Q-and-A With 'Brandraising' Author Sarah Durham

The book “Brandraising: How Nonprofits Raise Visibility and Money Through Smart Communications,” by Sarah Durham, offers nonprofit organizations strategies to communicate more effectively using limited resources — which has become an even greater challenge for many organizations, large and small, in today's struggling economy.

The brandraising model, on which the book was based, was developed specifically for nonprofits by Durham and her New York-based communications consulting firm Big Duck to assist them in advancing their fundraising, programs and advocacy goals through strengthened communications.

Durham, principal and founder of Big Duck, recently spoke with FundRaising Success about the concept of brandraising and the effect it can have on fundraising efforts.

FundRaising Success: What is brandraising?
Sarah Durham: Brandraising is, at its core, an approach to communicating designed to help nonprofits get the most out of their limited resources.

Specifically, the book shows how nonprofit concepts like “vision” and “mission” are connected to marketing and branding concepts like “positioning” and “messaging.” It goes on to show how these elements (which are often developed in a vacuum or ignored entirely) can boost fundraising, outreach and advocacy work when used well in day-to-day communications channels (for instance, online or at events). It’s a primer [that] a fundraiser can use to understand other aspects of communications they might be less comfortable with (for instance, where Twitter fits in).

FS: What impact does brandraising have on fundraising?
SD: The average American receives thousands of marketing messages every day. A well-heeled donor might also receive dozens (or more) messages that are attempts to cultivate, solicit or engage her. That’s a lot of noise — and your nonprofit has to penetrate it in order to be heard.

Brandraising organizations develop fundraising strategies and materials that:

• are closely linked to the organization’s mission (making it easier to understand who they are);

• look and sound consistent (making it easier to connect the dots between different correspondence pieces); and

• take less time/money to develop (because they have a foundation to work with, rather than starting with a blank piece of paper each time).

Since nonprofit communications are often driven by the development team in smaller or mid-size organizations, brandraising can help these staff members spend less time worrying about how to get the e-newsletter done and more time actually connecting with donors.

FS: Does an emphasis on brandraising, as opposed to specifically fundraising, indicate a shift in perspective/strategy in the nonprofit world?
SD: Wow, I love that question!

Many of the organizations I work with at Big Duck struggle with silos, and I hope this book will help shift the perspective around how to work collaboratively even as you manage your own turf. Here’s what I mean.

As organizations grow, silos start to crop up: Is there a communications or external affairs team? Do they have oversight over fundraising communications, or vice versa? Who approves outreach materials? Do the direct-mail people have to communicate with or share budgets with the online people? Who makes sure the organization’s outreach, fundraising and correspondence are on the same page?

If fundraising, programs, advocacy and executive staff agree on the big idea to be communicated and how to do that, a lot less time and money will be spent, and better results can be achieved, even as people manage their departments autonomously.

FS: What was the impetus for writing "Brandraising" and why now?
SD: Most nonprofits are staffed with smart, mission-driven people with experience in their issue or with fundraising, but rarely with marketing or communications backgrounds.

My goal for “Brandraising” was to create a primer that helps people with limited marketing backgrounds understand what having an effective communications framework means, what it can achieve, and how to build one.

Now more than ever, people see that branding isn’t just “navel-gazing,” and that they need to be competitive and differentiated if they’re going to fundraise effectively during leaner times.

FS: Who is the target audience for your book? What goals can they hope to achieve through applying the principles described in the book?
SD: “Brandraising” was written primarily for executives; fundraising, outreach and communications staff at nonprofits; and for board members. The book lays out a simple framework and some basic principals that are easy to digest, then illustrates each with examples and suggests ways to implement them on your own. It also puts social-media channels like Facebook and Twitter in a context that should help nonprofits understand when/how to use them.

Organizations that brandraise should find that communicating effectively gets easier — both internally and with target audiences — and costs less. By becoming more effective at communicating, fundraising and outreach results are easier to achieve.

FS: How did you develop and test the strategies that are discussed in the book?
SD: I founded [Big Duck] in 1994 and have been working with nonprofits of all sizes since then to help them communicate more effectively — usually so they can raise private dollars. For over a decade, we’ve studied best practices from the nonprofit sector and the marketing and communications worlds. Through our strategic and creative work for clients, we’ve developed and tested ways to apply these best practices. The book is the result of 15+ years of observation, trial, error, testing and monitoring outcomes.

FS: Any examples of how an organization has successfully applied the themes in the book and achieved results?
SD: Yes, the book is full of specifics. One of my favorite examples is Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, a grassroots organization Big Duck has been working with and helping brandraise for years. They’ve grown from a six-figure operating budget to raising over $5 million annually without exponentially growing their staff or spending buckets with outside consultants. Not only are they raising more money consistently, but their staff is clear how to manage day-to-day communications, and their community understands, respects and supports their great work.