One of the dependably silly things you can observe if you watch the fundraising scene is organizations changing their names, leaving behind sensible understandable names for new jaw-droppingly strange ones.
Seachange Strategies Blog notes this sad phenomena at Why name changes suck and branding is hard, pointing out two recent changes (Point Reyes Bird Observatory is now Point Blue Conservation Science and Jewish Funds for Justice is now Bend the Arc), along with a classic, when World Wildlife Fund tried to become World Wide Fund for Nature.
As comical as some of these changes are, they aren’t doing it for our entertainment. Somebody believes they’re doing something smart: Sometimes they’re making a desperate attempt to breathe life into a moribund fundraising program. (Note: It doesn’t work; you have to fix what’s actually broken, not try to escape by changing your name.) Other times, they’re struggling to capture a mission that has grown beyond what the original name describes.
Like this terrible example of an arts organization in Florida that changed from the Naples Philharmonic to Artis-Naples (I’m not making that up. Read about it here.
Changing your name, even when it’s not a goofball change like “Artis-Naples,” is very risky. (See What’s in a name (change)? for what you can expect from changing your name and other ill-advised moves.)
Your tired, corny, out-dated name may be one of the most valuable assets you have. Don’t change it!
See also the sad stories of how World Emergency Relief became Emerge Poverty Free and Cascade Land Conservancy became Forterra.
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 35 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com.
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