Branding is powerful. It can be the difference between an organization reaching icon status or drowning in a sea of competitors. It can make your nonprofit organization memorable, invoke strong emotions that stir individuals to action, and inform strangers what your work is all about. No matter how big or small your nonprofit might be, branding matters.
When you think of nonprofit branding, the first thing that comes to mind is likely major organizations and their highly recognizable logos. Everyone associates the World Wildlife Fund with its black and white panda or Feeding America with its ear of wheat. But nonprofit branding goes beyond just logos.
Each of these organizations, and hundreds of other nonprofits in the sector, have used their logos, visuals, typography, slogans, and more to get you to recognize their message.
At Eleven Fifty Seven, we’re passionate about elevating a nonprofit’s design so that you can better connect with your supporters — and doing so begins with your brand. In this guide, we will walk through everything you need to know about nonprofit branding so you can take your organization to the next level. We’ll cover:
Whether you’re just getting started with your nonprofit’s branding or you’re looking to revamp your old style, this guide will help you maximize your potential and connect with your supporters more effectively. Let’s dive in!
Nonprofit branding faq
Before learning how to design your nonprofit’s brand strategy, we need to cover the basics. It’s likely you already have a theoretical understanding of branding, but reviewing some of these essential questions ensures that when you do get started, you’re organized and have a solid grasp of the fundamentals.
What is nonprofit branding?
Nonprofit branding is how you inform those who may not be familiar with your mission about your organization. The way that you design your brand influences the way that others perceive you and the work you do.
You probably think of the visual elements of branding first, and there's a good reason for that. Branding often relies heavily on visual elements: the logo, fonts, colors, images, and more all help to make the brand stand out. But building a successful brand goes beyond these features.
Think of your brand as the vehicle for your mission. It’s your one-stop shop for conveying to potential supporters what you do, who you are, why you exist, and how they can help. In a way, branding is psychological. It influences how supporters think about your organization.
Why is nonprofit branding important?
Because your branding affects how supporters will think about your organization (and therefore how they will share information about your work with others), it’s crucial that you accurately represent your nonprofit. With your branding, you can give your supporters the visuals and language they need to spread awareness about your cause.
Branding is also important to maintain and grow your organization’s supporter base. By being consistent with your branding, you appear more authoritative and trustworthy. In fact, supporters need to interact with your brand 5-7 times to remember it, so more consistency means a better chance of sticking in your supporter’s mind.
What are the benefits of a strong nonprofit brand?
Strong branding is the best way to signal to your supporters that you are an established organization that is forwarding the social good. Poor branding can leave your supporters confused or distrustful. For example, if you have vastly different logos on your social media and your website, your supporters may doubt that your organization is legitimate.
Ultimately, a strong brand establishes your organization in the minds of your supporters. When they think of your cause, they will think of your organization. This way, your nonprofit can become the most trusted source for information about your cause and how to help.
What should your brand include?
Remember, your brand includes more than just your logo. Later in this guide, we’ll take a closer look at how to create your own brand strategy, but here’s a very basic overview of essentials for your nonprofit’s brand:
Your story.
Voice.
Logo.
Consistent color palette.
Photography and other visuals.
Specific typography.
As we continue to explore what goes into creating a strong brand, keep these elements in mind. That way, when you’re ready to start developing your brand, you might already have some ideas to get the ball rolling.
How do you develop and refine your brand?
The short answer: with time. Over time, you will get a better sense of your nonprofit’s voice and style. But just because this knowledge comes with time doesn’t mean you can’t start off on the right foot.
Always try to keep your mission at the center of your branding. Not only will doing so demonstrate to your supporters that you’re working for the right reasons, but it will also ensure that all of your branded materials represent your goals.
Another great way to develop and refine your brand is to connect with the people who will be most affected by it — your supporters! They might have some great ideas to improve your branding, or they could tell which strategies were most effective.
Creating a Nonprofit Brand Strategy: 7 steps
Now that you have a better idea of the nonprofit branding basics, we can delve into how to develop your own strategy. Following these 7 steps can help you create a brand that represents your nonprofit for years to come.
1. Dig deep into your mission, identity, goals, and audience.
Arguably the most important step in creating your brand strategy, digging deeper into the core of your organization is crucial to create a truthful and compelling brand identity.
