It’s no secret that nonprofits can help change the world! And while your nonprofit might have the best of intentions in making an impression and a lasting impact, to truly be successful it’s necessary to have a strong brand identity. How exactly is this done?

Define It!
Let’s start at the beginning! Define your purpose and values. Who are you trying to impact and why? What are your values and what difference do you hope to make in the world? How are you going to make this impact?

Know your target audience and how best to connect with them. What are their needs, preferences, wants, and pain points? Why do they want to connect with your nonprofit and what price point is necessary for them to engage or contribute? Defining your target audience could involve using Google Analytics, studying your social media analytics, and understanding what services they can afford.

Remember to define your brand personality along with your core values. You will need to have a consistent voice and compelling brand story. What does your brand sound like, look like, think like, act like? Knowing your brand’s personality will influence your design choices, keeping that consistency rolling along too.

Create a tagline that is memorable and communicates the inherent nature of your nonprofit. Your tagline will serve you well, so spend time defining the essence of your brand conveyed in that tagline. It will not only help you connect with your audience, but will also leave a lasting impression.

Develop It!
Once you’ve got things defined, you’re ready for the next level! Plan of attack: development. Now it’s time to create your unique visual identity. Think logo, colors, typography, and any other visuals that define your brand. All of this needs to reflect your brand’s personality and values that you just defined, so keep this in mind during development.

Now with all of that good stuff in your back pocket, you’ll want to create a brand style guide as a reference. This comes in handy when someone new to a project or new to your nonprofit gets hired to design something for you. Sharing your style guide with your designers keeps things consistent and aligned with your brand identity.

Make sure your employees and volunteers are on board, too. Encourage them to develop an understanding of your brand identity and values. Depending on the employee’s role, providing the style guide, training, and support for keeping the brand consistent can make an impact of its own!

Refine It!
It’s not over just because you’ve initially created a memorable brand identity! You’ll need to evaluate regularly how your brand is performing and if it’s staying relevant. When your brand isn’t reaching or resonating with your audience, it may be time to refine. That could mean changing your logo or visuals and style, but whatever you do, pay attention to your audience even when making refinements. If they don’t like the changes you’ve made, keep working on improvements.

Now that you’ve created a memorable brand identity, it’s time to go make your impact on the world! We can’t wait to see what you accomplish and the good that you do. If you need help defining your brand or creating design elements, you know where to find us.