Presentation at Women in Development of Northeastern, NY

1. Your Brand is Your Nonprofit’s Personality:
What Does Yours Say About You?

2. Lose the Lipstick! Your Brand is More Than a
Cosmetic.

3. Starbucks

4. Target

5. DSW

6. American Diabetes Association

7. Habitat for Humanity

8. YMCA

9. Salvation Army

10. Susan G. Komen for the Cure

11. Boys Scouts of America

12. Agenda
• What’s a brand?
• So what and who cares?
• How to build a brand or change the one you’ve got.
• Ready. Set. Express yourself!
• Let’s recap.

13. What’s a brand?
Brands are to
organizations what
personalities are to
people. They can be
exciting or dull. Direct
or obtuse. Smart or
dumb.

14. What’s a brand?
But brands are more
than cosmetic. They
are your organization’s
DNA.

15. So what and who cares?
A strong, differentiated, relevant brand can help
you:
– Attract more funding or retain the funding you
have.
– Gain greater political clout.
– Attract the best talent.
– Get the recognition you deserve.
– Become more focused and effective.

16. Why worry?
Whether or not we want to be, we are a brand.
We’re out there – people will form opinions about us.
Those opinions will be positive, negative, or ambiguous.
They’re probably not going to be neutral.
We’re going to be visible or invisible.
We’ll get credit for the things we do, or we’ll continue to do things and not get credit.
We’ll be either understood or misunderstood.
We can be either a good brand or a bad brand;
A clear brand or a confusing brand; a helpful brand or an irritating brand:
A responsible brand or an irresponsible brand.
- From Branding the AIGA in Branding for Nonprofits by DK Holland

17. News flash!
You already have a
brand.
It’s what people say
about you when you’re
not in the room.
“Everyone has a brand
by design or default.” –
Lida Citroen

18. Raise your hand if…
Your logo and other elements of your brand identity
were created by an amateur.
Your website, brochures and other communications
tools are created on an ad hoc bassis and don’t look
like they come from the same organization
You DON’T repurpose content. Every time you create
new content you start from scratch.
Your brand is generic. You organization looks and
sounds pretty much like everyone else.

19. Seriously…we can do better! Aka
How to build a brand or change
the one you’ve got.

20. Do an audit.
– What is our vision
and mission?
– What are our values,
i.e. what do we stand
for?
– What do we do
better than anyone
else?

21. Assess your competition.

22. Keep your audience(s) in mind

23. Use your assets wisely.
What are our tools?
Our name,
our mission, initiatives, and values,
our visual identifier (aka logo),
and the talents, understanding, and hard work of the
people who create, administer, service, design, write,
edit, govern, and deliver all that we do.

24. Name
• Choose your name
wisely
– Acronyms only if they
make sense, e.g. MADD

25. Logo
• Get a professionally
designed logo.

26. Text
• Write good (no GREAT!) copy
– Active vs. passive tense
– Tell stories
– Use proper grammar
– Edit, edit and edit some more!

27. Images
• Use beautiful photos and
video – EVERYWHERE
– Flickr.com
– Google Images
• REMEMBER: Design and
create content for your
audience, not for
yourself!

28. You
Your organization will
be judged by the “color
its skin” but you will
also be judged your
character.

29. Ready. Set. Express Yourself!

30. Create a website that people
WANT to visit.
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project

31. Shoot video or die!

32. Use REAL photography
EVERYWHERE!

33. Use REAL photography
EVERYWHERE!

34. Community Cradle

35. Independent Living Center of the
Hudson Valley

36. Albany Med Faculty Physicians

37. Let’s recap.

38. Key concept #1
Branding is important. Brands are to
organizations what personalities are to
people. They and can make or break your
organization.

39. Key concept #2
Creating a brand involves assessing the
WHOLE of your organization and the
environment in which your work. Do this
BEFORE applying cosmetics.

40. Key concept #3
Build your brand with your audience(s) in
mind because beauty is in the eye of the
beholder. You are not designing for you!

41. Key concept #4
You organization will be judged by the “color
of its skin” but it will also be judged by the
content of its character. Make every
interaction count.

42. Learn more
• Branding for Success: A Roadmap for Raising the Visibility and
Value of Your Nonprofit Organization and Aha! Moments in
Brand Management by Larry Checco
• Brandraising: How Nonprofits Raise Visibility and Money
Through Smart Communications by Sarah Durham
– Check out their Branding Scorecard at
http://www.bigducknyc.com/free_nonprofit_marketing_resource
• Branding for Nonprofits: Developing Identity With Integrity by
DK Holland
• Into Focus: A Benchmark Guide to Effective Nonprofit Video by
See3, YouTube, and Edelman

43. Connect with me!
Jocelyn Harmon
Email: jocelyn_harmon@yahoo.com
Blog: www.marketingfornonprofits.org
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jocelynharmon
Twitter: @jocelynharmon