Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi, I'm Dr. Vanessa as O'Neill, and welcome to my course, essential branding strategies for non-profit
organizations, a holistic approach to branding. Course, we discuss
things branding, everything relating to how to brand in non-profit
organization. In this day and
time, as we know, funding is becoming more competitive for nonprofit
organizations to obtain. It is harder and
harder and getting even harder to acquire the
funding that you need, especially as it relates to donor contributions,
grants, sponsorships. All of these are still
pathways to funding, but it's becoming
more competitive. And so non-profit organizations, especially the smaller
grassroots organizations, have to do more as it
relates to promoting the organization to the
community that they serve as well as new donors
and contributors. This can seem like a lot, especially if you don't
have the resources, which is normally the
number one reason why an organization
cannot acquire more of what they need
to provide services or more funders to fund
the organizations that they need to
provide services. But it doesn't
have to be an end. All just repackaging
the organization, making it so that the
organization is well-known. Its purpose, its objective
is well-known to more than just the people that they're currently serving
and the people that they're currently
having as contributors. Just making small minor changes
as opposed to marketing. Now, instilling branding. In this course, we're going to discuss Branding Essentials, as well as social media, donor and contributor engagement,
community engagement. I'm going to answer some of the more common questions that
I receive about branding. And we're also
going to talk about how to start the process, what you might need to do. So now here's the thing. This course, I'm going to show
you how to do all of this. What are having a huge
budget for branding? We're talking about
going through the grassroots level for
an organization that does not have the
resources or may not have very large budget, a budget at all for
anything branding. I'm going to show you how to do this on a shoestring budget. I'm going to show you how to
do it in a holistic manner. If you're ready, I'm ready. Let's get to it.
2. Branding Elements: There are four elements to branding a non-profit
organization, community, organizational
employee, and service. Now these are not to be mixed up with the branding
of the community, the branding of
the organization, the branding of the employee, and the branding of the
service as it relates to the external part of the
non-profit organization. What we're talking about is
branding the organization, the community aspect of
what the organization does, the organizational aspect
of what the NPO does, what does the employees do as it relates to the organization and the service
that is provided. So basically what you're doing when you're
branding a non-profit is you're allowing people to understand not only what you do, but who you are as
an organization. That's the key when it comes to non-profit
organizations branding, because it used to be and still there's a
little bit that branding, the stigma behind branding normally follows
behind corporations. But understand that
non-profit organizations, our business, awesome, although the difference between non-profit organization
and a corporation is surface as opposed to
the bottom line, dollar. Branding is basically building the organizational as
the expert that it is in the fields
that it is providing service necessary for a
non-profit organization to brand. The difference in
branding strategy as it relates to non-profit organizations
and corporations. And the n, the branding
for a corporation. What allow the corporation
to increase sales, increase subscriber
ships, increase, people motivated to want to align themselves
with the business. However, the branding for
a non-profit organization, although it's doing the same, the bottom line is going to be branding the organization
and the service that it provides to be able to increase the funding
that the organization receives and
increase the support that the organization
it receives. All of this is going
to filter itself out back into the community
through goods and services. Let's talk about the four
different elements of branding. Community branding, organizational,
employee, and surface. We're going to give you
a minute and a half to review this document. Now, there's a good chance that you are family
member or friends, someone that you know has benefited from
or participated in. One of these Elements. Let's start with
community branding. Community branding, again, is
not branding the community. The community branding for a nonprofit organization
is branding the impact of your goods and services to the community
in which you serve. So the first question is, do you know who
your community is? Who is your community? Understanding? Who your community is. Not just a geographical
community, the people that you
serve in your locale, but understanding who
your community is, who is it that you service? That's the question. Who is it that you serve? Whoever it is that you service? That is your community. That is who you
