Night of the Brand Shamans

2. Test, test, test. If you want your brand to drive better fundraising results, you need to let your donors lead you. And the way to do that is direct-response testing. Testing discovers how donors respond in real life, not what they theorize in a focus group.

3. Get aligned. Everyone in your organization needs to believe the same thing about who you are. Everyone needs to be pulling in the same direction. Getting nonprofit employees on the same page can be like herding cats, but the payback in brand equity is incalculable.