey to your existing subscribers asking them to identify your core mission from a list of choices, in order to determine message clarity.
What is the best way to align marketing and program teams during a rebrand initiative (business name change)?
Prior to doing any design work, create a shared messaging matrix. Both program directors and marketing team members should collaborate to create the primary proof points of the organization together. Once both departments have agreed on the foundational data and on the exact language used to describe the services, then both departments can proceed with their individual marketing efforts mutually supporting one another.
What is the right way to go about branding when you are in recovery from a crisis in trust?
Recovery means being completely transparent about your operations, rather than marketing polish. As soon as possible, make your governance policies, financial structure, and impact reports available and public. Focus your communication efforts on the most engaged members of your existing community first. As research shows, it’s faster to rebuild a baseline of trust through direct engagement than by waiting to launch a broader public outreach campaign.
What impact do direct engagement campaigns have on long-term brand equity?
Direct engagement is the most significant driver of ongoing public confidence. Research shows that 60% of individuals who engage with your organization directly through volunteerism or attendance at local events, or through advocacy, have much higher levels of confidence. Therefore, the branding strategy must place an emphasis on turning passive digital followers into active participants in the real world.