want to speak to. What makes you stand
out as an organization. Understanding that there is a difference between organizations
regardless of the fact that you might provide
the same service or I have similar services and benefits as another
organization, there's something about
you that stands out. What is that? Let's think about
that for a minute. Just because you and another organization
provide the same service, have similar interests
and you may even have some of the same community. But are you providing
the same exact service? Are they doing the same exact
thing that you are doing? Look at the things that you have in common, the similarities. Now, look at the differences. It's in the differences that your impact should be
stated as what stands out. It's in the differences. Remember. Just because you provide
the same service, just because you have similarities doesn't mean
that you are the same. There's something about your organization
that's different. That's what you
have to filter out. That's what you have to
look at thoroughly and say, Oh, this is our impact. Then what is your legacy? What is it that you
are leaving behind? As far as an organization? We've already said that you will have similarities
and differences. In the differences,
what is your legacy? What is your organization
going to be known for? So any organization, let's
take a few examples. If I were to say wounded
warrior project. What are they known for? Now? Obvious several wounded
warrior projects in the world today? Yes, there are. All of them providing
services to wounded veterans? Yes, they are. But
what is it about the wounded warrior
project that stands out in their branding? They have allowed you to
know exactly who they are. The legacy. Ask yourself, what
is your legacy? What is it that
you're going to leave behind for the organization? As the organization and
serving your community. When community branding, looking at the impact
of the organization, you want to make sure that the community
understands what it is you do and the impact that
it has on the community. Service branding. When service branding, you're looking at what it is
the organization provides. Let's start with the
example of a grocery store. Rural neighborhood. There's not a lot
of mass transit that goes to this neighborhood. But the major grocery stores
are maybe five miles away, and they're not
easily accessible. By walking or riding a bike. You need transportation. The organization puts
a grocery store. The neighborhood. The service that you're
providing is that you're placing a grocery store in
a neighborhood with affordable food that is accessible without
transportation. That's the service that
you provide in branding. That is the service
that you are branding. This is what you're sharing. The branding is going to be, this is what we provide. We added a grocery store with affordable food that is accessible without
transportation. The surface branding,
understand is key because it allows people to know what it is you did.
And that's important. Organizational branding. The objective of
organizational branding is telling the story
of what you do. Organizational
branding is little bit different than
the service branding. Service branding. You're stating what you provide. But in organizational branding, you're stating what it is. Organization does, not what
you provide, what you do. So this is where you start
to highlight the metrics. This is where you start
to talk about and discuss how many
people use served. How many people frequent
your projects and programs? How many people
have been affected by what your organization
as a whole provides? Not just a service or a program. The homeless. What is it that you do? This is the area that is extremely important
when you're branding. To give that holistic approach. This is where you tell it all. This is how you support
the other elements. What you do is key to
anyone understanding the other elements is key and is vital because it's a key
part of the equation. Then there's employee branding. This is the customer service. When you're branding the
employee aspect of it, you're looking at answering
questions such as what is, what are the success stories with the staff and volunteers? Are their customer
service ratings. Have you received awards,
comments, accolades? These are all things that
when you're branding is a feel-good story. And it really is a
good thing to do because understand that funders, donors, contributors,
they don't want to just know the bat or the impact. They want to know about
the organization. Employee branding is mostly dealing with the
customer service. Exactly what does
the organization do as it relates
to its employees. So for instance, has
the organization and received awards or
comments, accolades. Have you received
customer service ratings? Do people provide feedback to
the services they provide? Has anyone been mentioned or had any high regards
relating to them? This type of branding is so
important because it allows the viewer to understand how you as an organization value your employee's
annual volunteers. But it also allows your, your volunteers and
employees to also expand on their success stories
and their accolades. Their comments and
viewers ships. All of it works together.
