. 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.
Continue reading70-Year-Old Relief Charity Adopts a New Name
Christian Children’s Fund recently changed its name to ChildFund International. This is a good example of how a nonprofit is adapting to changing conditions by rebranding. The new name will help to position the organization for success. It is interesting to note that they are responding to both internal and external factors:
- Changing services to reflect new constituent needs
- Adapting to the local markets to be more effective in executing their mission
- Recognizing their relationship with their funding organization (ChildFund Alliance)
I would also suspect that they realized that removing the word Christian from their name will help them appeal to a wider donor base.
And note, how they engaged employees and donors as part of the process – it’s critical to earn internal support for the brand.
Nonprofit Naming Considerations
The name of your organization can say a lot about who you are, what you do, your values and your audience. While a great name won’t guarantee a steady of stream of funds, it can help distinguish your organization in this increasingly competitive world.
Continue readingAcknowledging Sponsors Names in Programs
How do nonprofit organizations address long sponsor names in their programs?
As more nonprofits turn toward individual and corporate donors, they face the issue of how to acknowledge these contributors often in contexts that do not easily accommodate long naming formats.
Red Rooster Group recently worked with a nonprofit organization that had multiple tiers of sponsorship naming — the entire building as well as specific wings of the building, its departments and individual programs, as well as a book series — all named after people.
Their series of brochures, are typically named for their respective programs. Given that these sponsors names, some of which were quite long, had to appear in the nameplates of the various publications, a plan was needed in order to handle them appropriately.
We identified the following three considerations for addressing sponsorship names:
1. Political – how the name is treated based on the donor’s request balanced with the needs of the organization. The size of the donation, the clout and influence of the donor, and the need and fortitude of the organization will come into play.
2. Relative – the size, nature and payout of the donation relative to other contributions for that organization. It is easiest to set up this hierarchy before soliciting contributions in order to set the standards for the appropriate recognition and treatment of sponsors’ names.
3. Logistical – the practical considerations that will determine how a sponsor’s name is treated. Each media will tend to have its own limitations. Building names, for example, may require a significant capital investment and have a fairly long lifespan, while links from an online recognition can provide quick means additional information.
BRANDING: Naming Nonprofits for Impact
I recently received an email that reinforced the importance of having a strong name for your nonprofit organization. Envirolution, a website leading the revolution for environmental jobs, was launching their latest project: The Win-Win Campaign — a youth-led small business energy and carbon efficiency campaign.The name Win-Win Campaign name made me grin — how can you go wrong with a name like that? It underscores the importance of the emotional impact that a name makes when people hear it. And face it, who would you rather support, The Association of Small Businesses for Carbon Efficiency (ASMCA) or The Win-Win Campaign? (I made up ASMCA to demonstrate how most nonprofits name themselves, that is, purely descriptive and not result-oriented.)
Envirolution’s e-mail also contained the names of other groups that they work with including Always Build Green, Make Me Sustainable, Global Kinect, and Urban Go Green — all names that have an immediate appeal. Always Build Green is powerful because it is an exhortation that is easy to understand. The name Make Me Sustainable is an invitation that is hard to resist. The names Global Kinect, and Urban Go Green are short, direct and sound progressive, but it is not entirely clear what they do, making them a little less powerful.
WAKE UP CALL: Make your organization’s name compelling and it will make it that much easier to achieve your mission. Align your programs, campaigns and events around the same theme for even more impact.
Tips for Naming Nonprofits
- If possible, describe the benefit that your audience will receive.
- Use your audiences,’ not your organization’s, frame of reference when naming.
- Keep it short. If it’s refer to it by an acronym, it’s too long.
- Avoid industry jargon.
- Make it memorable by combining words in new ways to create interesting juxtapositions.
- Make sure it distinguishes your organization from others doing similar work.
- Reinforce your organizational name through the naming of your programs and sub-brands and event as well as through your logo and tagline.