In a world teeming with charitable organizations and nonprofits, what differentiates your voice from the rest? Brand development for nonprofits is essential to engage stakeholders and other key players, while also creating a public awareness groundswell that will shine a spotlight on your cause.

"Investing in brand development is increasingly important to build credibility and differentiate in this competitive giving environment." -- Cynthia Round, Executive Vice President of Brand Strategy and Marketing, United Way of America

A solid brand development plan for strategic nonprofit success includes the following foundational elements working together to bring forth a powerful, memorable experience:

Brand Equity: 

Your brand equity is who you are, what your name means, what your current brand means from a positive perspective to those who are familiar with your organization- the common thread across leadership, employees, medical professionals, parents, donors and partners. These elements of brand equity create the foundation that has been built and is currently in place. It is how you are recognized, perceived and regarded in the market.

Brand Personality:

Brand is every association and experience. It is expectations and relationships. It is driven by the culture and personality of the organization. A brand is a promise: a promise of specific benefits and value; a promise that is meaningful and relevant to your customers; and a promise that is different from your competition. Your brand is what is within the minds­­-and hearts-of advocates, prospective donors, and partners.

Brand personality has two sides - a functional value and an emotional value. The functional side consists of the operating factors, and the emotional side is where you establish trust and differentiation.

Nonprofits typically focus more on their emotional assets and less on the functional assets, however, it is important to balance these so that you appeal to those you are serving (emotional) as well to those who support you (functional) to drive behavior and decision making for both audiences.

Brand Identity:

The branding elements that set the foundation to define why you do what you do, how you do it, and what you do consist of:

* Your values

* Your vision

* Your mission

* Your positioning statement

* Your tagline

With a large group of passionate people working together as a united front for one cause, it is easy to spend 100% of your time and effort focusing on your organization's mission and forgetting to listen to the voices of your stakeholders. By creating a brand identity and messaging platform that speaks to all of the key players; success is inevitable.

For more insights on brand identity from the MM Identity Lab team, visit their blog here.