At ConceptLink, we take our job seriously. It’s what’s allowed us to help our clients increase their brand affinity and raise millions of dollars internationally.
But, we’re also not afraid to tell (and show) you that we bring that same level of gung-ho enthusiasm to our lives outside of work, too. Take, for example, Jerryanne’s recent death-and-gravity-defying 100m plunge off the Orlando Towers in South Africa. Way to be, Jerryanne. Way to be.
Four Stages of a Nonprofit Branding Cycle
Whether you are a new organization going through the critical (and often laborious) process of finalizing your mission statement, or a mature organization trying to integrate and redefine your online and offline personality, branding is an important part of a nonprofit’s identity.
As stated in a Harvard University discussion paper, “Effective branding is becoming a central concern of leaders across the nonprofit sector as many nonprofit managers feel increasing competition from other nonprofits, for-profit businesses, and new organizations that claim to blur the boundaries between nonprofit, for-profit, and public sectors.”
With inexpensive graphics tools and exciting social media opportunities, a well designed brand image is no longer a ‘nice to have’, but of incredible value to an organization. A strong brand image conveys an appealing and consistent image across mediums, stimulates engagement, confirms credibility and ultimately motivates action and advocacy for your nonprofit.
Nonprofits that are perceived to have clear, identifiable social good values in sync with its mission are at a strategic advantage over ones with vague goals or unclear identities. There are different approaches to a successful branding process, but the main goal should be to start, or continue, a conversation to build a lasting relationship with stakeholders. Here are four stages of the branding cycle that could support your mission -
Awareness Stage – A nonprofit brand becomes a true asset when the mission and values are aligned with its brand identity and external image. For a new nonprofit, it is important to think of how, when and where will your audience learn about your brand. For a nonprofit that has been around a few years, an objective brand audit, from the perspective of your key stakeholders, and a competitor analysis is critical to know the state of your current communications and identify new branding opportunities. A strong brand’s engagement with its target audience should not be limited to form (website), place (office location) or time (launch of a campaign) and must be representative of your mission and services in any communication.
Result: A brand audit and a competitor analysis will give you a good sense of (1) the qualities that differentiate you from your competitors (2) any inconsistencies in major public-facing expressions of your brand, like the website or brochures (3) opportunities that are being under-utilized, which could lead to expanded services or increased donor pool (4) improved cohesion of your internal and external messaging and its lasting resonance.
Engagement Stage – An emblematic word for a 2012 nonprofit brand should be “engage”. What opportunities do you provide for meaningful engagement with your brand? Engaging prospective donors is no longer a job limited to the CEO or the Development Director; a donor could be talking to anyone from your board, executive staff, management, operations and even support staff. Is she hearing the message you want ‘heard’ about your brand? Will she be able to figure out your brand positioning and connect with the team via your website and social media channels?
Result: The ability to engage in an effective and timely manner will give your nonprofit a leg up, as it is often seen as a weak point for nonprofits. Increasingly, strong brand messaging encourages two-way communication, builds credibility, galvanizes support, and maintains focus on the social mission.
Preference Stage – To quote Maya Angelou, “people don’t remember what you say; they don’t remember what you do. They remember how you made them feel.” When building your brand’s story, think of the ‘educated philanthropist’ and ask why she should care about your brand. Most donors want to feel part of the cause, so your messaging has to speak the language that will inform and motivate them. With social media flourishing, people are constantly bombarded with untargeted messages. Therefore, it is all the more critical that your brand message is not adding to the noise but is clear, concise and customized for your target audience.
Result: When donors have to choose, the clarity of your brand message, quality of your engagement, and credibility of your impact will be the tipping points of that choice. While external rating systems like Charity Navigator play a big role at this stage, a savvy nonprofit brand who knows its audiences will gain a preferred status in many minds.
Action Stage – This is holy ground for your nonprofit, when your effort has to turn into results. If your previous interactions with prospects were effective, converting them into donors, advocates, volunteers, or Board Members should not be too difficult. The key point to remember is to know what to ask. Not everyone is the right fit to be a Board Member, voter, or major-gift donor. The brand affinity you have built with your prospects should be augmented with appropriate communications to gain your desired outcome.
Result: Whether your goal is a donation to an online fundraising campaign, soliciting a major-gift, or increasing Twitter followers, an appealing brand can drive action and loyalty by customizing interactions and communications.
A nonprofit branding strategy is nested in organizational strategy. Improvements in organizational capacity, reputation and social impact will affect and strengthen brand identity and any reversal of fortune could have negative brand equity as well. Integrating the entire organization and its stakeholders into the execution of the branding process as it goes through the four stages is critical for a nonprofit for realizing the brand promise.
Photos courtesy: ConceptLink and Brandxculture.com
Step Back From the Silos –
breaking down boundaries between business and social ventures
The Yale School of Management launched the 7th Annual Philanthropy Conference last week. Conversation was bustling as for-profit, philanthropy, and non-profit practitioners discussed the growing integration of the philanthropic business and social sectors.
Jed Emerson, Executive Vice President of ImpactAssets, opened the conference by encouraging both sectors to step back from their silos and reevaluate value in a way that unites the two for mutual gain. As Emerson explained, “it’s no longer necessary to view the only purpose of business to be investments that make money, or the only tools for solving social challenges to be donations and subsidy.”
