By Melissa Tatge

Over the last decade, branding has picked up steam in the nonprofit world. Great branding goes beyond your logo, typography, and color palette, but should also define the personality of your organization through consistent messaging and appropriate word choices. Some smaller nonprofits may think that branding is not for them, or that they can’t afford to develop their brand. However, teams who don’t define and nurture their organization’s brand are going to get left behind. A well-defined brand can help nonprofits achieve all their goals much more efficiently. As an investment, spending more on brand building earlier is ultimately cost-effective over time. Here’s a quick take on why nonprofit organizations should invest their brand. 

1. Develop clear, consistent communications.

Defining brand requires your team to look closely at who you are and what you are saying, and to commit to being consistent with all your communications. Not only will this present a clear picture of your organization to anyone your staff, volunteers, or board members come into contact with, but the message will always be the same. That’s how you begin to build a strong brand which will….

2. Win more eyeballs and help people remember you.

A solid brand strategy that is also well-executed creates communications that look great and are guaranteed to win hearts as well as minds because they are a true reflection of the organization. Strive to be unforgettable so that you can…

3. Raise more money and increase engagement.

Community engagement and increased donorship are tops on the list for nonprofits. The more trust a person has in a brand, the more likely they will continually engage and give. And of course this will enable you to…

4. Make a bigger impact.

Yup, you get it—everything builds on the last thing. The bigger brand share you’ve got… the more donors / volunteers / partners / constituents / recruits you have… the more money you raise. All this adds up to being able to do the work your mission calls for! And things begin to get easier, which inevitably enables you to…

5. Achieve long-term savings.

When you do things correctly from the beginning, it pays off as time goes on. If  you make the investment into building a strategy, defining your brand, creating a corporate identity and design system, and developing a messaging strategy now, you will need to spend less later because the work is done—you’ve built your foundation. You’ve got a brand and messaging guide that your team and contractors work from, making it easy peasy. Whoever is running the next initiative has lots to use and build upon, saving time and money.