The video run in 2 segments of about 40 minutes each and includes:

• Howard Adam Levy, Principal of Red Rooster Group presenting an overview of the nonprofit brand evaluation process and how to manage all the different aspects of your marketing, examples of evaluating membership marketing materials, and tips for promoting your fundraising event and technology. (about 50 minutes)

• Rebecca Saidlower, Marketing Manager for the Jewish Education Project discussing the branding and marketing issues faced by her nonprofit organization in creating a consistent look and message for their various programs. (about 20 minutes)

• Brandy Wood, Marketing Manager for WBGO Newark Public Radio discussing the brand challenges of this public radio station in terms  of their logo, their on air personalities, and the challenge of trying to establish brand consistency in a culture that values improvisation. (about 20 minutes)

• Questions and answers about various nonprofit marketing issues faced by various audience members, including organizational naming, and marketing outreach issues. (about 20 minutes)

• Michael Feller, Adjunct Professor at Baruch moderates.

Let us know what you thought of the presentation. Leave a comment below.

See the Video (will open another window where the video is hosted).

Download the PDF of the Presentation.
(give it a moment to download).

Brand Evaluator

This Brand Evaluator tool can help you conduct a comprehensive assessment of how well your organization is communicating in all areas. With this tool, you can examine your agency’s brand and all of its marketing materials to determine how professional, consistent, and accurate your marketing is. You can use these questions to identity your organization’s marketing strengths and weaknesses so that you can improve what’s working and fix what’s not. Download the tool and the presentation for a limited time.

Download the PDF of the Brand Evaluator Tool.
(give it a moment to download).

Red Rooster Group is a New York based graphic design firm that creates effective brands, websites, and marketing campaigns to increase your visibility, fundraising, and communications effectiveness. Contact us at info@redroostergroup.com.

• See nonprofit brand case studies.
• See our services.
• Contract Red Rooster Group for help with your nonprofit branding and marketing.

So you’re starting a nonprofit organization or have one and want to know how to build or strengthen your brand. Well, what is a brand? Is it advertising, your spokesperson, a logo? We have heard of the Red Cross, Oprah, McDonald’s. These are all brands. And while there may be positive or negative perceptions about each of these, you’ll notice their missions are easy to define—providing disaster relief when needed, inspiring people to live better lives, and providing a cheap, convenient meal. They are all based on making a clear promise to their audience. Essentially, your brand is the reputation you have for delivering on your promise.

What does this mean for a nonprofit? A strong brand will help the organization stand out from the masses of solicitations, distinguish its cause from other organizations doing similar work, and inspire others to support them. The best brands elicit positive emotional responses because people understand and identify with each one’s mission and know that the organization is consistently true to it. When carefully developed and nurtured, the brand becomes the fabric of an organization’s culture.

Over the long term, organizations with strong brands become well known and tend to raise more money. In today’s environment, with more nonprofits than ever competing for funding, an organization can’t afford not to have a strong brand.

This article, along with helpful links, can help you get started in understanding how to create a successful brand for your organization.

Components of a Successful Brand

Three components create a brand: differentiation, credibility, and authenticity. By assessing your organization’s strengths in each area, you’ll begin to understand how your brand value can be built, communicated, and delivered.

DIFFERENTIATION

While it is tempting to turn your passion into action immediately, with 1.5 million nonprofit organizations in the United States, first you need to distinguish your nonprofit from other organizations doing similar work. The average person is deluged with solicitations and is easily confused about what organization does what, so to stand out, you have to be very clear.
Start with your mission—is it easy for people to understand what you do? Is your mission inspiring to enough people to attract a broad base of support to be sustainable for the long term? Do you have an achievable goal for success that will captivate people’s imagination?
For example, the laudable ambition of solving literacy provides little means to measure success. On the other hand, “a computer in every classroom” is a compelling promise that captivates people’s imagination and allows them to envision the mission being fulfilled.
To find out what other nonprofits are doing, run a search on GuideStar.

CREDIBILITY

Before someone makes that online donation or steps up to volunteer their time, they have to believe that your organization has the ability to deliver on its promise. Whether your organization is rooted in a rich tradition or fresh ideas, or was created in response to grass-roots needs or global demand, your members and donors will want to know that you can be trusted and have solid management practices so that their money is put to good use. Having a strong board of directors that sets the direction for your organization and is accountable for results is one step in giving your nonprofit the credibility to substantiate its promise.
For information on the role that boards play, visit www.governancematters.org.

AUTHENTICITY

The third ingredient of an effective brand is getting people to identify and care about your cause. Successful organizations know that they need to go beyond the support from people who are directly affected by the issue they are working on to attract a wider audience. By speaking authentically about the challenges you face as well as the expertise you bring to solving the problem, you make it easier for people to trust your organization and ultimately to volunteer their time and donate their money.

Every Picture Tells a Story. What’s Yours?