Jed’s optimism for the potential of collaboration was echoed throughout the conference. Below, a few key takeaways:
- There is a dearth of rigor in the nonprofit space. Generally speaking, high net worth individuals and companies don’t place the same level of value, time, talent, and resources in their philanthropic ventures as their business projects. The consensus is not that there isn’t sufficient skill in the market place to promote sustainable social change, but simply that these resources and talents need to be harnessed for the social sector with the same level of expediency and eagerness in which the business sector employs them.
- Partnerships require a shift in thinking. As one panelist stated, “we need to stop viewing companies as evil and work instead on creating partnerships that matter.” Nonprofits are market researchers because they work in the communities they’re trying to serve, so they are in a key position to figure out how the innovations of the private sector can accomplish social goals. See a great example of this in this TED Talk with Melinda Gates.
- Metrics are essential… Some experts expressed a concern about the social sector’s fear of the term “ROI” (return on investment). Panelists argued, however, that ROI is an essential component to the theory of the triple bottom line,and should be encouraged. The key to socially-driven ROI is a market approach to valuation. What is the “value” of education? clean water? lower maternity death rates? And how are returns in these areas valued vis-à-vis monetary returns? Metrics don’t always have to be qualitative, but for the business sector to recognize the social sector as a viable partner, there needs to be more candid discussion on how philanthropic investments can benefit the bottom line.
- …as is our definition of success. Historically, one of the major definitions of a “successful” nonprofit was how little it spent on administration and overhead. This approach, formerly adopted by nonprofit watchdog groups such as Charity Navigator, implicitly assumed that a nonprofit’s value should be determined by how little it spends on itself, and, thus, how much it spends on its beneficiaries. Conference experts argued that our idea of success should be focused instead on how many – and to what degree – lives are changed. Indeed, if we’re hoping for scalability and sustainable change, it’s crucial we focus our scrutiny on an organization’s or philanthropic business venture’s ability to deliver real impact.
As we wrestle with how to maximize efficiencies for both sectors through partnership, we must keep in mind the question of accountability. Businesses answer to their investors and customers. Social ventures answer to their donors and beneficiaries. When each of these stakeholder groups are in accord, impact investing and business philanthropy have the potential for explosive change in improving lives around the globe. Support for business and social partnerships is growing – so how do we integrate these conversations into maximized impact for the sector?
Share your thoughts on business philanthropy, impact investing, or the Conference with us!
Photo credit: gnhcommunity.ning.com
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2012 – “The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models”
The 42nd annual meeting of World Economic Forum took place in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, bringing together leaders from around the globe. WEF2012 community discussions were on the troubled economy and recommendations for transformation from the world of finance, business, art, science, social, and intellectual over five days and nearly 260 sessions. 
Given the topic of ‘transformation’ many of the discussions on driving new models of growth and employment, leadership and innovation, sustainability and resources, and society and technology are very relevant to African communities.
We have distilled down some of the innovative approaches discussed at WEF2012 that are impactful and practical for today’s social entrepreneurs and not for profit leaders.
1) Even as Africa continues to face formidable challenges in the development sector, the world is undoubtedly taking note of the flourishing entrepreneurial environment and gradual liberalization of African economies. This should be great news for the well-prepared NGO or entrepreneur with good systems, efficient management and an innovative brand ready for scaling and transformation.
2) The International Monetary Fund (IMF), The Economist and other sources indicate that over the ten years to 2010, six of the 10 fastest-growing economies were in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa possesses 90% of all known world minerals and metals and Africa, outside of China and Russia, remains the single biggest growth opportunity. President of Guinea stated that African leaders “must change attitudes” and fight for their people rather than for their personal power.
3) Sustainability and impact investing are no longer buzzwords and are here to stay. With Africa emerging as an important player in the global economy, this is the perfect time for social enterprises and nonprofits to analyze their business/service model to attract and absorb the influx of investment capital and resources. Private sector assets include sectoral expertise, strategic management, social responsibility, supply chain management and “cut-through” approaches to partnerships. (WEF 2012)
4) Corporate/NGO partnerships to further sustainable solutions to social and environmental development should overtake short sighted approaches to social problems. “We need a plan which will leave us with a world in 2100 where we can proudly say I helped to create this,” said Niel Bowerman, Giving What We Can, UK.
5) The new norm for leadership must strike a balance between the old and the new. The world needs new models of collaborative leadership. Youth and women can and must play a greater part in that leadership model. (Tyler Spencer, Founder, Grassroot Project & Muhammad Yunus, Chairman of the Yunus Centre)
6) Social entrepreneurs and NGOs in a great position to facilitate inclusive growth and fostering political/business commitment to social issues. Development sector must leverage strengths of other players in the economy to move towards improved performance and accountability.
There was a call for impact over outputs and to translate words into deeds. Leaders asked for greater cooperation among countries, governments and sectors. In the closing plenary of the Annual Meeting, Klaus Schwab, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the World Economic Forum remarked, “We have to make capitalism and the free market much more responsive to social needs. If business is not serving society, then business is not sustainable.”
Non-profits must prepare its beneficiaries for “no more hand-outs but hand-ups.” (Michel Joseph Martelly, President of Haiti)
For a full library of content, videos, summaries, blog posts and highlights, please visit the World Economic Forum site
(Photos courtesy: World Economic Forum website. Quotes sourced from WEF session summaries. IMF Report)