Branding and Nonprofit Logos
June 19, 2021
It’s easy to understate the importance of branding. When most people think of branding, they might think of the colors, logos, or brand slogans associated with an organization, like Nike’s inseparable “Just Do It” trademark and or McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” slogan.
What too many organizations miss, however, is that branding is about more than just recognition or slogans, it’s about building an identity and personality that the public can identify with and feel like they’re a part of.
The reason we see less branding efforts from nonprofits is, of course, because they don’t have the same budgets as large corporations. Still, even if you can’t afford to spend large amounts of capital on marketing campaigns, you should be investing in your brand and logo to your best abilities.
Below is everything you need to know about how to effectively brand your organization as a nonprofit.
Nonprofit branding benefits
Before we get into how you can start building your brand today, let’s look at some of the key benefits to nonprofit branding and why it’s an essential investment for any nonprofit today.
- Recognition and credibility – Even with a meaningful and necessary institution mission, your efforts can result in very little if people don’t know who you are. Investing in a brand can help give you, and your mission, the kind of recognition and credibility to bolster public engagement.
- Trust and loyalty – When you create a brand image that elicits positive feelings and is in line with your target audience, you will appear more trusted to the public. Brands can tell stories and share experiences that build loyalty and turn one-time donors into life-long connections.
- More donations and engagement – Creating a recognizable brand that you can share on social media and through your events will help make it easier for people to identify your cause, thus allowing them to get involved with your work and make valuable contributions.
- Building unity – Your valued workers might think that they’re simply part of a specific donor engagement or marketing team, and your donors might think they’re simply giving $50 to a seasonal cause… but when you have a strong brand, all your workers and all your donors know that what they’re really doing is working together to save the environment, support their community, or contribute in any of the number of ways than nonprofits help reshape our world. Brands help your team members and donors distinguish the forest from the trees.
Building a brand comes with a myriad of benefits that will help make you more competitive and create a greater sense of unity within your organization. Even if you can’t really afford to run a robust marketing campaign, you can still enjoy many of these branding benefits with the guide below.
Steps to effective branding for nonprofits
At this point, you might be wondering how you can effectively build your brand and create a robust nonprofit logo strategy.
Even with limited resources, there are cost-effective ways to build a brand for your nonprofit. From communicating your unique story and creating an image to establishing a brand guideline, the below steps will get you started on your nonprofit branding strategy today.
- Determine your story – Branding is all about communicating experiences and establishing an identity, and there’s no better way to do that than by telling a story. Define your identity through the kind of story you wish to tell, and make sure that story is a good reflection of your institution’s mission. Your logo, trade slogans, colors will all be predicated on the kind of narrative you’re communicating.
- Colors, fonts, and moods – For any logo or slogan, you need to decide on the kind of font and colors you’re using in order to evoke the right mood. Different colors and fonts carry different connotations with them, and utilizing a color psychology chart can help you establish the right colors for your organization.
- Brand logo – Your brand logo will be a combination of your colors, font, slogan, and trademark image that should sum up your entire institution with a single glance. Your designer should have a good understanding of your institution’s mission and goals in order to create a compelling and appropriate logo.
- Brand guideline – Once you’ve established your story, image, slogan, and logo, you can put together a brand guideline. Brand guidelines provide your team members with a set of tools and rules on how to use your branding elements. Free resources, like Canva, can help you get started with a template today.
Putting the time and effort into creating the right brand is essential to any nonprofit, and these steps will help get you well on your way to creating the perfect nonprofit branding and logo strategy for your institution.
ACME’s got you covered
Once you’ve created the perfect brand and logo for your nonprofit, the next challenge will be to manage your donations, tickets, and events.
ACME’s cutting-edge ticketing software is a comprehensive, all-in-one solution that relies on powerful, cloud-based technology to provide reliable ticket and donation management support anytime, anywhere.