3. Social Media: Social media in 2021 is the
key element in branding. The reason why is
because everyone has social media of some aspect. Understand what social
media does for branding. Social media provides
a platform worldwide. There has never been a part of the equation
for branding before. The introduction of
the worldwide web, social media provides
an organization with a platform to
tell its story. It also provides and allows for viewers to get a glimpse of the organization
from the inside. And social media will
help you raise funds, which is so necessary in a lot of non-profit
organizations, most, especially those
grassroots, allows you to teach and instruct the
community in which you serve, as well as extend beyond
that same community. Let's look at each component. When it comes to
telling you a story. We've already talked about the elements relating
to branding. However, now, let's get
a little bit deeper. Telling you a story pretty
much means just that. Telling the story of
the organization. Why you are doing
what you're doing, who you're serving, where
your services provide. You telling the story
of your organization. And here's the thing. It doesn't have to be a story
that has a happy ending, nor does it have to be a
story that is just all good. You want to tell your story were the struggles, their struggles. What is it that you can state at this time that your
viewers can relate to? Because social media
provides just that. It provides an outlet. To be relatable. We want to relate. We want to be able to feel something when it
comes to your organization. We want to be able to support, not just financially, but emotionally,
sometimes physically. You'll gain more support from your community when
they know your story. How did you start? Why did you start? Where do you see yourself going? This is all a part
of your story. Think about you
as an individual. You have a story. How would you tell your story? Would you tell your story? Well, if your branding, your organization and you
want people to support it, you would tell your story. This is no different. Think of the organization
as the entity. Given a pulse. Give it a heartbeat. What's the story? Now? Giving your viewers a
glimpse into your story. Also invite your viewers to the inner workings
of the organization. It puzzles me is that if you're sharing as an
organization and your branding, now mind you all of this
is because we're branding. If you're trying to
share who you are as an organization and
you're inviting your view risk in
your organization. Then how do you determine what you
share and what you don't share? It? Simple. Are you going to share anything that's going
to be incriminating? I don't think so. But you shouldn't be
doing anything that's incriminating as
an organization. Do you let in the
good and the bad? Do you let in the questionable? Who designs? Here's my advice. If you're going to allow your
viewers, can be authentic. Allow them in and be authentic. I was watching a good friend
of mine who has a store, and she received a shipment. That thought it was interesting because she had
the shipment like 5 thousand pieces laid
out and, you know, and she was saying
her in her video, she said, I don't feel like
doing all of this tonight, so I'm just going to leave
it here until tomorrow. That was totally okay because it was a very authentic
real feeling. I don't want to deal
with all of this. These 5 thousand
boxes that are here. I don't feel like
doing this right now. I'm not, I'm just gonna
leave it here and I'm going to bet that is real, that's authentic, and that's what your viewers wanted to see. They wanted to be able
to relate to you. They don't want to see
just the polishing and they don't want to see everything is all
glamorous and all fine. Because if it's all
glamorous and all fine, why do you need the community?
Why do you need us? That's the way to think of it. Now also, fundamentalism. Here's the thing. You can
raise a lot of funds just by your branding efforts
without having a fundraiser. But more people that
get to know you, the more people that get to understand the type of organization that you
are and what you do. They don't need a fundraiser
to help you to raise funds. Not uncommon for
someone to come across an organization on social media like what they do
and then donate. That's not uncommon. Here's the thing. It goes back to telling
your story and inviting your viewers in the
authentic thickness of it all is the key.
4. Donor and Community Engagement: This is a key element of
branding, several others. And the reason is
because it's not enough to Jess gain donors. And it's not enough to
just support a community. There has to be more. But engagement with both with both donor
involved community. This can be done very simply, but it does take some
time and I think that when you look at it,
homeless, they glean. Again, this is one
of the areas where we'll pick and choose
one or the other. Some aspects out. But if you really
think about it, is that the best thing to do? And it's not. Understand that. We do know that branding
is time-consuming. Especially small
grassroots organization. Having the resources,
meaning the manpower, is not always there. This is the reason why
the branding aspect of a non-profit is very,
very, very important. Because the more that you're
engaged with the community, the more that you engage
with your donors, the more funding
that you receive, the more you can
spend on gaining the type of employees that you need to do the type of work. So it really is a domino effect. But let's look at some of
the things we can do to continue to engage
to donor community. And the community
in which you serve. Newsletters. Newsletters are huge. Big mistake and thinking that a newsletter has
to be 51015 pages, that it has to be printed. Not in 2021, won't
be this way in 2022. There are so many
programs right now, but you can use to
