6 Ways Boards Are Critical to a Nonprofit’s Brand

1. Prioritize the Brand

Having a strong brand is fundamental for long-term success. The brand must be easy to understand, appealing, and motivating. If people don’t know what you do and how well you do it, they are not going to support you. Boards make it possible for an organization to build and maintain a brand by allocating the resources needed. Whether marketing is done in-house or with the help of a consultant, the board must budget sufficient money to ensure success.

If the brand is important to the board, it will be important to staff, donors, and clients. By ensuring that systems and resources are in place to reinforce the brand, the board ensures its continuity and strength.

2. Be Part of Brand Development

Boards help define the organization’s brand — its mission, vision, values, and brand promise. The board can participate by taking an active part in the branding process. Boards should be involved in developing and approving key deliverables, such as a new name, visual identity, or mission statement, and ensure that appropriate trademark protection is secured.

3. Protect the Brand from Internal Threats

The board must ensure that there is a brand guideline manual and that all communications materials reflect the standards laid out in the manual. By making consistency a priority, your team will not inadvertently erode your brand. 

For organizations that have chapters or affiliates, pay attention to the relationship between the parent entity and others that use the brand. Parent organizations need to clearly articulate how their brand is to be used (and not used), provide guidelines and training to those using the brand, and monitor for misuse.

Affiliate organizations need to be mindful of using the national brand appropriately and setting guidelines for adapting the brand locally within the national standards.

4. Protect the Brand from External Threats

External threats come from people — including your supporters — who may use your logo or other brand identifiers in an inappropriate manner, or other organizations that usurp or infringe on your name or logo. 

The board must also examine any potential mergers, partnership arrangements, or cause-marketing deals to ensure that the arrangements are mutually beneficial and that the organization’s brand won’t be misappropriated or harmed in any way. Make sure that all partnership arrangements are with entities with similar values and interests. Don’t enter into agreements — no matter how financially tempting — that contradict the mission and values of your organization. Spell out all the details of how your name, logo, and other brand elements will be used.

5. Leverage the Brand

Smart organizations know that their brand reflects their entire organization and that branding, marketing, and fundraising support each other. Each of these departments has touchpoints with the public — clients, donors, media, volunteers — and each touchpoint should reinforce the brand. 

Boards can ensure that all departments — particularly development and marketing — support each other. Boards need to understand the many skills, roles, and positions within the organization affect and support their marketing efforts. They need to put systems and teams in place to ensure brand cohesion. 

6. Speak Up for the Brand

Board members must be brand ambassadors. Their job is to enthusiastically spread the word, raise funds, and serve as the chief cheerleaders for the organization. To do so, they must be able to confidently and passionately talk about the value and impact of the organization. A strong brand makes it easier for them to do so by providing clear, concise language and a message that board members are proud to convey.

Previously published online in Candid.

1. Provide Sufficient Information

Hiring a consultant can provide the expertise that you don’t have in-house, but that doesn’t mean that you can take a backseat role. No one knows your organization as well as you do, and you’ll need to be highly involved in the project. Good consultants will engage you in that process. They will want to understand the essence of your entity, elicit ideas, and bring information together in new ways to generate insights.

To do so, the consultant will want to review information about your organization and talk with many people, from clients to board members. Make sure that you can supply the relevant documents and that stakeholders can set aside time to talk.

2. Have a Clear Process

Whether developing a strategic plan or a brand, it’s important to know what you are aiming for and how you will get there. Your consultant should provide the roadmap that they will use to engage your team through an iterative process that includes key stakeholders.

That plan should include the key activities, milestones, and outcomes for each step in the process. Clarify who will be involved in each phase, who will make the decisions, when they will make them, and when deliverables are due. Your job is to provide the appropriate information, context, and ideas, provide feedback on the work presented, and make decisions so the project can move forward.

