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What Goes Into an Effective Nonprofit Branding Strategy?
Many people believe a nonprofit’s brand is simply their visual identity. Although visuals play a key part in your brand, it’s important to recognize that your branding strategy goes deeper. It impacts your fundraising strategy, internal and external communications, and overarching identity.
At its core, your nonprofit brand strategy plays a role in how your organisation expresses your purpose and values.
For example, on your nonprofit website, you’re likely making a conscious effort to use your brand to communicate with your audience about your mission and programs. But when you send an email to your coworker, you probably don’t notice how your brand is incorporated. The reality is that, no matter what channels or forms of outreach you use, your brand shines through everything you do because you are essential to the brand.
For those with a previously narrow view of nonprofit branding, this idea naturally leads to the question: What is a nonprofit brand?
What does a virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO) do and why would you want one?
The Nonprofit vCIO
The term virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO) has been around for well over a decade now, but even today, if you ask ten different people what a vCIO does you may well get ten different answers.
This article does not claim to be the definitive answer to the question of what a vCIO does, but we will do our best to explain:
How the vCIO role emerged
The kinds of things a vCIO does
What value a vCIO can provide to a nonprofit
Why a nonprofit might want to engage a vCIO
What qualities to look for in a potential vCIO
"Planning Where You Want to Go" with Stu Swineford
When someone leads with, “I hope you don’t take this personally…” it’s natural to brace for a blow.
How nice is it then when it turns out to be a compliment!
Someone recently said to me, “I hope you don’t take this personally but I feel like your approach is quite practical, it’s quite straightforward.”
It *is* practical. It’s not flashy, or sparkly, or “out there.” There’s no quick fix to fundraising - and there’s no expedited timeline for growth.
But, when organizations put one foot in front of the other, and are consistent in using the tools we create (skills, knowledge, mindset shifts), that’s when transformation truly occurs.
“Take No Prisoners Fundraising Success” with Larry C. Johnson
I want to share a a bit of my recent conversation with Larry C. Johnson, founder of The Eight Principles and host of Oracle League Podcasts.
In our conversation, Larry shared this phrase with me when talking with nonprofit CEOs: Have you found your organization’s four-leaf clover?
We were talking about efficient and effective fundraising - which eludes so many organizations within the nonprofit sector. Executive directors and board members constantly grapple with:
❌ Not enough unrestricted gifts
❌ Lack of gen-ops revenue
❌ Heavy emphasis on project based gifts
❌ Little professional development in fundraising staff
❌ Feeling like they can’t take risks
I’m not telling you anything new here! These ARE the pervasive barriers within the sector.
But, they’re not impenetrable.
Do you HAVE to ask your nonprofit board?
I was listening to a personal finance podcast the other day. My favorite one right now is Ramit Sethi's podcast here. He interviews couples about how they manage (and fight about, disagree about, stress over) their finances. The other day he was talking about ‘the number’. You know, the highest dollar amount you each can spend without asking your partner…so interesting!
I love his podcast because it’s all about money mindset and money rules….and that’s where there’s TONS of overlap with my work.
These episodes totally resonate with me because I see multi-million dollar organizations who don’t have ‘the number’.
You know, the number you can spend without asking your board.
Nonprofit Revenue Growth: What does it take to grow from $2M to $10M annually?
I typically have lots of calls with nonprofit leaders at the end of the calendar year. This past year was at an all time high. Makes sense. You're thinking about climbing that revenue hill again and want to know what it looks like if I was at your side for those 12 months training you, your staff, and your board.
Well, I had an interesting day this past year during these calls. I had two potential client conversations scheduled on the same day.
There were a lot of similarities between the two nonprofits:
- Both leaders were running similar sized organizations
- Both knew they needed more unrestricted revenue for general-operating expenses.
- Both had reached out because they are experts in something other than fundraising.
- Both suspect their development teams and boards might be leaving money on the table.
But, here's where the similarities stopped . . .
I asked . . . What are your growth plans? How much money do you need?
Looking Forward: 4 Fundraising Tips for 2022
2022 is upon us! Everyone is working toward their New Year’s resolutions to make this year brighter and better than ever before. During this time, your team is also working hard to use the data you have on hand to create a strategic plan for a more successful year for your nonprofit.
It’s important to understand both where nonprofit professionals have been the last couple of years as well as how the nonprofit sector will evolve in order to be sure you’re making the most of the new opportunities the year can bring.