Organizations with strong brands are able to distinguish themselves, establish credibility, and speak authentically. How do they do this? By telling good stories. Stories are the foundation of a strong brand—they give a deeper meaning to your mission and help people connect to what you do. Your organization’s story may revolve around the personality of your founder, a galvanizing moment in your organization’s history, or a natural affinity to your audience. Good stories, like good deeds, give your brand life, excite your donor base, and instill confidence in others that your organization is what it claims to be.

Howard Adam Levy is Principal of Red Rooster Group, a New York based graphic design firm that creates effective brands, websites and marketing campaigns for nonprofits to increase their visibility, fundraising and communications effectiveness. Contact us at info@redroostergroup.com.

This article was first published on GuideStar in January 2011. © 2011 Red Rooster Group

By Howard Adam Levy, Principal, Red Rooster Group

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.

Board Responsibilities

1. Produce: Define the organization’s values, message, and look.
2. Project: Get the word out about the organization.
3. Protect: Ensure consistency and protect against infringement.
4. Parlay: Leverage the nonprofit’s goodwill into corporate sponsorships.

1. Producing Your Brand

In order to cut through the media clutter, your nonprofit needs to be distinct. Whether you are a new nonprofit or a mature organization seeking to remain relevant amidst increased competition, the board is often instrumental in initiating the need to address branding.

Boards that participate in shaping their nonprofit’s brand have a better understanding of their organization and are more invested in advocating for it. Therefore, the board should be involved throughout the brand development process, which is often conducted by a branding agency or consultants. I recommend that at least one member of the board serve on a marketing or branding task force that oversees the process.

• 
  
  Some board members were interviewed as part of the discovery process to get a full picture of the organization.
• 
  
  The full board participated in a discussion of brand values, logo, and Web site. This discussion helped everyone see the need to move the organization forward and the rationale for doing so. It also gave the board a stake in the updated logo and Web site.
• After rounds of refinement with the organization’s marketing team, the board reviewed and approved the final designs.
• Your board’s role in this process will vary according to the life-cycle stage of your nonprofit.  Boards of new nonprofits can be particularly helpful in ensuring that the organization’s brand reflects a well-articulated message and not just the passions of the founder. The boards of more mature organizations have a pulse on the competition and can make sure their nonprofit is leading the way, or at least keeping pace, with donor expectations. In organizations facing major challenges, boards will take a more active role in shaping the brand, typically through a strategic planning process that addresses operational issues.

  2. Projecting Your Brand

  Once the brand has been established, it needs to be projected to the world to create brand awareness. Board members are the key “brand ambassadors” who can speak effectively about the organization, getting the word out to donors, the business community, and the media.
  A successful branding process will empower board members to speak clearly about your nonprofit by providing them with an “elevator speech” and specific language to use when talking about the organization or presentations to use with donors. Tools, such as brochures, newsletters, and social media, aren’t just for staff use either. Board members can take an active role in communicating their nonprofit’s brand to key audiences by disseminating brochures to business associations, lining up presentations with corporations, and participating in social media channels, such as their organization’s Facebook page.

  3. Protecting Your Brand

  The board’s third major role as “brand steward” is to protect your organization’s brand from internal or external threats.
• Even a well-crafted tagline, logo, and Web site can lose its potency if it is not used consistently, squandering your organization’s opportunity to establish its brand. A brand manual will help keep your organization on track by specifying guidelines regarding message and values, logo, colors, and typefaces, as well as guidelines for language and social media.
  All board members should have a copy of the organization’s brand manual and should be familiar with it so that everyone tells a consistent story. Consistency builds brand recognition, which leads to increased fundraising, engagement, and partnerships.
  The board also must ensure that the organization’s brand is not being infringed on by other organizations. Just as you avoided a name or logo that sounded like or looked like that of another business or nonprofit so, too, should you make sure no one else takes a bite out of your brand. Only when the board fully understands the brand can it recognize when it becomes compromised and act to protect it.

  4. Parlaying Your Brand

  Once you have a built a strong brand with a positive reputation and good will (often called “brand equity”), you can attract corporate partnerships that bring additional resources or visibility.
  It is the board’s role to ensure that relationships are made with partners whose missions are aligned with the organization’s values. The wrong relationship can undermine your brand and cost you support. For example, if your mission is providing for the well-being of children, you will want to partner with companies that value the nurturing of children’s creativity rather than exploit them as consumers.
  Smart boards recognize that their nonprofit’s greatest asset is its reputation and will act to build it, enhance it, and protect it for the long-term success of the organization.

  ---

  Howard Adam Levy is the principal of Red Rooster Group, a branding, marketing and design firm based in New York City serving nonprofits nationwide. Red Rooster Group helps nonprofit organizations to improve their visibility, communications and fundraising efforts by developing effective strategy, websites, email campaigns and other forms of marketing outreach. From 2007 to 2009, Howard was the Marketing Chair of Governance Matters, an organization dedicated to helping board members understand their roles and responsibilities.

  ---

  This article was published in Board Member magazine, July/August 2010.