3. Understand How Decisions Will Be Made

Decisiveness keeps projects moving forward. Put a plan in place that ensures decisions can be made in a timely manner. To facilitate this, you’ll need to decide in advance who will give feedback and how, who will make the final decision, and how that decision will be made. This includes considerations for how the board will be involved in the process — what discussions and presentations will happen and what decisions they will make.

Also, consider whether key decisions will be made if not everyone can attend a meeting or if a conscious determination will be made to delay the project to include everyone.

4. Presenting to the Board

Even if intermediate decisions have been delegated to a committee or staff, keeping the board involved as the project moves forward increases the board’s buy-in and eases the way for final approval. My clients have found it helpful to have me make a presentation to the board at key points in the project. Getting information from an outside expert can help the board move past insularity. Also, because I’ve done the research and looked at alternative approaches, I can answer questions or provide additional context to facilitate decision-making.

However, there is a flip side to this. For some organizations, the better choice is to have committee members, not the consultant, make presentations to the board, to gain the trust of others. Having a board member who has bought into the concept present to the board can be an effective way to show that there is internal support for the initiative. Assess your organizational culture and determine which route will be most effective in gaining the trust needed to get buy-in for ideas.

5. Build Your Project Team

For very small nonprofits, a project team may be one or two people. For larger organizations, team members should represent a variety of stakeholders, such as executive-level staff, a member of the board, and perhaps, some frontline staff members.

Members of the team should be willing to express their ideas and listen to the ideas of others. They should also understand and support the overall goals of the project. And, remember, team meetings and reviews of materials presented will take time. Make sure that every team member is given the time to do the required work.

6. Designate a Point Person

At the beginning of the project, decide who will be your organization’s liaison to the consultant. The point person may be asked to contact people who are going to be interviewed, provide background information and documents, arrange meetings, and make sure that information is shared with key stakeholders. 

7. Set a Schedule

The consultant needs to know about events that will affect the availability of your team. Organizational events, board meetings, vacations, maternity leave can affect the workflow and ability to provide needed feedback and approvals. Working out a schedule together eliminates delays and reduces stress for both your team and the consultant.

8. Have a Plan for Communicating

To facilitate a smooth process, determine who will be included on the project and how you will communicate with your group — email, phone calls, a project management system, Zoom, Skype, etc. — and how you will exchange documents and comments on the documents: as PDFs, Google docs, or Word documents. It’s also a good idea to schedule a standing call in order to reserve time each week, even for quick status updates. This can reduce the problems in scheduling meetings that can delay the completion of a project.

9. Address Stumbling Blocks That Raise Costs

Delaying feedback or reversing decisions already made can stall or even stop a project. Moreover, revising decisions already made can undermine the viability of the project and incur more costs.

This can happen when the plan is for the executive director to make decisions, but when it comes time to give final approval, board members want to express their opinions and second-guess or reverse decisions already made. Or a decision-maker on the staff or board is replaced and the new person wants to undo prior decisions.

To avoid such costly delays, provide the board or a committee with regular updates and opportunities to provide feedback. Discuss any serious concerns with the consultant and team so a satisfactory resolution is reached and costly backtracking is avoided.

Ultimately, you want to achieve a successful outcome for your organization, and want to have a positive experience with your consultant. A good consultant should understand these issues and guide you through them so that you can achieve both.

Previously published in Philanthropy News Digest

Looking for Great Advice?

Whether looking for a full partnership to move your organization forward or project, just reach out — we’re here to help.

For nonprofits, marketing research offers many options, including consumer panels, focus groups, surveys, observations, and more. Each method has its benefits, limitations, and costs. 

Knowing when to use each research option will not only save you time and resources, but also help you benefit from the true insights a technique offers. Surveys are a perfect method to understand your nonprofit’s audience.

Use a Survey When:

• The question you are asking is clear.
  Why? Surveys are great for presenting specific options and getting responders to choose among them.
  For example: Do you prefer one logo over another?

