Brand as personality: The implications for nonprofit fundraising

January 10, 2005
By Louise Chatterton Luchuk

If you think of branding as building your organization’s “personality” – the face that interacts with the public – then an organization’s brand identity is more than just the look of a logo, more than just a marketing function. Brand identity encompasses everything…and that includes fundraising.

This is the experience of Owen Charters, national director of marketing and development for Muscular Dystrophy Canada. It became clear about three or four years ago that Charters’ organization needed to take a good look at their brand identity. As Charters explains, the problem stemmed from the fact that in North America the organization was fairly synonymous with the Jerry Lewis telethon. In fact, in the United States the organization considers the telethon to be their brand and it has made them one of the most successful charities in that country.

The Canadian arm was established in 1954 and got on board with the telethon at the same time as the American organization. However, about ten years ago the costs to produce the telethon were phenomenally high and the Canadian organization made a painful decision to withdraw. “Subsequently, we began to lose profile,” says Charters, “which meant decreased donors, which meant decreased revenue. About three or four years ago this came to a head. We had to turn the ship around and we had to do it right.”

Alphabet soup confusion

Without the connection to the telethon, who were they? There was the “alphabet soup confusion” to deal with because so many disease-related causes go by acronyms – MS, MD, CF. Then there was a fairly passive slogan that needed work. “During a brainstorming session, someone made a passing comment – ‘It’s about muscles’. It made us stop. Let’s make muscles move…the message is that simple,” recalls Charters. The process itself wasn’t quite so simple and an intensive year followed with many focus groups, wide consultation, and frequent points for feedback. These steps were very important because donors and volunteers are very loyal to their causes and there are emotional connections to work through.

The new brand identity has made a huge difference in corporate partnerships because, with a clear brand, corporate donors see connections. Muscular Dystrophy Canada’s biggest partner is Harley Davidson and together they form the ‘Muscle and Chrome Neighbourhood’. Firefighters raise one-quarter of the organization’s revenue each year and muscles make a lot of sense to them, too. In addition, concentrating on making muscles move opened up new partnerships with fitness clubs, nutrition centres and others focused on body building and active living. “This modernized us. People are coming to us know now and that’s a first,” says Charters.

The nonprofit ‘marketplace’

Mark Sarner is the president of Manifest Communications, a social marketing firm established in 1981. The majority of his company’s time and effort is spent focused on the nonprofit sector, and developing social brands is the largest part of that work. Over the course of time, he has witnessed a growing acceptance of branding and recognition within the nonprofit sector that it is indeed a marketplace. “Where once branding was tainted by commercial applications, it’s much more acceptable now,” says Sarner. “Branding is recognized as a means for establishing distinctiveness and relevance. Branding has been demonstrated to work for organizations that use it well to make clear to audiences what they do, what they are about, and how these characteristics make them different in a very competitive marketplace.”

Herein lies the relevance to fundraising efforts. If all causes are good and virtually all organizations worthy, it is very difficult for a donor to determine who or what to support. Sarner illustrates: “Pick a cause, for instance the environment or homelessness. Organization X approaches the environment differently than Organization Y. Brand identity clarifies the differences. It doesn’t mean one is better, but it stands out and brand is the tool.” Money will flow to perceived value and often how a donor thinks about or feels about an organization is more important than the generic cause associated with it.

DIY Branding

Suzanne Hawkes, senior strategic counsel and co-founder of the communications centre at IMPACS, finds herself training and consulting with an increasing number of organizations on the topic of brand identity. “There is a domino effect when there are government cutbacks. We have more charities competing for resources and doing so with less than they used to have.”

To clarify brand identify, Hawkes encourages organizations to place their passions, attitudes, and values on one side. On the other side, she places the interests and passions of the audiences the organization serves. Brand identity occurs in the overlap. “If we just focus on ourselves,” says Hawkes, “we are irrelevant to the rest of the world.” Hawkes sees brand identity as an important part of any fundraising strategy because a donor will donate where they see their own passions and values reflected.

In Hawkes’ training and consulting work she encourages storytelling, or what she calls “unpacking the relationships through stories.” There is a lot to be learned by asking questions like: What’s your favourite moment with our organization? What adjectives would you use to describe our organization? She also encourages organizations to ask other key questions. What does the public know about us? Think about us? What are the public’s values? Needs? Where do our organization’s values, passion and mission overlap? This do-it-yourself type of research can be done even on small budgets.

“Looking at yourself upside down and backwards”

The payoff for organizations that successfully build their “personality” is potentially huge, whether in fundraising or other areas. However, the task can be very challenging admits David Hocking, chief strategic officer of the David Suzuki Foundation. The foundation started out as a small organization 14 years ago. In those days, he says, “there was no money for public research so we invented things as we went along. We assumed that we were doing what Canadians wanted and expected of us.” Since David Suzuki is one of the most respected Canadians (fifth on the recent CBC list of the Greatest Canadians), the foundation had to grapple with the question of what the public expects of an organization bearing his name.

Hocking encourages any organization embarking on a branding process to have a thorough discussion within the organization about if and why they should proceed. “You have to open your brain AND you have to be willing to change. It permeates everything you do. You can’t express yourself one way to one audience and another way to a difference audience. Everything has to change.”

Sarner points out that the biggest difficulty lies in having people look at themselves and their organization from the outside. This is especially difficult in the charitable sector, which is full of people deeply invested in their cause. “This passion is a strength but also a weakness because organizations believe that everyone should share the passion for the same reasons. So, unless you can develop an understanding of your audience and their point of view, you won’t be an effective brander. The challenge is to look at yourself upside down and backwards.”

Louise Chatterton Luchuk is a freelance writer and consultant who combines her love of writing with experience at the local, provincial and national levels of volunteer-involving organizations. For more information, visit www.luchuk.com.

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