Taking the time to understand exactly what you want to say and how you want to present it will serve you well in the long run. You won’t have to return to the drawing board later on in the process and you can be confident that your branding truly represents your organization. As you’re digging into your organization, you should focus on your:
Mission: How can your branding most accurately reflect your mission statement?
Identity: What tone or voice do you want to use when connecting with your audience? Should you be approachable and friendly or authoritative and serious?
Goals: How can your branding convey what goals you’re trying to achieve?
Audience: What is your audience like? How can you use this information to design your branding with them in mind?
Answering these questions will give you a better idea of how you should design and develop your nonprofit’s branding. With a stronger understanding of your nonprofit’s foundation, you can more easily turn it into a compelling story.
2. Lay out the story your brand should tell.
Storytelling is the key to a compelling and successful brand. We are naturally more inclined to listen to and remember stories that pique our interest, so weaving a story through your brand can draw supporters in. A good story can also unlock the emotional appeal that can motivate your supporters to get involved.
Your nonprofit’s story can focus on a variety of topics. Perhaps your nonprofit is very people-driven, so it might be most effective if you tell the story of one of your beneficiaries. Maybe your organization focuses on the environment, so centering your story around your real world impact would be best. No one knows your nonprofit’s story better than you do, so trust your intuition.
As you begin creating your brand, keep this story at the center of your work. Your mission and your story should work together to tell potential supporters or donors why they should care about your cause.
3. Determine some style essentials.
With your story ready to be told, you’re now ready to determine the visual elements of your brand. These stylistic choices can make the difference between a supporter remembering your nonprofit or simply forgetting, so be bold and strategic with your selections. These are the visual elements you need to determine:
Colors: Your color palette can say a lot about your organization. For instance, organizations that work with children tend to use brighter colors to convey joy, while research organizations use more muted colors to show professionalism. Pick colors that align with the feeling you want your supporters to experience when they interact with your organization.
Fonts: Ensure that your fonts are easily readable and visually interesting. Pick one to two fonts to use on all of your materials to maintain as much consistency as possible.
Logo variations: Different platforms will require different versions of your logo. Although you should keep the same color scheme and fonts, creating larger or smaller versions of your logo can help you keep all of your materials branded.
Taglines: A fantastic tagline can really stick in your supporters’ minds. Keep it short, snappy, memorable, and tied to your mission.
Images: Consider what types of images you want to use in your branded materials. Do you want a more graphic, illustrative look? Or do you want to photograph the beneficiaries of your organization? Both are good options but can significantly influence how supporters connect with your brand.
Once you’ve settled on your choices, commit to them. A strong brand requires a consistent style to build your reputation, generate interest in your nonprofit, and ensure memorability among your supporters.
4. Create a comprehensive brand book or style guide.
Now that your visual elements are ready to go, compile them all into a brand book or style guide and make it accessible to everyone on your team. This way, even if two different people are creating content for your brand, the final products will both still be on brand.
A comprehensive brand book is also a great reference point for you to make adjustments in the future. Perhaps after sharing a certain color for a while, you find that it is too dull compared with the rest of your palette. You can easily return to your brand book to understand the rationale beyond your decision, get ideas for how to adjust, or decide to stick with your original decision.
5. Test and refine your nonprofit’s branding choices.
What’s the best way to determine if your branding choices are effective? Ask your supporters! They are already the ones who are most familiar with your brand and will likely have the most insightful feedback.
Consider hosting focus groups where you test some different branding options. It’s a good idea to recruit both supporters of your organization and those less familiar with your cause to get a sense of how all types of people will react to your branding.
Your branding is not going to resonate with everyone, but that’s okay! As long as the general consensus is positive and those familiar with your brand find that it accurately reflects your work, then you’ve made the right choices.
6. Develop a range of brand kits for different contexts.
One important but often overlooked aspect of branding is adaptability. It’s likely that your nonprofit is working across several different channels, so the branding materials that you need for each outlet will vary. Here are some different contexts where you’ll need to adapt your branding:
Headquarters: Creating a branded environment at your facility can immerse visitors in your nonprofit’s mission. Try incorporating your color scheme into the design of your headquarters and prominently featuring your logo. You’ll also need high resolution images for large posters, banners, and digital displays.