• You need a representative response.
  Why? Though response rates on surveys can be quite low (as low as 10%), if you have a large enough pool of candidates, the response will still reflect the broad population.

• You are testing more than one audience.
  Why? If you are serving more than one audience, you will want to know what the preferences of those different populations are.
  For example, populations with a higher education may have different responses and preferences than those who have a lower education.

A Survey is Not Your Best Bet When: 

• You are exploring options.
  Why? Because surveys mostly measure quantitative data. Asking for creative responses is difficult without a proper set up for context. Consumer panels or focus groups are better choices in this case.
  For example: What words best describes your organization?

• You are researching a narrow group.
  Why? Although today’s data on consumer habits can suggest a great deal about their demographics, drilling down to very specific groups is still challenging. In cases with small sample sizes, panels and focus groups are useful in gaining in-depth feedback.
  For example, parents of male children ages 7-8.

A Few Tips to Engage Your Audience:

When designing your survey, following best practices will help you reach the most accurate qualitative and quantitative measurements. Some suggestions:

• Get ‘em on Board: Letting your respondents know how their feedback will be used gives them a sense that their opinion matters. And if you can tell them in advance that you will share the results with them, even better.

• Set ‘em on Task: Retaining focus when taking a survey is very important in order to achieve reliable results. If certain questions do not pertain to all audiences to whom the survey is sent, use “skip logic.” This tool allows a respondent to identify a question that is not relevant and move on. The benefit is two-fold: the respondent does not waste energy, and the surveyor gets results that are not skewed.

• Keep ‘em Honest: Sometimes you will pose a close-ended question that allows respondents to choose a preference among given options. These types of questions require respondents to provide an intuitive response without analyzing their thought process. To uncover more, it’s best to follow up with an open-ended question, such as “Why?” A word of advice: Take the responses with a grain of salt. It is difficult to self-analyze one’s immediate reaction. With that being said, you may be able to gain very valuable insights.

By Gil Gilead, Marketing Associate at Red Rooster Group.

If people don’t know what your organization does and the impact it has, why should they give your money, join, volunteer, or use your services? Well, branding tells them why. It’s an investment in communicating value.

“For a small nonprofit working on a limited budget, every dollar spent on marketing equates to a dollar that isn’t spent on the organization’s core mission.”

Wrong!

Brand Visibility

That unfortunate paragraph was the start of a Pensacola News Journal story about the very generous donation to a nonprofit in Pensacola, FL. of $100,000 worth of branding work by idgroup.

The founder of Chain Reaction, the lucky nonprofit, expects the organization’s membership will triple over the coming years as a result of the branding effort. She also thinks her staff and volunteers will be able to devote more time to their overall goal.

How is that a loss to the organization’s core mission? Well, it’s not. The real lead should have been, “For a small nonprofit working on a limited budget, every dollar spent on targeted marketing can equate to multiple dollars to spend on the organization’s core mission.”

The services donated by idgroup allowed the nonprofit “to be more visible in the community, so that it can ultimately do more good for the community,” Kristin Fairchild, Chain Reaction’s founder, said.

The visibility was achieved through a new brand strategy and website as well as radio and TV ads, and billboards, among other things, all of which are important parts of getting your nonprofit’s message out and bringing in donations.

Brand Identity

But, based on other comments in the article, I’m willing to bet that the biggest value for Chain Reaction was establishing its brand identity, something that nonprofits often take for granted. As Fairchild said, determining your core mission sounds simple but putting it into words is difficult. With the guidance of professionals, it took Chain Reaction three months of talking with stakeholders to home in on its core mission: teen leadership.

Three months for an organization founded 11 years ago to determine its core mission. Not at all uncommon and one reason that nonprofits should take a serious and regular look at their missions, visions, values, and programs. Time, technology, funding, and demographics all change, subtly changing the way organizations operate and what they are achieving.

A brand review allows you to re-focus and, once focused, showcase your organization’s real strengths and value. Building awareness of those strengths and  of the value your organization has can inspire support of all kinds.