This year, you can expect to see both new and continuing fundraising trends from the last several years. By acknowledging these trends, your organization can raise more money and make the most of its fundraising efforts.
With that in mind, we recommend incorporating the following fundraising tips into your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy:
Plan hybrid fundraising events.
Develop new partnerships with for-profit businesses.
Leverage new connections through your board.
Focus on your mid-level donors.
Ready to learn more about the tips we’ve listed above and see how they’ll help your organization? Let’s get started.
Nonprofit Advocacy: How to Plan Your Next Campaign
Advocacy campaigns are effective tools for raising awareness about your organization’s mission and driving positive change. Plus, these campaigns have the added benefit of strengthening your nonprofit’s relationships with supporters, helping you to acquire new ambassadors for your cause, and ultimately empowering you to be more successful in all your efforts.
Advocacy campaigns require extensive forethought, planning, and the right tools in order to succeed and help you reach your goals. After all, they require the mobilization and organization of a broad range of people with different levels of experience in lobbying and advocacy.
Before you launch an advocacy campaign, it’s important that your organization has a clear idea of where you are, where you want to go, and how you’re going to get there.
Donation Page Optimization: Best Practices and Design Tips
Your donation page plays an important role in how successful your nonprofit is with online fundraising. This page is more than just a form for donors to input their financial information into. An optimized donation page can effectively increase donations, while one that’s visually overwhelming or difficult to complete can turn donors away.
Whether you’re setting up your nonprofit’s donation page for the first time or looking to revamp your current page to improve completion rates, your donation page can always be improved to maximize each supporter’s visit. Supporters who reach your donation page are likely already familiar with your nonprofit and are at a critical point in their engagement. Make the most of their attention to turn one-time donations into the beginning of long-lasting relationships.
Donor Cultivation: Having “The Talk” with Your Nonprofit Donors
Fundraisers: When you go into a donor meeting, what’s your biggest fear?
The simple answer, that donors will simply say “no,” is real—but a bit broad.
Let’s dig a little deeper…
Playing the Numbers Game
I often hear development staff say their biggest fear is not knowing the answers to a donor’s questions. I talk about this a lot in regards to “the numbers.” It’s certainly a valid concern in some cases, if staff members aren’t privy to the financial aspects of their organization’s overall strategic initiatives.
To that, I say:
1) Your staff should have access to and knowledge of the true financial need of the organization. How else would they convey the need to investment-level donors? That’s why it’s so important to budget for training - to provide development staff the skills they need to lead donors to their best gift.
2) If there are questions that cannot be answered at that moment, what a perfect opportunity to get back in touch with that donor once you do have the answers. It’s a natural progression into relationship building!
Fixing the Root Causes of Failed Fundraising
As a nonprofit leader, how many times have you put weeks, maybe months, building out your strategic initiative and at the end of the day you didn’t have money to do them! The entire process didn’t live up to your expectations. Worse, it didn’t live up to your board’s expectations?
Frankly, this happens more often than you might think. Why?
Fundraising is strategic, yes. But unless you optimize the foundational elements of your fundraising plan (which really should be a financing plan), all of that “strategy” is for naught.
Sadly, unfulfilled Strategic Plans is one of the Top 3 reasons nonprofit CEOs reach out to me.
Digital Waivers for Volunteers: 5 Things to Consider
Whether you’re planning a fundraising event or a regular form of your nonprofit programming, you likely rely significantly on the time and labor donated by your dedicated volunteers.
Those volunteers are important to you and your mission, so it’s imperative that you consider any risks that they assume every time they come to an event or your office to volunteer.
That’s where waivers come in handy—many nonprofits have their volunteers sign a waiver at the beginning of their volunteering engagement. A waiver protects both you and your volunteers, which helps to preserve your relationship and enables you to continue working with each other far into the future.
Why the “Great Resignation” Isn’t a New Problem in the Nonprofit Sector
You might have heard about the “Great Resignation,” which refers to a recent “tidal wave of resignation.” This reality has affected almost every industry—from corporate finance to retail. The nonprofit sector, in particular, has suffered greatly.
I’m witnessing the challenges my clients are facing firsthand. So many nonprofit leaders have been impacted by the departure of their fundraising staff. I lost count of the nonprofit CEOs who’ve come to me over the last 12 months wanting to hire “right” this time.
To do this, we need to have a much deeper conversation—one that requires looking at the foundational structure of nonprofit organizations. Why? Because this problem only gets fixed at the root.
People will take a pay cut to have a greater sense of meaning at work. That doesn't mean you should be frugal when you budget.