Website: Your website should also use your color scheme, tagline, and images to give visitors a full sense of your organization’s brand. Supporters will use your site to learn more about your nonprofit as well, so make sure that you have text explaining your mission and work.
Social media: Of all of the different outlets, social media is definitely the most visual. Use your most dynamic and compelling images, graphics, and videos on social media to stand out and grab your followers’ attention.
Email: Email marketing is a great place to test out some logo variations. Because supporters had to subscribe, they are likely already familiar with your organization. For this reason, you can see if a smaller or more simplified logo still resonates with them. Additionally, when writing your emails, be sure to include interesting subject lines and preview text to increase your open rates.
Direct mail: As with social media, try to make your direct mail materials as visually interesting as possible. This way, you can quickly pique your supporter’s interest.
Merchandise: Branded merchandise is a very effective way to spread the word about your organization. Funny or interesting merchandise can not only support your operations, but it can also encourage your supporters to represent your organization.
Your brand needs to be an experience. Anywhere your supporters are engaging with your organization should promote your organization in one way or another. You should also use each outlet to support the others. For instance, your social media and email marketing could direct supporters to your website, where they can donate and learn more about your organization.
7. Regularly review your brand strategy to make updates or fill in gaps.
Although maintaining consistency is essential to building a strong brand, don’t be afraid to subtly update your strategy over time. Keeping your strategy fresh will ensure that your supporters stay interested and are always looking out for what you will post next.
You may also notice that as you’re rolling out your brand that there are some gaps in your strategy that you hadn’t anticipated. Amend your brand guide and incorporate these new additions into your strategy going forward.
Nonprofit Branding Examples
You’re on your way to becoming a nonprofit branding expert, but now let’s take a look at some great examples of branding in action. We’ll look at how different nonprofits maximize their space, website, brand guide, and user experience to establish their brand.
Example #1: East Texas Food Bank: Space
The East Texas Food Bank branded its space to create a more inviting and friendly environment, all while telling a story. This timeline feature, which is visually interesting and follows a specific color scheme, is intriguing for visitors who might not be familiar with how food banks operate.
The story continues with photos that represent people within the community. The text here describes the organization’s mission to visitors. Also notice the consistent color scheme across the facility, which gives the overall design a cohesive look.
The facility also features these infographic elements, which guide visitors through the facility. This way, they can learn more about how the food bank operates while the different branding elements (such as the colors and the font) enhance potential supporters’ experiences.
The East Texas Food Bank is a fantastic example of how a branded space can not only transform your facility, but can also become a motivator for supporters to get involved. Inspiring images or an interesting interaction can help your work resonate more deeply with visitors.
Example #2: our bodies ourselves: Website
The website for Our Bodies Ourselves, a women’s health and reproductive justice nonprofit, is another excellent example of branding. The organization’s story is clearly displayed on the home page, and users can learn more by clicking on the “our story” tab. This way, visitors to the site are drawn in to learn more about the nonprofit.
Additionally, the compelling images and bold colors draw viewers’ attention to women who founded and who have benefitted from the services that the nonprofit has provided.
example #3: UNICEF: Brand guide
The UNICEF brand guide, while more extensive than these two images, offers insights into the level of detail that goes into creating a strong and iconic brand. This typography page highlights which fonts are acceptable for the UNICEF brand. With the help of the guide, it is very clear to any team member which typography styles are acceptable.
Similarly, UNICEF also includes a complete color palette which team members can also reference. The colors are calming but also authoritative, which makes sense for an organization as established as UNICEF.
example #4: Interlochen center for the arts: User Experience
Lastly, the Interlochen Center for the Arts has a well-designed website that puts user experience at the top of its priority list. Not only is the website very easily navigable, but it also involves several interactive elements that make engagement fun and interesting. For instance, this carousel includes testimonials from students who have learned from the Center and even short video clips of them describing their experiences.
Stylistically, Interlochen also uses bold colors and artistic, abstract shapes to convey its brand. Each section of the website features a visually appealing feature, with next action steps clearly visible.
Interlochen’s website is a good example of the importance of user experience in either bolstering or detracting from your brand experience. When your website or other branded outlets are user-friendly, you demonstrate that you value your visitor’s time and energy, which can leave a positive impression.
nonprofit branding checklist
As you can see, there’s a lot to know about branding for your nonprofit. That’s why we’ve compiled everything you need into one easy-to-use checklist for you to reference as you design your own brand strategy.