create a newsletter and electronic newsletter
and it doesn't have to be more than
a page or tune, just detailing what
the community is, how the community
is being helped, how the organization
is engaging, keeping the community
abreast of what's going on. These newsletters. You will be surprised just having a word from the
executive director, some key elements
of things to come. A calendar activity
that organization was going to engage in in the next week or so or
a couple of months, however you want to do it. I feel good story. These are all things that
can go in a newsletter. It's an electronic newsletter. And here's the key. Most programs. Now, once you submit the
newsletter electronically, you can tell who's reading them. You can use the matrix
to know whether or not this is something
that is working for you. It's not working for you. Awesome. Most web hosts have a newsletter component in
their engagement in marketing. So you don't have to
buy another program or service to create a
newsletter. Check into it. Those sliders should be engaging something that lets me know, okay, this is what
they're doing. Maybe in looking
for board members. It was like maybe you
want to spotlight donor, add it to the newsletter. Maybe you have some highlights coming up or you're going to be participating in something, a project and you would
like the community engaged. You can put it in
the newsletter. And you don't have to be a journalist or
professional writer. Just use grammarly. Spellcheck. Appreciation activities. Another way to engage in your donors and your
community appreciation. You are appreciating volunteers. You may be appreciating
your staff. Maybe you appreciate new donors. These are all ways to
keep people engaged. If you're appreciating
your donors, they're not going
to say, Oh my gosh, they're going to be appreciating me and I don't want to stay
affiliated with them. They're going to
keep being engaged because you are appreciating
them for their engagement. Volunteers. Volunteers are the same way. Inviting volunteers to work with your organization
for no compensation, but as a way for them to
learn or for them to grow, or maybe they just have time. That is an excellent
way to engage your donor community as well as the community
that you serve. Then of course, emails. Now, I'll be the
first to tell you. I don't like a lot of emails. I think one email
is enough and we wanted to mix unless
there's something specific, engaging community and engaging your donors by sending an email, Hey, we were just
thinking about you. I just wanted to let you
know what we had going on this week in this week in the news, this is
what we're doing. That is how you keep people engaged and you
keep them supporting you. And it's important. I know most people have heard
out of sight, out of mind. If you're not, don't
really engaging the community or thoroughly
engaging your donorship. Out of sight, out of line. You will be the organization that they don't support
on continuous effort. I know that every
year, annually, I started receiving calls from certain organizations
because they have their fundraising
programs yearly. And that's the only
time I hear from them. I don't hear from
them any other time. Not throughout the year. I don't receive
anything from them. But when it comes
time for fundraising, they liked the economy. Never ever support them funding. I don't know
anything about them. I just nobody called
me once a year. Is back the organization that you want to be affiliated with, is that what you want people to think of your organization? Think about it.
5. Next steps: The number one question
that I get asked a lot. When it comes to branding and non-profit organizations
is, how do I start? How do I even begin the
journey? That's easy. My number one answer to the number one question is
always going to be pick one. Pick one. Start with one social
media platform. Now, social media isn't the only branding
strategy, is just one. And so I'm starting
with pick one. Pick one social media platform. Just want, when
you pick that one, what you want to do is use every feature that social
media platform has. Every feature. Plan to use that platform. And every feature that it has for your benefit, for
your organization. Create a campaign around
the social media platform. If you're going to
use Facebook Live, create a campaign
around Facebook Live. If you're going to use
Instagram, create a campaign. Using Instagram. You're picking one social
media platform and you're using every feature
that it has, lone one. Another thing you can do is
create a plan for engagement. Mind you, you are still using
your social media platform, which you are
creating a plan for how you're going to engage. Not only your community, but everyone that you can
reach on that platform. Now creating a plan
is going to be, I would say 40% of what
you're going to need to do to brand your organization. Using social media
as a catalyst. Planning is very important. You don't want to Jess
create an account and Jess, you want to be
strategic about it. How many times are
you going to post? What are you going to post? What's the content? What's the themes? What are the colors? All of these things are part of the plan and that's what
you're going to need to do. It's a little bit more
than just creating, creating the platform for your organization and then
just trying to use it. You have to be strategic in every part of
being strategic. It's involved with the random. The second thing I
want you to do is join a group, Facebook group. So there are upper fora of groups for non-profit
organizations on Facebook. But those aren't the ones
that I want you to join, not necessarily the
ones for non-profits. I want you to join the ones
that are beneficial to you. As far as interests. Branding and marketing
might be one. Also other types of non-profits that are similar to what
