November 2007

Be honest. Have you ever said or thought that "our organization is one of the best-kept secrets in town"?

Plenty of folks in the nonprofit sector—at both the local and national levels—use exactly those words when referring to the good works their organizations perform. For some it has become a mantra.

For whatever reasons, the nonprofit sector has a tendency to undersell itself. It is either too proud or too humble, too understaffed, too involved in providing services, or too overwhelmed by day-to-day survival to promote its true value to the people and communities it serves.

Fortunately, the idea of branding is beginning to take hold within the sector. As nonprofits continue to feel increased competition for dollars—as well as for qualified staff, board members, and volunteers—they are beginning to understand how branding can help them bring clarity to their missions, strengthen their voices, and secure more funding sources on behalf of those they serve.

What follows are some insights to ignite your thoughts about how branding can help let your "best-kept secret" out.

Focus on Building Value as Well as Visibility

When we speak about creating or defining a brand, we are not simply talking about developing an attractive logo and tagline that can be slapped onto stationery, signage, brochures, and the like and, viola, we have our brand. A logo and tagline are simply the banners for your brand.

Your brand is a form of relationship building. It is your promise or covenant to those you seek to reach that says, "If you buy our products or services, or align yourself with our organization, you can expect this."

To that end, your brand should be a true reflection of your organization's DNA and answer the following questions:

• Who are we?
• What do we do?
• How do we do it?
• Why should anyone care enough to support us?

View Branding as a New Way of Doing Business

There are no quick fixes to creating a solid and successful brand. On the contrary, it takes a great deal of introspection, time, effort, coordination, and collaboration to come up with the branding messages that define your organization. And once you've defined your brand, it requires an ongoing effort to manage and maintain it.

Therefore, consider brand maintenance an ongoing commitment that needs to be incorporated into your everyday business activities rather than a campaign that you intend to focus on for a limited time only.

View Branding as an Organization-Wide Effort

Maintaining your brand should not be the responsibility of your organization's communication and marketing units, but rather must be viewed as an organization-wide effort in which every department and business unit understands that it has a role to play.

Moreover, employees at all levels of the organization, regardless of job description, need to be made aware of the goal to raise the visibility and value of your brand, and the valuable—and valued—role they are expected to play in achieving that goal. If it helps, consider the person who answers your phone your "director of first impressions."

Keep the Effort Manageable, Yet Meaningful

For staff in most small- to medium-size nonprofits, just keeping up with day-to-day operations can be overwhelming. Consequently, keep branding efforts within the range of what is doable.

For example, it doesn't take much in the way of time and resources to ensure clear, consistent messaging; to educate staff about the purpose and goals of branding; and to promote your brand actively through already scheduled public-speaking engagements, events, and publications.

Promote Open Communications and Collaboration among Staff

For any branding effort to succeed, everyone needs to work in an atmosphere of open communications and collaboration so that the organization can convey clear, consistent, and accurate messages to target audiences. It also requires that everyone work toward common, rather than individual business unit, goals.

For the sake of uniformity and consistency of message, creating this atmosphere more than likely will require some centralization of the brand message-creation and delivery processes.

Educate Your Staff

Consider your board members, staff, and volunteers your best—and most cost-effective—brand ambassadors. Also keep in mind that people can't represent or promote what they don't know or understand.

Therefore, to build employee pride and understanding around your brand, incorporate a strong educational component into your branding effort that describes the brand, underscores the importance of promoting the brand accurately and consistently, and the role each person is expected to play.

Also, make supporting and promoting the brand part of everyone's overall annual performance review. This always seems to help motivate people.

Lead by Example

Executive officers and board members need to champion your branding efforts. Leading by example demonstrates their commitment to and the importance they place on these efforts. It reinforces the message to staff that "we are working together" to accomplish the goal of raising the visibility and value of our organization.

Be Flexible and Interactive

Branding is not a static, but rather a dynamic, process. Maintain flexibility in your thinking and be open to suggestions from all parties for strengthening your brand. This will allow for better, more efficient use of resources as well as make for a more dynamic, interactive, and collaborative process that takes advantage of branding opportunities as they arise.

Live Your Brand!

Your brand reflects your promise to the public and your commitment to your staff and volunteers. If the brand that you are seeking to convey is one of an organization that is effective and efficient; caring and responsive; a responsible steward of public and private funds; and a reliable, trustworthy organization to partner and do business with, as well as to work for, then live that brand through all of your words and deeds.

Once again, your brand is only as good as the people who live it day to day. Staff and volunteers who are knowledgeable, who take pride in the brand, feel secure in their jobs, and are appreciated for the good work that they do are your best resource for keeping your organization from being the best-kept secret in town.

Larry Checco, Checco Communications
© 2007, Larry Checco

Larry Checco is president of Checco Communications and author of Branding for Success: A Roadmap for Raising the Visibility and Value of Your Nonprofit Organization. Larry is a nationally recognized public speaker, workshop presenter, and consultant on branding. To learn more, log on to www.checcocomm.net or contact Larry at larry.checco@verizon.net.