  ---

   

  LINKS

• Read more articles on nonprofit branding.
• See case studies of nonprofit brands.
• Get help with your nonprofit brand.

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?

]]> https://redroostergroup.com/10-ways-of-expressing-your-brand/feed/ 0 https://redroostergroup.com/major-nonprofits-now-collect-donations-through-amazon-com/ https://redroostergroup.com/major-nonprofits-now-collect-donations-through-amazon-com/#respond Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:22:10 +0000 http://blog.redroostergroup.com/?p=1814 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 Amazon’s 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 titled Featured Merchants, sending a confusing message that undermines the propensity for people to donate to these charities.

WAKE UP CALL: The takeaway for smaller nonprofits is to learn from the larger ones in using partnerships to increase the visibility of your nonprofit brand to people who may not heard of your charity, 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 press release here.

Amazon.com Holiday Giving Program

]]> https://redroostergroup.com/major-nonprofits-now-collect-donations-through-amazon-com/feed/ 0 https://redroostergroup.com/attributes-of-a-successful-nonprofit/ https://redroostergroup.com/attributes-of-a-successful-nonprofit/#comments Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:15:35 +0000 http://blog.redroostergroup.com/?p=1759 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.

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.

The New Criteria for Evaluating Nonprofits

1. 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 serving to positively affect change?

2. RELEVANCE

Is the organization stuck in yesterday’s mode addressing past issues that are no longer 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?

3. 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?

4. LEVERAGE

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?

5. SCALABILITY

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?

6. ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

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

7. LIFE CYCLE PREPAREDNESS

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?

8. COLLABORATION

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

9. ADVOCACY

Does the organization focus only on direct service or does it advocate for broader change? Studies have shown that combining service and advocacy is the most successful way to create change.

10.VALUES

Does the organization say one thing and do another or is it acting in sync with their values? (Such as providing social services for their clients, but failing to pay their employees a living wage to provide benefits).

11. STRONG LEADERSHIP

Has the same person been reinforcing the status quo for the past decade or is there someone at the helm who brings character, vision and leadership?

12. ORGANIZATIONAL AUTHORITY

Does the organization just get by providing formulaic services or has it pioneered breakthroughs that are adopted by other organizations? Has the organization established a reputation for being a leader  and authority in it field?

WAKE UP CALL: I posit that these are the new criteria that nonprofits need to take seriously and that donors should consider when determining which organizations to support. It would be wonderful to have these standards adopted as the measure for success instead of merely looking at overhead expense ratios. Our society looks to nonprofits for leadership in addressing our pressing issues. It’s time to set the bar high and expect great results – our society depends upon it.

Follow up post

Measuring New Criteria for Nonprofit Effectiveness

]]> https://redroostergroup.com/attributes-of-a-successful-nonprofit/feed/ 1 https://redroostergroup.com/what-makes-a-top-nonprofit-brand/ https://redroostergroup.com/what-makes-a-top-nonprofit-brand/#respond Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:56:12 +0000 http://blog.redroostergroup.com/?p=1723 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.

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:

1. YMCA of the USA
2. The Salvation Army
3. United Way of America
4. American Red Cross
5. Goodwill Industries International
6. Catholic Charities USA
7. Habitat for Humanity International
8. American Cancer Society
9. The Arc of the United States
10. Boys & Girls Club of America

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. Decades of exposure allowed these organizations to garner name recognition and goodwill.

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.
• Communication that respects members and donors and allows for two-way communication.
• 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.

WAKE UP CALL: Is your organization destined to be a top nonprofit brand? In what ways can you strengthen your brand?

RELATED ARTICLE: Attributes of a Successful Nonprofit

To assess whether your organizational name still works, rate your organization’s name a on 10 point scale for each of these questions:

1. Does your name convey what your organization does, or better yet, the benefit your confer?
2. Does your name indicate the audiences you serve?
3. Does your name distinguish your organization from your competition?
4. Is your name short enough to use in regular conversation? (If it is referred to it by its initials, it’s too long)
5. Is your name easy to spell and pronounce?
6. Does your name inspire confidence?
7. Does your name have a positive connotation?
8. Does your name have a positive emotional impact?
9. Does your name suggest something that people can imagine?
10. Does your name appeal to your audiences?
11. Does your name allow your organization to expand services?

WAKE UP CALL: If your organization’s name is no longer working, give us a call. We’ll help you do a full assessment that can help determine if you need a name change of if perhaps there are other ways to accomplish your objectives.

Links

• Nonprofit Naming Considerations
• Types of Nonprofit Names
• Sponsor Naming of Programs

Howard Adam Levy, is Principal of Red Rooster Group, a New York based graphic design firm that creates effective brands, websites and marketing campaigns for nonprofits to increase their visibility, fundraising and communications effectiveness. Contact us at info@redroostergroup.com.

Related Articles

• Develop a breakthrough brand for your nonprofit
• Develop a message for your organization
• Nonprofit Branding Case Studies