Ben Roberts
In today’s crowded charity landscape, branding is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. A strong brand builds trust, communicates impact, and enables charities to stand out and compete effectively for the attention of their audiences. In the words of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos put it: “Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room”.
Beyond logos and taglines, a brand encompasses the organisation’s reputation, its values, and the expectations of stakeholders at every level. This means that every interaction matters, from the way staff engage with beneficiaries to the presentation of charity shops, media coverage, and online presence. Taking control of branding, ensuring consistency across all of your spaces and interactions allows a charity to reinforce the organisation’s mission and values. By addressing both the practical and emotional dimensions of branding, charities can maximise their impact and remain relevant in a fast-changing world.
Over the coming weeks we’re going to be exploring how charities can improve and leverage their brand to better reach their audiences. This week, we’re taking a step backward to look at the big picture; how can branding efforts fail to get off the ground, and where should charities start when building a brand strategy?
Why Invest in Brand?
Neglecting your brand poses significant risks, particularly for established charities. Some organisations rely on the strength of their historical brand, even when their recognition and relevance are in decline. Without ongoing investment, the cost of fixing a brand rises, and opportunities to connect with new audiences, particularly younger generations, can be lost.
So, what keeps these charities from investing in their brands? These common barriers are often to blame:
- Lack of Awareness: Many organisations don’t recognise branding as integral to building trust and communicating impact. Without this foundational understanding, branding efforts often aren’t prioritised and receive no funding.
- Limited Budgets: Not every organisation has the resources for large-scale branding campaigns. But charities often underestimate the importance of their brand as it’s experienced at every point of the donor/supporter journey. Charities can start with their everyday touchpoints, such as email signatures, out-of-office messages, and donor stewardship letters, which can reinforce the brand at no additional cost.
- No Platform: Having your voice heard in the crowd isn't easy, especially if you don't have the funding to promote your message. But building your brand can be as easy as encouraging beneficiaries to share their stories, which can be a powerful way to convey impact, or getting more proficient with free online platforms and tools to get the ball rolling on your public image.
- Absence of Strategy: A lack of clear brand strategy makes it difficult to align branding with external activities, including volunteer recruitment, event management, or donor engagement - it’s hard to invite people on a journey if you can’t tell them the destination.
- Federated Models: Organisations with national and local branches often struggle to balance consistent branding with the desire for localised expression. This can lead to fragmented efforts that dilute the overall brand.
Tracking Brand Awareness
Measuring brand awareness is essential to monitor progress and guide future efforts. nfpResearch's tracking services are tailored to provide insights into branding activities; however, tracking needs to be paired with action to ensure that you're not just measuring awareness, but also implementing changes to improve it.
Defining a unique brand expression requires an iterative approach:
- Gather honest feedback from diverse groups about how your brand is perceived across the activities that matter to you.
- Use that feedback to refine your messaging.
- Repeat the process to continually align with audience expectations and needs.
Organisations should ask courageous questions and not fear the answers. This ensures the brand remains relevant and impactful.
Branding is an ongoing investment that delivers long-term returns, from financial stability to enhanced engagement. Every organisation, regardless of size, can take small, practical steps to strengthen its brand. By embracing branding as a strategic priority, charities can ensure they remain relevant, impactful, and inspiring - today and for generations to come.
For more around building your brand, consider downloading an information pack below or contact us at insight@nfpResearch.com