Branding for nonprofits: New research, new insights
Forbes.com
March 1, 2012
Interviewed: Nathalie Kylander
Topic: The role of brand in the nonprofit sector
Nathalie Kylander
“A brand is a psychological construct held in the minds of all brand audiences, a promise, a short-cut for decision making if you will. Strong brands in both sectors enable organizations to build trust, gain resources, and establish partnerships and access.
But it is the complexity of both the goals and the audiences that nonprofits have to address that makes the brand perhaps even more critical in the nonprofit sector. For profits have a clear goal, as their name suggests, that of making profits, by satisfying their customer’s needs and wants with products and services that are perceived to be better than their competitors. Nonprofit organizations on the other hand have missions that are complex to achieve, difficult to measure directly and typically require a number of partners. Nonprofits also have many “customers” or stakeholder groups that are critical to their success. The brand has to help nonprofit organizations at every step of their theory of change and also motivate donors, staff, volunteers, beneficiaries and partners.”