Careful branding can ensure that your special-project campaigns won’t distract donors — and their dollars — from the ongoing appeals that keep the lights lit and the building warm.

By Sarah Durham

Building the Brand

Is it time to re-examine your organization’s brand? Here are a few suggestions to help you get started:

Look (or, rather, plan) before you leap. Before you begin, design a process that gives all key stakeholders (staff, board, volunteers, members, donors, etc.) a chance to participate. Involving them will generate great ideas while building their buy-in. The more the executive director, senior staff and board feel actively engaged in the process, the more likely it is to succeed.

Less is usually more. Develop a color palette with two core colors only, and as few logos as possible. In most cases, separate programs, short campaigns or anniversary years won’t need their own logos.

Define the hierarchy of your messages. What are the top three things you must communicate to articulate what your organization is and why it deserves support? Figure out how to communicate this “big picture” first — most donors won’t want to hear, at least initially, about all 16 programs in depth.

A few years ago, a school I attended launched a multi-million dollar capital campaign. Because I regularly give to its annual appeal and a few other random appeals each year, the school probably considers me a mid-level donor — reliable for some support but not necessarily worth a lot of face-to-face cultivation.

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Sarah Durham is president of Big Duck, a New York City-based branding, marketing and fundraising firm for nonprofits. She serves on the boards of the National Brain Tumor Society and the New York Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP).

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