The Money-Raising Nonprofit Brand: Motivating Donors To Give, Give Happily, And Keep On Giving

The practice of branding has become a marketing fad in the nonprofit world. This should be a good thing, but it hasn't been. In the author’s experience—working with hundreds of nonprofits and watching the application of new brands up close—he has not yet seen a purposely applied brand improve an organization's fundraising bottom line. At best, it has made no difference at all. But in most cases, branding has hurt the fundraising results of those doing it, knocking down revenue by up to 50%. Most experienced fundraising professionals have had the same experience.

Why does branding—a well-developed discipline from the commercial marketing world that's designed to make an organization more likable, memorable, and relevant to its target audience—fail so miserably so often for nonprofit organizations? Because commercial-style branding is wrong for fundraising. It's the wrong tool, applied in the wrong way. Nonprofit fundraising is fundamentally a different world—financially, emotionally, and practically—from commercial marketing.

The aim of this book is two-fold: Firstly, to uncover the problem of commercial-style branding in nonprofit marketing and the damage it does to revenue. Secondly, to provide a practical, experienced-based alternative: Nonprofit branding that takes a realistic stance with donors—and raises money instead of crushing fundraising.

JEFF BROOKS, creative director at TrueSense Marketing, has served the nonprofit community for more than 25 years, working as a writer and creative director on behalf of top North American nonprofits, including CARE, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, World Vision, Feeding America, World Relief, and dozens of urban rescue missions and Salvation Army divisions. He blogs at futurefundraisingnow.com, podcasts at fundraisingisbeautiful.com, and is the author of the popular book The Fundraiser’s Guide to Irresistible Communications (2012). He lives in Seattle.