you provide your service. Awesome. How about interests level? Brings that you're interested in things that might be of
interest to the organization. So it was not just
other non-profits, it could be other for-profits, it can be other
businesses, individuals. It could be anyone, but joining groups so
that you can network. Join groups so that you can follow other people
and they can follow you join groups so that you can follow other organizations
and they can follow you. You see the strategy there. The third thing I
want you to do is partner with another small
non-profit organization. Yes, partner. You're partnering, you're
going to build together. Surely there is another
non-profit organization. I'm not asking you to
look for someone that is similar to yours and
providing the same service. I'm asking you to look for another small non-profit
organization who also have some of the same challenges that you have as a small
non-profit organization. And guess where
you're gonna find this non-profit that
you can partner with. Probably in a Facebook group. I want you to also think about starting
a YouTube channel. Now, this doesn't have
to be done right away. It's not a part of the
branding that's immediate. But I do want you to start
thinking six months down the line how a YouTube channel might be beneficial for you. Now for some it may not
work for some it may, for those that could find
benefit from a YouTube channel, I want you to start one. That's my suggestion. But if you already have a
YouTube channel, guess what? I want you to rebrand it. As you are rebranding
the organization. I want you to also think
about how to rebrand your YouTube channel
if you already have one and it's lying dormant. Lastly, if you're going to use social media as a
non-profit organization, one of the things
you might want to download if you haven't already
is an awareness calendar. The reason for this is so that you'll know month-to-month, some of the content, some of the things
that are going on in the world that you
can use as content. For instance, health awareness, mental awareness,
National Dog Day, international day of yoga. All of these things
matter to someone. Having an awareness calendar. You can highlight areas that might be of interest
to other people and use that information as content for your
social media platform.
6. Wrap Up: Not only have you learned
what branding is, you've learned the
essential elements. Branding. You've also learned how to use social media as a part
of the branding strategy. We took a look at next steps. What do you do now? Another question. Well, it's pretty simple. Look at your needs right now. Let's take an assessment. What are your needs right now? In order for you to
execute branding strategy, if you were going
to start today, what would be some of the
things that you need right now? Do you need a Facebook
account and you need an Instagram account that you need a social media manager. What do you feel that
you need right now? Ask yourself also,
how many hours can you commit to this strategy? My suggestion is to give
at least 30 minutes a day for five
days or work week. If you can give
30 minutes a day. That's 2.5 hours for the week. Now, the 30 minutes
a day doesn't have to be actually
doing something. It could just be
thinking about it or thinking of how you
want to strategize. And then writing it down
and incorporating it all at a different time
with 30 minutes a day. That's all. Can you commit 30 minutes a day? Awesome. You're going to need
to create a plan. This plan is not
just writing down, this is what I'm going to do. This plan is everything
that you're going to do. Meaning on Monday. We're going to post on Instagram because remember
I told you just take one. We're going to
post on Instagram. This is what our content is
going to be for the week. On Tuesday is
international something they were going to post there? Wednesday, we're going to pose something else related
to the organization. On Thursday we're going to post something relating
to the volunteer's. You're gonna create a plan. Start out by making
a plan for a week. Then after that, make
a plan for two weeks, and then after that
and make a plan for three weeks and then
make a plan for a month. By the time you get to
making a plan for a month, you will already have
a system in place. You should makes it easier. One strategy and
one key to success with branding and
strategies is the planning. If you create a clear plan
and execute that plan, you will find that it
becomes more and more repetitive and easier to do
and less time-consuming. So it may take you
2.5 hours per week to create your first plan for
your social media strategy. Within, by the time you
get into your first month, it may start taking you 15
or 20 minutes, hour at most. The more you do it, the
more repetitive incomes, less time it takes. And now you have time freed
up to do something different. Create a calendar,
execute the plan. Then after the first week, I want you to evaluate, evaluate how you
did in week one. Evaluate what the strengths and weaknesses were.
What did you do? Well, what was challenging? Evaluate. Then? After you evaluate, I want you to go back
and I want you to make the changes so that you can
be successful in week two. Awesome. Look into programs such as
planning early, HootSuite. Any type of program that
is free that you can use, that's going to
help you automate a lot of this branding process. This way. If you are able to automate it, you spending less
time with it, right? Okay. Look into those programs. Finding a group and
asking in the group, what programs do you use? You will find to
be so helpful and beneficial because the groups are gonna become a
resource for you. I mentioned one Facebook groups, but you can also use LinkedIn. Then after you plan
and you execute, you go back and you
revisit, assess. Then you do it all over again.
