Can Branding Help Fundraising?

One of the biggest trends — and controversies — in the nonprofit sector today is the role of brand. The trend: Many of the leading nonprofits in America hire brand experts and agencies from the corporate world to help shape the way people experience and engage with nonprofits.

The controversy: Many seasoned direct-response fundraisers claim that branding doesn't raise money, and worse, they lament that new brand guidelines sometimes actually hinder fundraising success.

In reality, corporations have learned that if you build positive brand recognition for a product, when people need that product, they're more inclined to buy theirs. When they need soap, they go to the store, scan the brands, and pick the one they've heard of or experienced positively. Strong branding guides and motivates purchases.

With charitable giving, it works almost exactly that way with media-fueled disasters. Media coverage of earthquakes and hurricanes often encourage people to give. The disaster plus media coverage create the perceived need to respond, and donors tend to donate to organizations with strong brand presence. Thanks to their strong brands, organizations like Red Cross and World Vision start receiving contributions before they've even had a chance to ask for them.

So what's the controversy?
For most charitable giving, it doesn't work that way. People don't wake up in the morning thinking, "I've got to give some of my hard-earned money away today!" Don't you wish they did? And there's no supermarket where people scan the shelves for nonprofits to give to. Despite the websites that purport to channel charitable giving, it hasn't really worked when it's not driven by massive media attention.

So if your cause is in the media enough to sustain your fundraising, then building a strong brand is imperative.

If, however, your cause only gets occasional media attention — or, let's be honest, no ongoing media attention focusing on urgent need — it's just not enough to build a nonprofit brand. You have to match best-in-class branding with best-in-class fundraising to convert donors' propensity to give into actual revenue. You need to (a) target those audiences most likely to give (b) through the right media (c) with an offer that is urgent and compelling — and (d) present the case and make the ask in a creative way that breaks through the clutter.

For the vast majority of nonprofits, "ye have not because ye ask not." Unless fundraising best practices are added to good brand work, no money will flow.

But what if the brand identity and guidelines actually conflict with best fundraising practices and diminish results? Think it couldn't happen to you? Think again.

What if the scientists at your environmental organization convince the brand people that your identity is a science-driven organization focused on global warming, while your donors want to give to support fuzzy animals? (They care about global warming but not enough to give money to fight it.) Or, what if your program people convince the brand experts that your brand is about hope and empowerment, not need and urgency? Think you can raise money with solution-focused 
success stories? Ruh-roh.

Sad to say, this happens on a frighteningly frequent basis. And it needs to be remedied before any more financial damage is done.

Here's how
You need great branding. People can't give to you if they don't know you're there. And people won't give to you unless and until they're convinced of the importance of your work.

I suggest that great branding for a nonprofit must, by definition, support fundraising. That doesn't mean messages we wish people would give to. It means understanding our donors and meeting them where they are, by intentionally designing brand campaigns with messages and offers that donors have supported and will support. No matter how cool the brand line, look and song, no matter how much the program people, CEO or the board like it, the brand strategy needs to be tested via fundraising metrics to ensure that the brand campaign always supports the organization's goals — of growing revenue to make the world better.

The right brand effort can catapult your organization to growth and success. The wrong one can hamper your revenue and programmatic effectiveness. Please: It's worth testing to make sure you've got it right. FS

Tom Harrison is CEO of Russ Reid and a member of the FundRaising Success Editorial Advisory Board. Reach him at tharrison@russreid.com