nonprofit brand – Red Rooster Group

Video of Workshop Explains How to Evaluate Your Nonprofit’s Brand

This engaging video explains how nonprofit organizations can get a grip on all the marketing they do and channel it in a productive manner. The video is a presentation of conducted at Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs on October 6, 2011, discussing a Brand Evaluation tool developed by Red Rooster Group.

Developing a New Name for Your Nonprofit

If your organization is considering changing its name, there’s a lot to consider. A new name can provide a renewed sense of vigor for the organization, but it can also be a frustrating process if not handled correctly. This article describes considerations to take into account in order to have successful outcomes.

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How to Develop a Breakthrough Brand for Your Nonprofit

How can your nonprofit organization stand out and create a breakthrough brand? This article describes three key ingredients.

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Stewarding Your Brand

The Board’s Role in Managing Your Nonprofit’s Brand

If you have heard of the Red Cross, then you know the power of a strong brand: instant recognition and strong fundraising appeal. But powerful brands don’t just happen, they need to be nurtured. And boards can play an important role in building their nonprofit’s brand so that it engenders trust, inspires donations, and can be leveraged for corporate sponsorships. This article describes the 4 roles that your board can play in managing their nonprofit’s brand.

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10 Ways of Expressing Your Nonprofit Brand

Here are 10 ways that you can use to express your brand. These concepts are taken from a seminar I conducted on business and nonprofit branding at the Brooklyn Creative League.

1. Through a celebrity, personality or spokesperson that embodies your vision. Jimmy Carter has been bringing credence and visibility to Habitat for Humanity since 1984.

2. Through a tagline that inspires people to action. United Negro College Fund’s slogan was created in 1972 and has since become of the most famous taglines of all brands in the business and nonprofit sectors.

3. Through a consistent drumbeat of advertising that conveys your message in a memorable way. The Energizer Bunny has been racking up sales since 1989 through print and broadcast ads that have become iconic.

4. Through dramatic images that evoke human emotion. Save the Children, Feed the Children and other relief organizations have used images of starving children to stir the heart and appeal to human conscience, compassion and guilt to such an extent that these images have lost some of their effect.

5. Through a consistent use of color and symbol that becomes linked to your cause. Susan G. Komen for the Cure put breast cancer research on the map through their walks involving thousands, and have co-opted the color pink and the pink ribbon to symbolize breast cancer.

6. Through innovation that drives demand for your products or services. Apple consistently sets new standards with breakthroughs in the personal computers, portable music, and phones, as well as new methods that buck the industry, such as charging for individual song downloads.

7. Through a new business model that focuses on customer needs. The Doe Fund took homeless people off the street, trained them for a job and created an enterprise that generates revenue – solving social problems with a profit.

8. By being first with an idea to become a leader in your sector. Toyota launched the Prius in 1997, making it the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle and became a leader in both sales and caché.

9. Through a character that makes a serious message palatable. Smokey Bear’s message, “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires,” was created in 1944 and has become engrained in our national conscience.

10. Through dramatic action that captures the attention of the media. Greenpeace’s precision focus on a key message delivered dramatically (not always legally) at the right time and place has been a winning formula for keeping the pressure on decision-makers.

WAKE UP CALL: How many of these techniques are you using to convey your nonprofit brand?

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Major Nonprofits Now Collect Donations through Amazon.com

Amazon.com Customers Can Now Donate to Major Non-Profit Organizations Using Their Amazon Accounts

Major nonprofits are getting in front of millions of potential donors through Amazon’s Holiday Giving Program. Organizations such as American Red Cross, UNICEF, Greenpeace, Nature Conservancy, Feeding America, Heifer International, Autism Society of America, International Federation for Animal Welfare, Children`s Miracle Network and United Way of King County now allow Amazon customers to make donations quickly and securely using information from their Amazon.com account. Customers can visit www.amazon.com/holidaygiving from now through January 10, 2009.

Hopefully, this will provide a boost to these nonprofits and also increase the visibility of charities in general among the public, particularly during the holiday giving season. Nine nonprofits are featured on the main Holiday Giving page. However, the link to “See more charities” leads to a page that is cluttered with combined logos of businesses and charities under the misleading heading of Featured Merchants, sending a confusing message that undermines the propensity for people to donate to these charities.

WAKE UP CALL: The takeway for smaller nonprofits is to learn from the larger ones in finding ways through partnerships to increase your visibility to people who may not heard of you, and to do so in a venue where people have their wallets open. Just make sure that the site or venue is not competing against you or channeling prospective donors away from your cause.

Read the full story here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS63474+21-Oct-2009+BW20091021

Amazon.com Holiday Giving Program

http://www.amazon.com/b/?&node=2224407011

Major nonprofits are getting in front of millions of potential donors through Amazon’s Holiday Giving Program. Organizations such as American Red Cross, UNICEF, Greenpeace, Nature Conservancy, Feeding America, Heifer International, Autism Society of America, International Federation for Animal Welfare, Children’s Miracle Network and United Way of King County now allow Amazon customers to make donations quickly and securely using information from their Amazon.com account. Customers can visit www.amazon.com/holidaygiving from now through January 10, 2009.

