Five Reasons Your Nonprofit Needs Good Branding.
Nonprofit organizations often create more impacts with far fewer resources than their for-profit counterparts, with nonprofit leaders juggling between raising funds, creating impact, and working with multiple collaborators, making branding efforts possible for their nonprofit at the bottom of the priority list. But ignoring branding can negatively affect your mission in many ways. The Pixanow team puts together articles to help nonprofit organizations better understand the importance of branding to their nonprofit’s mission, and they build great nonprofit brands without breaking the bank.
But first, we must understand what branding is.
Branding is the process of creating a distinct identity for a business, an idea, a product, or a movement in the mind of the target audience and consumers. It is the perception created in the audience’s mind; it is made up of your visual identity, logo, design, mission, and tone of voice.
Nonprofit branding is how nonprofit organizations and movements communicate who they are, their mission, and their work’s heart. It is a deliberate way of connecting with your participants, teams, partners, supporters, donors, and communities on why they should believe in your mission. It is how you separate your organization from the competition and own a place in the heart of the communities you serve and every other stakeholder.
So what are the benefits your organization gets from nonprofit branding?
1. You Earn Trust & Increase Loyalty Of Your Audiences
At the core of your nonprofit success (or failure) is “people.” Strong and well-executed brands help attract the people you need to deliver on your mission. It attracts the best talents and partners and helps create a place in their hearts. It allows donors and supporters to see you as a severe brand they would love to associate with. Everyone wants to be part of something great. You earn a place in their hearts when you understand what motivates your audiences and build your brand around what motivates them.
2. Good Nonprofit Branding Helps Strengthen Your Fundraising Efforts
It’s a lot easier for a Fortune 500 company to back the missions of a well-branded nonprofit organization than a random nonprofit with terrible branding. Individual donors find donating to an organization with better branding and communication easier than those without good branding. This is why organizations like Greenpeace have consistently received the backing and support of the communities they serve.
3. It Motivates Your Employees, Partners, and Stakeholders.
Building your nonprofit organization requires highly motivated team members and external communities to deliver on your mission and achieve your goals. In addition, having a brand people connect and relate with helps build a great sense of pride among your internal and external stakeholders.
4. It Open Doors To New Opportunities.
When your organization’s uniqueness and purpose are well represented through your brand, and you’ve earned a place in the hearts of everyone you work with, it increases the chance of people reaching out to you for partnerships that can open new doors for your nonprofit. These include calls for support, invitations to participate, interviews, and collaborations. In addition, it’s easier to collaborate with you when your mission s well communicated through strategic branding and communications.
5. It makes it Easy For Your Organization To Be recognized.
Perhaps the essential benefit of branding yet the most less talked about. Branding makes it easy for your audiences to recognize you and your communication materials. Your logo, colors, visual identity, typography, and brand voice help the audience visually identify you.