Your nonprofit brand is about more than just a logo or a name, it is a comprehensive representation of your organization’s identity, values, personality and the emotional connection it fosters with your stakeholders. 

Two critical elements that shape your brand identity are your brand’s voice and tone. Brand voice and brand tone are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same. In this post, we’ll explore the differences between these two brand elements and how you can identify and codify them for your nonprofit brand.

Defining nonprofit brand voice and tone

Before diving into creating your brand voice and brand tone, it’s essential to grasp the fundamental distinction between two.

Nonprofit brand voice is a term used to describe how your nonprofit expresses itself to the world through everything you say and do. It is an outward reflection of your mission, vision and values. Your brand voice comes through in written communication, personal interactions with staff, your community, donors and everything in between. You maintain a consistent brand voice across everything you say and do, and it does not change based on the audience you are communicating with.

Nonprofit brand tone is a term used to describe the nuances in how you express your brand to various diverse audiences and across different channels. It should convey how you want people to feel when they read your content or interact with your brand. For example, the tone you might use when communicating with donors through direct mail might be different from the tone you might use when communicating with fans and followers on your social networks.

There are several exercises and frameworks that can support the development of your nonprofit’s brand voice and brand tone.

Nonprofit Brand Voice

Frameworks nonprofits can use to develop brand voice, include:

Brand Archetypes

Psychologist Carl Jung developed the concept of archetypes to represent universally familiar characteristics. Using this approach, you would select from the predefined archetypes – like Hero, Caregiver or Explorer – to humanize your brand. There are 12 archetypes in total.

Thinking of your brand as a person, helps you to define your attitudes, opinions and vocabulary preferences, so you can shape your brand’s voice. For example, if your nonprofit takes on a Caregiver archetype, your brand voice may be calming, service-oriented and informative.

The 5 Dimensions of Brand Personality

Developed by Jennifer Aaker, this framework identifies five dimensions that contribute to brand personality: Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication and Ruggedness. Like with archetypes, you can align your brand with one or more of these dimensions to create a voice that resonates with the desired emotional qualities. So if your nonprofit is Competent and Sincere, your brand voice might be knowledgeable, compassionate and relatable.

Values-Based Branding

With values-based branding, you use your nonprofit’s values as a starting point for identifying your brand voice. So if your values are thoughtful, collaborative and fun, your brand voice would align with these words to reflect your beliefs and foster connection with your stakeholders.

Nonprofit Brand Tone

Defining your brand tone is important because it helps audiences understand how they should feel when they interact with your nonprofit’s brand. For example, take a look at the following three calls to action:

Help bring clean and safe water to every person.

Working together, we can bring clear and safe water to everyone in the world.

You can be part of the global movement to bring clean and safe water to every person on the planet!

Notice how each call to action is the same, but the word choices and grammar impact how the audience might perceive it and feel. The first example is straight-forward and matter-of-fact, the second feels collaborative, and the third feels energizing.

While there aren’t as many well-defined frameworks for identifying your nonprofit’s brand tone as there are for brand voice, there are still several approaches you can take to define your organization’s tone across various audiences and channels. 

Frameworks and exercises nonprofits can use to develop brand tone, include:

The Nielsen Norman Framework

Neilsen Norman’s 4 core dimensions of tone of voice is evidence-based and easily applicable.

The 4 dimensions include:

• Funny vs. serious
• Formal vs. casual
• Respectful vs. irreverent
• Enthusiastic vs. matter-of-fact

Each dimension can be thought of as a 3-point scale, with a neutral midpoint. To define your brand tone, you use the spectrum to identify your nonprofit’s brand tone overall and then how it might change for each one of your stakeholder groups or communication channels.

Sticking with the examples above, mapping the first call to action to the Nielsen Norman spectrum – “Help bring clean and safe water to every person.” – you would say it’s serious, formal, respectful and matter-of-fact. Mapping the last example – “You can be part of the global movement to bring clean and safe water to every person on the planet!” – you would say it’s still more serious and respectful, but it’s also more casual and enthusiastic.

Audience Analysis

While defining your brand tone is more of an art than a science, understanding your stakeholders’s preferences, behaviors and emotions can be a great starting point for defining your brand tone. You can conduct surveys, focus groups and analyze social media interactions to gain insights into the emotional triggers and responses that resonate with your audience. This research can help tailor your brand tone to effectively evoke the desired emotions from your stakeholders.

Creative Brainstorming

You can also take a creative approach to developing your brand tone by brainstorming as many tone words as you can think of and then narrowing them down to the ones you feel are most representative of your nonprofit brand. Then use these words to personalize your own version of the Neilsen Norman spectrum to articulate what your brand tone is (or isn’t). 

Remember that a nonprofit’s brand voice and tone are not static; they can evolve over time based on audience feedback, cultural shifts and changing communication trends. Combining  research-based approaches and creative exercises can provide you with a solid foundation to identify, shape and adapt your nonprofit’s brand voice and tone for optimal engagement and resonance.