Now, how is that “money not spent on your organization’s core mission?”

As nonprofit budgets are tightened, good help can be hard to hire. But you may be able to get it for free, or for very little, by setting up a robust volunteer program.

A wealth of talent is ready, willing, and able to help nonprofits if you know how to access and manage it. Baby Boomers are notorious for not wanting to sit back and relax in their retirement. But their eagerness to stay active often does not include stuffing envelopes and greeting people at the door. They want to do something that matters and be part of a team.

That makes them an asset that is both valuable and challenging.

Baby Boomers want to do something meaningful that uses their skills or helps them develop new ones, from walking a picket line in protest of injustice to writing, designing, advising, implementing, or strategizing big ideas and new programs. They do not balk at hard work, whether physical or mental. (Remember, Boomers are more physically fit than 65-year-olds used be.)

Among them are bankers who could help design social impact financial products, managers who could plan advocacy actions, social workers who could help develop programs, teachers who can help design literacy programs, or savvy money managers who can teach financial literacy to newly employed.

But they are also people who often don’t understand the constraints of nonprofits. They may not be used to such things as fixing the paper jam on the copier by themselves and they are not shy about stating their opinions. So how do you tap this talent pool without making yourself crazy?

If you want to use volunteers of any age, you must make a plan for “hiring,” using, and managing them. Think about:

How will you determine and use their talents?

Will you recruit from an organization, such as ReServe that specializes in matching professional volunteers with nonprofits? Determine the levels of skill you want to tap. An retired administrative assistant to help with filing or a retired office manager who can reorganize office procedures to make them more efficient?

What do you want them to do?

Yes, you can still ask them to stuff envelopes or greet people at the door but think about the bigger tasks that aren’t getting done due to budget constraints or lack of training. Your volunteers may help with administrative tasks or they may help with direct client services. Write a job description for your volunteers and review it with them.

How you will integrate them with your team?

Don’t surprise your staff with a new, unpaid team member. Brainstorm with your staff ahead of time to ensure that the volunteer is welcome, doing something that your staff wants done, and that the volunteer is not seen as an additional burden.

Who will oversee their work?

Some organizations have a volunteer who coordinates other volunteers. Some have volunteers report to department heads or the executive director. The chain of command should be clear to both the volunteer and the person responsible for seeing that they complete their tasks. Volunteers, like other employees, need feedback on what they are doing well and what needs improving.

How much time will they be expected to contribute?

Requiring a minimum amount of time ensures both a commitment to your organization and continuity of service. It is especially important when direct client service is involved.

How you will train them?

Even the most competent retired executive will need training in the way your organization works, from the basic on-boarding of where supplies are to the specifics of the job they’ve taken on. You may need to train them in the way the nonprofit world works, from fewer resources, different regulations, and client-focus rather than focus on the bottom line.

How will you support and reward them?

Unpaid they may be, but uncompensated is another story. Compensation comes from being part of the team, from having work acknowledged, from hearing “thank you!” and “We’re so glad you are here!” It also comes when you and your team listen to ideas and suggestions. Nothing is as rewarding as having your suggestions adopted.

This is time-consuming groundwork. But it could be well worth your effort. Many organizations are able to build capacity by tapping the wisdom and skills of retired professionals, whether in finance or design, client care or IT.

Affiliates and chapters can reinforce your organization’s brand identity. But they can also make rebranding much more challenging. Be sure to bring them along as you build your brand.

Organizations with chapters or affiliates face extra challenges when rebranding. Some of the issues that may need to be addressed are:

• Will the chapters adopt the new messaging?
• To what extent will they align with the parent’s brand elements?
• In what ways (financial, technical and other) will the parent agency help in the adoption process?
• Do some of the chapters/affiliates want to retain their own identities and culture?

How then does the parent organization persuade its chapters and affiliates that a unified brand will benefit them? These suggestions may help.