7. Q & A: One of my favorite things
to do is answer questions about branding as it relates
to non-profit organizations. Let me answer a couple of the more common questions that I've received pretty regularly. What type of non-profit organizations should
be able to brand? All non-profit
organizations that rely on support
from the community. They should build a brand. How long should the organization
beta star and branding? The organization would like to continue to providing services. It doesn't matter how
large the organization is. What matters is that the
organization realizes as soon as it can that they need a little help
as it relates to the organizations well-being and providing the services that
it needs to the community and understanding that their
funding is competitive? The answer to that question is, doesn't have to be
very large at all. Grassroots. That's
where you start. When should branding begin? Branding should
begin immediately. As soon as you have
determined that there is a need for your
organization to elevate, you should start with
the branding process. Why shouldn't I'm
propped his brand? Branding is a way to allow the community to
know who you are. But it's not just them knowing that you are
organization a, B, and C. It's about them
knowing who you are, what you stand for, what you do, your impact
on the community. Think of one non-profit
organization that you know by name. Soon as you hear it or soon
as you see their logo, you know who they are. That's branding. And that's what you want
for your organization. You want for the community, you want for your donors, and you want for your
supporters to know who you are. That's why it's important. The other part of it is, the more you are branded
as an organization, the better your chances of
having not only repeat donors, but acquiring new donors consistently throughout
the year, year after year. What is the difference between corporation branding and
non-profit branding? That's a great question. The answer is this
corporation's brand so that they can
increase their buyers. They want to increase
the number of people that are purchasing
their products. And the bottom line for
a corporation or sales. However, non-profit branding,
branding for sales, their branding
themselves so that they can increase the level of
support that they have. Not just financial support,
support from volunteers, support for recognition,
support for whatever it is they're doing in their community,
providing their services. The difference in branding for a non-profit corporation
really is the same thing. One is to increase sales and the other is
to increase support. They're both trying to increase. Something. Isn't branding and
marketing the same thing? No. Branding is making a
statement and making people aware of the
organization as a whole. Marketing is marketing
an item or an entity. Same concept, but
different ending results. Branding is taking
the organization and having the whole beam. The organization stated
as one entity, the name, the logo, the service that
it provides, the colors. All of these things are
all part of the branding, that is your brand. Whereas with marketing, you're marketing an entity in item. Same concept, but just
a little bit different. The results are different. Market an idea, you
brand an organization.
8. Bonus: Here's a bonus for you. This video was
created in September and it's going to
release in October 2021. I wanted to take
this time really just the same that we're about to embark upon
the holidays for those of you that
celebrate the holidays. The holidays, they
are an opportune time for being a catalyst for rebranding because there's so many fun things you can do. Now if we're starting with the social media aspect
of the branding, Think of what you
can do as it relates to moving into the holidays. We're starting we're getting
ready to hit October. And so for those that are
interested in Halloween, there are things you can do
for Halloween, but it's not. The activity itself
is how you use social media to bringing light to the activities that
you are participating in. For instance, are you
creating a heart and house? Are you visiting haunted houses? What is it that you all are
doing as an organization? How about this? There's your organization
dress up for Halloween during the workday. Does your employees dress up? That's something
that you can use your social media platform
because that gives plate, remember I told you to
give people a glimpse in. This gives people a glimpse
into what you're doing for the organization and what
you're doing in organization. You are allowing people
to see the authentic you. Things like cooking, activities
are sharing recipes. Now mind you, you
still want to keep it associated with
the organization. How is this reflective? Yes, Some of it can be fun, but all of it shouldn't be about business because you're still
a non-profit organization. But you can bring these elements of authenticity into it to where people not only just see the business part,
fundraising, fundraising, fundraising surface,
surface service, they're seeing other aspects of the organization
in a fun manner, in a way that they can relate to the holidays is great for that because you have
starting with October, moving into New Year's and
showing the community, your community what
it is you're doing, who you are, where you are, you giving them that insight
and it's all authentic. These are the things that they'll remember
and being you're sprinkling in the
branding aspect of it. You're sprinkling in what you're doing and how you're doing and why you're doing it. You're sprinkling
that in there too. Once they emerge together,
will be memorable. That's how people
will remember you. You want them to
remember you for the authenticity of
the organization and the people that
work for them, and the people that serve them.
Vanessa S., Graphic Designer & Contributing Artist
