How To Unlock Brand Clarity For Your Charity
If you're a charity or nonprofit struggling to find the right focus and message for your organisation, the solution to your struggles lies in a simple framework that will help to unlock brand clarity and bring more relevance to your organisational identity.
Here's how to unlock brand clarity for your charity to better show your true identity to the world.
From survival to strategy mode
Finding new ways to fundraise and stay relevant has no doubt been challenging for your charity organisation in recent years.
Having come through COVID, you're now having to contend with a cost of living crisis that has sparked a "cost of giving" crisis.
Times have been tough, right? And any strategic plans have been shelved because you've just been trying to survive.
But today that changes. It's time to reactivate your strategic plans and be intentional about investing in your brand to better protect your long-term future.
Finding brand clarity is the key. How you identify as a brand and show that to the world is hugely important but arguably one of your biggest challenges.
The good news is, you're not alone. You don't have to settle for survival mode.
Specialist charity branding agencies, like Sodium & Co., are here to help you to rediscover what you stand for and find focus.
Because you have so much heart, so much goodwill, and so much passion, you want to help everyone.
But in trying to help everyone, you can cause a lot of confusion when it comes to your brand identity and brand communication.
Where are you with brand clarity and where are you going?
This is the big question. Do you know where you are as an organisation with your brand clarity?
If you don't, that's ok - but you need clarity on where you are from a brand perspective.
Why? Because this means you can really think about where you're going.
The journey to brand clarity
For a moment, use your imagination, and imagine your organisation's logo on a screen.
What are your immediate thoughts about your logo? More importantly, what would you want your donors, volunteers, staff, and stakeholders to think?
Whatever the answer is, that's branding in a nutshell. Branding is not your logo, or your colour palette, or the fonts you use, it's about defining your ideal reputation. So, how do you want to be known in the marketplace?
This is the first step to brand clarity because going through this exercise gets you asking what is the ideal? How do we want to be known as a charity organisation?
It's here that you really need to think about what your unique contribution to the world is. What's your unique calling as a charity, your unique purpose, and your unique approach to making an impact?
The second step is drilling into what your audience needs. What are they looking for? Why would donors want to support your cause? Why would volunteers want to volunteer with you? Why would trustees want to be on your board? Why would people want to work for you?
And perhaps more importantly, who will be the beneficiaries? What do they need from your organisation and your mission?
It's where all these things overlap that you will need to focus in order to unlock brand clarity. This is how you discover your relevancy.
Six steps to true brand clarity
Making your brand as distinct as possible in a saturated space comes down to six key factors:
#1 - How clear are your service offerings? How clear is your organisation's focus? Is your cause or mission clear? And is it easy to understand and engage with?
From the perspective of a donor, they just need to have a clear understanding of what it is you're actually doing and what you're offering - otherwise they don't know what they're supporting.
Equally, potential beneficiaries of your organisation need to grasp what you can provide for them. And, do you make your services easily accessible?
#2 - What distinguishes you from other charities? Your visual identity will have a huge part to play in being distinct. For example, when it comes to design, is your colour palette unique?
Is your messaging saying something radically different? Are the programs that you're offering completely different from anything else that's out there.
This is important because your branding will mostly be driven by a need to stand out. The question is, how different is your brand?
#3 - What's your brand control like? This is to do with your brand documentation. Are your brand guidelines clear? Are they easy to follow and use? Is your brand governance solid? Is there a structured approval process for who determines what's on brand and what's off brand?
If you have good brand control systems, the clarity of your brand is likely to be much more consistent.
#4 - Attraction. Do you have a relevant look and feel that attracts people? This is a big part of what your brand should be doing… pulling people in.
#5 - Experience. If people are engaging, is their experience of your organisation a good one?
If their first experience with you is a pleasant one, whether it's benefitting, giving, partnering, or volunteering, they're much more likely to engage with you in the long-term. Are you, as an organisation, committed to delivering a memorable experience?
#6 - Alignment. Is your organisation aligned when it comes to the role that your brand plays.
Does your team understand what brand does for your organisation, and do they know what brand means - including things like audience, personality, position, and purpose? And is your leadership team aligned with what your brand elements are?
Next steps to brand clarity
Once you're clear on the six factors, you will have a better understanding of who you are as an organisation, what makes you unique, who you are for, and why you exist.
This will give you a clear direction of where you're heading as an organisation, and once you are focused, brand clarity is unlocked.
But if you're not quite there, it all starts with having a strategy, and if you don't know where to start with that, Sodium & Co. is here to help.
Get brand clarity with Sodium & Co.
We're not your typical branding agency, we're a charity sector specific agency that gives you virtual support at your fingertips.
We understand the Third Sector space more than most branding agencies, which is why we're the ideal collaborators to give you the long-term brand management support you need.
Everything you need from a branding company for your charity can be found under our roof. We are a collective of hybrid branding and marketing specialists that build brands with staying power.
We are the creative force to champion your cause.
Let's talk brand consultancy. Book your FREE, 30-minute call with Navi Aulkh, for a detailed discussion about your organisation, branding requirements, our prices and packaging - and how to get the most out of working together.