1. Chart a clear course. A change in branding requires a clear plan and purpose, with a timeline and end goal.
2. Make sure people know what is going on and why. Explain the importance of the change using all types of organizational communications — newsletters, emails, in-house blogs or social media posts — to make sure stakeholders have the opportunity to learn about the benefits of the change through whatever channel of communication they use most often.
3. Provide examples of the benefits. Chapters or affiliates should benefit from the change. Let them know how. For example, the new brand may reach new demographic groups or regions, which will create opportunities to increase membership. Include chapters and affiliates in the brand architecture so they don’t feel as if their identity is lost.
4. Solicit opinions: This is essential to generate buy-in. To start the discussion, the parent organization may ask its affiliates about current perceptions of the overall organization. For example, is the nonprofit perceived as traditional or forward thinking? Is it authoritative or lacking in authority? By determining how different stakeholders rate the organization based on contrasting features, you may more easily gauge the level of acceptance you are likely to get for either a big or small change in branding.
5. Create opportunities for participation. Resistance can be mitigated if people are part of the process. For example, beyond the traditional focus groups, the parent organization could consider a “National Community Planning Week” during which chapter members can voice their opinions about rebranding.
6. Reach out to WOMs – “Word of Mouth” stakeholders. These are key influencers whose opinion is valued and deferred to. Knowing the correct channels for communicating with these key influencers — and convincing them to support rebranding — is an important bridge between old and new.
7. Help them overcome obstacles. Your chapters and affiliates may not know how to implement new color schemes and logos. Provide brand guidelines and templates to make it easy. Training webinars can be a venue for answering questions and showcasing ways in which the rebranding will make the chapters more successful.

Recognizing the concerns of chapters and affiliates is important. So is listening to and incorporating good ideas. But nothing makes everybody happy. Don’t let a few reluctant people derail your rebranding project. It is better to pursue a clear, well-thought-out strategy than to look for a muddy middle ground that smooths things over with stakeholders. Decisions can be made with less than 100% support. In time,  it is likely that even recalcitrant stakeholders will become comfortable with — and even advocates for — the new brand.

By Gil Gilead, Marketing Associate at Red Rooster Group.

Take a minute to browse your nonprofit’s website and ask yourself these questions: Is the ‘Donate’ button visible? Does it stand out? Is it on every page of your website? Does your website make it easy to donate? If your answers aren’t a definitive yes, you may be missing out on a lot of money.

We all know that 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on your car insurance, but one minute could earn your nonprofit a lot more!

Where’s the ‘Donate’ Button? Should Never be a FAQ

Whether your organization focuses more on programs, services, or research, it’s still crucial to get donations. Your website is the first place people will go to learn more about your organization and contribute to your cause. If it’s hard to figure out where the donate button is on your website, potential donors will quickly give up trying. And that’s more of a loss for you than it is for them.

Donation Buttons Should be Quickly Noticed

A great way to solicit contributions is to specify a call to action. A call to action may be to sign a petition, volunteer, or join a club. For nonprofits, one of the most important calls to action is to make a donation. And what better way to facilitate this than by having a donation button on every page of your website? (If you want to take it a step further, you can have multiple donation buttons on each page). Be sure to make it easy for your viewers by distinguishing the “Donate” button from other engagement options on your website.

Simplicity is Key

The donation process can be the tipping point between a donor’s decision to continuously contribute to your cause or not contribute at all. Try donating on your nonprofit’s website from a third-party perspective. Do you get so frustrated that you want to “X” out of the window or do you see your confirmation quickly pop up? Just remember, your answers say a lot about how others view your site, too.

By Natalie Glaser, a marketing intern at Red Rooster Group.

A nonprofit executive director once said that everyone wants to pay for the social worker, but nobody wants to pay for her desk and telephone.

Donors tend to have an unrealistic expectation that 100% of the money they give to a nonprofit will go directly towards programs. However, it’s important to look at the bigger picture when donating: Like all well-managed businesses, nonprofits have to deal with overhead costs. That doesn’t mean they are being wasteful; it means they are being good business managers.

