Jayne Agency – Ten Elements of Nonprofit Branding

Jayne Agency – Ten Elements of Nonprofit Branding is Brooke Foley’s take on how to truly understand and message your charity’s mission. Here’s what this marketing veteran shared last week with NANOE Members during her expert presentation:

A solid brand platform empowers charities to invest confidently across TIME, MONEY, and PEOPLE in ways that will garner dependable, repeatable, scalable revenue–all essential to keeping a nonprofit serving its beneficiaries. It creates a stable foundation by which all fundraising and marketing efforts are aligned, which helps operations, culture, and protects the organization financially.

Furthermore, nothing brings a board, C-suite and staff together like passionately agreeing on how to talk about their mission. The most powerful way to do that is to start with the strategy of the 501c3’s brand. Developing clarity through brand strategy is often avoided because it is seen as an “unnecessary expense” or a “luxury.” In reality, brand strategy helps lead to financial stability, which is essential to both pursuing and accomplishing the mission.

Jayne Agency – Ten Elements of Nonprofit Branding

A brand platform consists of 10 very specific brand assets that, when created in sequence, provide your team with the tools they need to manage across all functions with direction and alignment, specifically across fundraising and marketing.

Jayne Agency Nonprofit Branding – NANOE Webinar Workbook 2.0

1. GOALS – What are you trying to accomplish? It’s a financial question you need to answer.
2. BARRIERS – What can stop this brand from succeeding? Think about what’s in your way. Dig deep and get real.
3. OBJECTIVES – What are we looking to accomplish? How will we measure success?
4. STRATEGIES – how are we turning barriers into strengths? What are we prioritizing as initiatives we will invest in?
5. AUDIENCE – You only have $1.00 to spend. Who will you spend it on?
6. POSITION – Know your competitors. Where do they sit in the space or category? Why are you different? 
7. INSIGHT – Observation. Behavioral truths. Unmet needs. Brand offering. Start paying attention. Noodle on it. 
8. PROMISE – The core of your story is your brand promise. It’s what you can operationally promise day in and day out.
9. SUPPORT – Support is how you prove your promise. Proof is repeatable, dependable and tangible.
10. TONE AND PERSONALITY – Tone is what you say, how you say it and the words you use. Personality is how you act.

3 Stages Required to Create Branding Alignments

Stage 1: Creating the Brand Platform (3x)

When you work through the 10 assets listed above, you have the basis of a brand strategy, codified as a brand platform. There might be holes or things you need to figure out. And there might be a to-do list coming out of that. Stage 1 requires isolating the process for the staff and then doing the exact same process with the C-Suite, and the Board separately. This allows for 3 key things:

A. Transparency and comfort in sharing information in non-intimidating or inflammatory ways. It allows everyone to settle into their skin, get real, share, and have a “voice”
B. We find the nuances, the disconnects, and the alignments. It’s best to then IDENTIFY clearly across all three what those were.
C. We can isolate issues that are behavioral in ways that are fair, reasonable, and relative so that proper responsible roles can address those in small group or individual settings. Because mission based work is also very emotional, and many roles and relationships are interdependent, it’s important to allow this part of the process to be identified, and isolated.

Stage 2: Introducing Truths About the Brand to Each Other

The next stage was to bring the results back – again, in isolation – so that each group has time to address counter points, alignments, alternatives, and insights. Sharing the results back to the teams separately creates a fragile but real alignment, the beginning of “huh, didn’t expect them to think THAT.” It’s a new way of looking at each other, of hearing and trusting. But it’s just a start, so we have to respect it. You can openly observe humans becoming open, making adjustments, changing perspective, and un-building walls. It is phenomenal to watch as pride of ownership spreads across each team – with unity. Buy-in and recognition start to be visible and open for discussion.

Stage 3: Solidifying the Brand Platform

Once each team hears what the others contributed, it’s important to reconcile discrepancies, opportunities, and actions. The final phase of building the brand platform for any organization is securing the details within it. In this stage, we confirm how each team responded to the information and have mediated any discrepancies in the best interest of the brand. Stewards rise up – as opposed to “owners,” who previously stood in the way. Each steward from each group naturally starts to influence the brand platform into culture. The impact is profound, the process is organic. And, at this point, the BRAND takes itself back into the hands of the organization, not any one function or level.

Jayne Agency Nonprofit Branding – NANOE Webinar Workbook 2.0

If you’d like to attend a workshop for a Brand Strategy Session, Jayne Agency is providing as much access as possible through many organizations, including NANOE. If you’d like to secure time to talk about your 501c3 mission and brand, contact [email protected], and we’ll help you find a workshop so you can explore the 10 assets shared here alongside others seeking the same brand clarity. Or we can talk about your own dedicated brand workshop.

Jayne Agency, LLC
PO Box 556 | Highland Park, IL 60035
o: 312.464.8100 | c: 773.203.2205 | https://jayneagency.com

Jayne Agency – Ten Elements of Nonprofit Branding was first posted at Inside Charity

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About The Author:

In 2009, Brooke Foley left big agencies behind to found Jayne Agency. Her vision was to create a place where highly talented people deliver customer-centric solutions to clients who are committed to making a difference for their companies and customers. At Jayne, Brooke’s passion and enthusiasm have attracted a group of people who bring that same level of commitment to elevating each of our clients’ brands — affectionately called the “Jayniacs” by our clients and partners. Each of the Jayniacs are experts at discovering the essence of each of our clients and sharing it through award-winning storytelling. Our storytelling is grounded in insights and strategy and brought to life by innovative creative. We find the right way to reach your audience on the right medium.