Once you gather everything on this list, you’ll be ready to share your nonprofit’s brand with the world. You’ll be well-established and recognizable in no time!
Nonprofit Branding Best Practices to Remember
Your brand strategy involves more than just your visual elements and your story. From understanding your audience to choosing your tone, there are a lot of additional factors you should consider. We’ve put together our top 4 best practices to remember as you’re launching your brand.
1. Consider your existing supporters.
Your existing supporters have been the backbone of your organization. They might even have provided you with some of the resources that you’re using to develop your brand. For this reason, you want to keep them in mind as you’re working on your new brand.
The last thing that you want to do is confuse or upset your existing supporters with an out-of-the-blue rebrand or a complete shift away from the values that initially garnered their support.
If you’re planning a brand re-launch, draw attention to it. Use a countdown on your website or on social media to highlight the day when your new brand will go into effect. Not only will this strategy create buzz about your new brand, but it will also give your current supporters a heads up that you’re about to make a change.
2. Make your nonprofit’s brand physically tangible.
Especially if you’re a nonprofit working in your local community, making your design physically tangible is a great way to establish your identity. A welcoming facility that aligns with your website, social media, and other outlets can signify to your supporters that you’re a noteworthy and professional brand.
Physical displays are also a very effective way to make your supporters and donors feel valued. For instance, a donor recognition wall prominently displayed in your facility conveys your appreciation of donors in a meaningful and timeless way. Branding this recognition display also has the added benefit of making your donors feel like they are a big part of your organization (which they are!).
Interactive elements in your physical displays can also encourage visitors to get more involved. Perhaps they are just stopping by your facility for an errand, but then become captivated by an intriguing design or interesting digital feature on your display. Allowing your visitors to interact with displays not only ensures they have a positive experience, but it also increases the likelihood that they will remember your brand.
3. Emphasize your real-world impact.
Your donors want to know how their donations are making a difference. They’re more likely to trust brands that are transparent about how their funds are used and are able to demonstrate how they are improving the world.
On your branded materials, be sure to mention how donations will be used. One effective strategy is to explain how far each donation can go. For example, let’s say you run a women’s shelter. You could include a section in your website that says that a $50 donation could buy necessary toiletries for one woman, while a $200 donation could provide new bedding for a woman and her children. This way, your donors will get a better sense of the real world impact of their contributions.
You should also highlight what you’ve accomplished thanks to the generosity of your donors. Adding statistics about how many people you’ve helped, trees that you’ve planted, or other improvements that you’ve made clearly demonstrates that your brand does more than just talk — you also do the hard work you said you would.
4. Reinforce your brand with smart outreach and thought leadership.
Continuing to build your brand requires ongoing content creation. With an authoritative blog and persistent outreach methods, you can effectively reinforce your brand to your supporters.
Keeping your content updated makes sure that you appear “active” to people who have just encountered your nonprofit for the first time. If you fail to update your blog or post consistently on social media, newcomers might think you are no longer functional and won’t donate to your organization.
Ultimately, you should aim to be the go-to source for those wanting to learn more about the cause that you support. Not only will aiming for this goal ensure that experts on the cause like you are publishing trustworthy and factual information, but it will also continue to elevate your prestige and value in your community.
bringing it all together
An effective branding strategy goes beyond a cool logo design or an interesting color scheme. It involves thinking deeply about your mission and your audience so you can design a brand that is true to your nonprofit’s work and experience.
A strong brand should bring together a wide variety of elements and be utilized in all kinds of places. From your facility to your social media, your brand should be ever-present and memorable. Now that you’re an expert, get started brainstorming today!
Want to learn more about how to elevate your nonprofit’s brand? Check out these additional resources:
Donor Recognition: Physical and Digital Ways to Say Thanks: Your donors deserve all the thanks in the world. Here are our favorite ways to show your appreciation.
Donor Recognition Walls: 8 Examples and Complete Style Guide: Thinking of putting up a donor wall? We have 8 examples to spark your inspiration.
Experiential Design: Complete Crash Course and Examples: Want to learn more about how your nonprofit’s space can create an immersive experience? This guide can show you how.