No System, No Service

Businesses typically provide products or services that cater to a consumer’s need or desire. Nonprofits provide programs and services to solve societal problems, such as poverty or cancer. In this regard, businesses and nonprofits function very similarly: Whether it’s selling coats or giving coats away to homeless people, both need an infrastructure in place to help them reach their goals. That means electricity, rent, computers, telephones, etc. Those aren’t extras; they’re basics.

Paying for a Product Provides Jobs

Corporations are thought of as job-generators. Likewise, while a nonprofit offers helpful services, it also provides jobs. About 10% of the US workforce is employed by the nonprofit sector. Whether you’re for-profit or nonprofit, you are an employer and have to provide for your employees. That means fair wages and benefits.

Money Goes Where It’s Needed

If you buy a pint of ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s, your money may go towards an employee’s health benefits instead of the production of the ice cream. Similarly, if you donate to a nonprofit, your money may fund marketing for a fundraising campaign, and not go directly to programs. In both scenarios, you have to accept the fact that your money is helping the business or organization thrive, no matter how it’s being spent.

Visibility and the Bottom Line

Developing a brand that is recognizable will increase sales or donations. Companies spend millions on commercials, magazine, and social media ads to achieve visibility and improve their sales. Comparably, a nonprofit should also spend money to increase awareness of its cause and boost donor contributions.

Nonprofits need employees, office space, supplies, and recognition. Like any business, there’s a cost to all that. And like any customer, you can’t choose where your money goes once you pay. With businesses, you probably don’t care as much, unless you are concerned about living wages and the environment. For nonprofits, you can and should do a little research, such as checking the organization out on GuideStar or Charity Navigator.

But don’t be adamant about the ratio of “administration” to “program” costs, because it’s ultimately about their impact. After all, that is the bottom line for nonprofits.

By Natalie Glaser, a marketing intern at Red Rooster Group, working with clients on marketing strategies.

Don’t be afraid of the numbers. They can show how well your organization stacks up against the competition.

No matter the scope or size of your organization, get people to talk about it! If you have data to verify your organization’s accomplishments, publicizing it will get them talking.

Statistics Increase Sponsorships

Many corporations today are seeking partnerships with nonprofits. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship: The corporation is perceived as socially responsible and the nonprofit can use the money to provide programs and services. If your organization helped increase a school’s literacy rate by 90%, brag about it! If your healthcare organization gave 1,000 free vaccinations, brag about it!

Flaunting your organization’s success will make it stand out when corporations look for partners. This will ultimately have a greater impact on your clients, grantees, and members. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.

Let Your Nonprofit’s Numbers Do the Talking

From a nonprofit’s perspective, posting evidence of success on your website — such as graphs, testimonials or statistics — bolsters your brand’s image and encourages donors to contribute. If donors are unsure about which competing nonprofit to support, favorable statistics on your website may sway their decision.

For example, the Jericho Project, which provides services to the homeless, has a visible “Facts and Figures” section showing its success in keeping its beneficiaries off the streets. Pratham USA also does a wonderful job of creating an effective mix of powerful images and strong statistical data to show its wide impact in India. Everyone understands numbers, so if you have the data, use it.

Prove You Don’t Waste Your Donor’s Dollars

As a new or existing donor, you want to see your money being spent wisely. Knowing an organization is utilizing its contributions efficiently makes donating to it even more attractive. Also, knowing your money isn’t being mismanaged may motivate you to increase your donation.

Reassure Your Recipients

From a recipient’s perspective, it’s reassuring to know that the nonprofit helping you is doing the best it can. After all, you are the reason it exists.

Numbers don’t lie. Proving your nonprofit’s positive impact will maximize your reach and potentially increase donations.

By Natalie Glaser, a marketing intern at Red Rooster Group, who works with clients on marketing strategies.