Category: Branding

Your organization might have a brand guide or a graphics standards manual. It’s probably meant to make your organization’s look consistent and unified. It likely mandates a specific font (or two) for use in print and digital communications. There may also be a color palette you required to stick with. I have news for you.…

According to Plato, the world as we perceive it is only a shadow of a higher ideal reality. Our world is just “shadows on the wall” — vague, inferior echoes of the Real Thing. It seems some fundraisers agree. Tell me if you’ve heard this statement: Effective fundraising might raise us a lot of revenue,…

Here’s a hard truth: If you do a major overhaul to your nonprofit brand, the most likely outcome is loss of income. The exact opposite of what it’s meant to do. I know this may be unwelcome news. But ask anyone with long experience in fundraising, and they’ll say the same things. There are exceptions…

Does your organization have a brand guidelines document? I mean a document that guides the way you express your brand. Sounds like a good thing … it should be useful and handy. And sometimes they are. But in my experience, it’s more common for brand guidelines to restrict or even outlaw effective fundraising. Here are…

Tough news: That rebrand you’re about to pay for while it dominates the next six months of your time? It’s not going to create revenue-generating magic. In fact, it is far more likely to launch a downward slide in fundraising results. That’s because most rebranding efforts are based on commercial brand knowledge. They miss the…

That big rebrand you’ve been thinking about? It’s not likely to turn around your fundraising. In fact, it’s probably going to cause a drop in fundraising income that will take years to recover from. I’m sorry to say it, but that’s how it nearly always goes. Ask anyone who’s been around the nonprofit sector for…

Wouldn’t it be fun and refreshing to get a new brand for your organization? Maybe. But don’t count on it. While there may be good or even urgent reasons to create a “new brand,” doing so by itself will not improve fundraising results. Branding is not something created by marketing departments or brand experts. It’s…