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Attributes of a Successful Nonprofit

Financial information does relate in any way to an organization’s effectiveness. This type of guide based solely on financials is a disservice to donors as well as to the entire nonprofit sector by perpetuating the notion that nonprofits are better if they spend less on overhead.

Financials have no relation whatsoever on the type of problem the organization is attempting to solve and their effectiveness in doing so. Many organizations spend little on fundraising (they rely on diminishing government grants – not a great strategy) and have no clue how to eliminate the cause of the social problem that they are addressing, and indeed will never actually do so. They have simply institutionalized a method of serving a specific population.

Furthermore, studies have shown that with no standard method for reporting various administrative and fundraising expenses, nonprofits consistently mis-report them. In fact, guides like this actively encourage under-reporting of expenses so that nonprofits look good comparatively to other groups. This vicious cycle must end.

In a time when we need more transparency and education about what it actually costs to operate a nonprofit to successfully address social problems, and at a time when nonprofits face more competition and threats to their funding than ever, we need to support novel ideas for addressing the root cause of problems.

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If you want to create a guide that actually helps donors to find organizations that are effective, consider measuring the following:

IMPACT: Is the organization just applying band-aids to a situation or is it actually addressing the root cause of the problem? Is it affecting the attitudes and behaviors of its constituents in the communities it is addressing to positively affect change?

RELEVANCE: Is the organization stuck in yesterday’s mode addressing past issues that are no loner needed (like refugee settlement for specific populations) or is it addressing the needs of people today? Is the organization culturally-competent and using relevant tools and technology to address current challenges?

INNOVATION: Are new ideas and risk-taking discouraged or does the organization have the capacity to be creative, inventive and pioneering in responding to the changing needs of our society and the world around it?

LEVERGAGE: Is the organization merely helping one person at a time or does it have a model that allows it to leverage funds or resources to help exponential people with the same money?

REPLICATION: Is the organization just serving a single population or can the organization’s model be replicated by others to eliminate similar problems in other communities?

ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS: Is the organization just getting by or does it have sound policies and practices in place? Is it investing in marketing and infrastructure that will allow it to grow?

LIFECYCLE ADAPATION: Is the organization addressing its life cycle stage effectively? For example, are early stage organizations building their boards and donors base? Do mature organizations have infrastructure, leadership training and succession planning in place?

COLLABORATION: Does the organization try to protect its turf and “go it alone” or does it work with other organizations to solve problems and serve their populations?

ADVOCACY: Does the organization shy away from trying to change policies that affect their populations or does it combine advocacy with direct service, as studies have shown is the most successful way to create change.

STRONG LEADERSHIP: Has the same person been applying an outdated philosophy for the past decade or is there someone at the helm who brings character, vision and guidance?

ORGANIZATIONAL AUTHORITY: Does it just get by on a formula for providing nondescript services or has it pioneered breakthroughs that are adopted by other organizations? Has the organization established a reputation for being a leader in it field?

It would be wonderful to have a guide that recognizes the nonprofits that are creating real change based on these factors. Our society looks to nonprofits for leadership in addressing our pressing issues. Set the bar and expect great results – our society depends upon it.

In this post, I pick up from How Much is This Dollar Worth which argues that low spending on overhead is not the way to measure the worthiness of a nonprofit. Instead, I suggest the following criteria for donors to use in evaluating a nonprofit organization.Continue reading

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What Makes a Top Nonprofit Brand?

It is interesting to note that these organizations are nearly a hundred years old (some even older), with the exception of Habitat which is 33 years old and ARC, which is 60 years old. During that time, there was less competition and these organizations’ missions were unique.

Today, there are approximately 950,000 nonprofit organizations registered in the United States, many with competing missions. It is more important than ever for nonprofits to establish strong brands in order to break through the clutter and attract donors and be successful as organizations.

Large organizations have the resources to maintain a strong brand presence, but smaller organizations can be successful by making managing their brand a strategic objective.

Ways to build a strong nonprofit brand include having:

– A clarity of mission. – A focus on impact achieved, not just services. – Consistency in delivering results. – Marketing that is donor- and member-centric, rather than organization-centric. – Contemporary, relevant design that engages donors. – Communications that respects members and donors and allows for two-way communications. – Brand guidelines and brand infrastructure to maintain your brand. – Staff and board act as brand ambassadors and can articulate the organization’s mission and impact. To learn more about building a successful nonrprofit brand, visit blog.redroostergroup.com and redroostergroup.co

The top nonprofit brands in the United States are recognizable names and were selected because of their size, strength of brand image, geographic reach, revenue, and propensity for growth, according to branding agency Cone. The Top Ten Nonprofits in the United States are:

YMCA of the USA
The Salvation Army
United Way of America
American Red Cross
Goodwill Industries International
Catholic Charities USA
Habitat for Humanity International
American Cancer Society
The Arc of the United States
Boys & Girls Club of America

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Does Your Nonprofit Need A New Name?

. Two weeks ago, at seminar I conducted at the Support Center, several nonprofit participants expressed the concern that their name was holding them back from pursuing certain donor markets and they didn’t want to isolate their current donor base. Here’s how to assess your nonprofit’s name.

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