How to make your nonprofit brand believable

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01 February 2012

How to make your nonprofit brand believable

If you think your "brand" is something marketing people construct, you're missing the point.

Check out this short video from Brand Autospsy on "talkable" brands:

A brand is a reality that people experience, not a set of communications guidelines. Of course, your communications should support, not get in the way of, what people are experiencing -- but unless the reality your donors experience is really excellent, you hardly have a brand people are going to talk about.

If your donors are not the same people as your beneficiaries, this means:

Thank them promptly and powerfully.
Report back consistently on the impact of their giving.
Make sure the connection between their giving and your cause is always clear.

Posted by Jeff Brooks on 01 February 2012 at 10:51 in Branding | Permalink

Technorati Tags: fundraising

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What this blog is about
The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It's not about any technology, medium, or technique. It's about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It's already here. More.

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About the blogger

Jeff Brooks, creative director at TrueSense Marketing, has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 20 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you'll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff.brooks [at] truesense [dot] com. More.

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Instead of talking at donors, TrueSense is proving it's smarter to listen. Asking donors how they prefer to give. Because we’re about creating relationships and building trust and communicating honestly and powerfully. One to one. Want to talk fundraising? Drop me a line.

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At last, the book you really need to read about fundraising. I wrote it for you: All the stuff you wish you (or your boss) knew about fundraising that motivates donors to give, give frequently, and give joyfully.

Some of what you'll find here may seem contrarian. It's not. It's proven, tested, real-life stuff that actually works. If you care about fundraising, about your donors, and about supporting your cause, you need to read The Fundraiser's Guide to Irresistible Communications by Jeff Brooks.