What We Do
Nonprofit branding and identities that inspire support and drive growth.
Your nonprofit’s brand is so much more than your logo and color scheme.
It’s a promise that conveys who you are, what you do and why it matters. It’s a critical tool for driving both internal cohesion and mission impact. We help nonprofits like yours better define or even completely reimagine their brands.
Each of our brand-focused nonprofit consulting engagements are based on the Nonprofit Impact SystemTM method and Shared Power StrategyTM philosophy, which center the priorities of your stakeholders and help us to build brands that advance equity. We also prioritize strength-based communication practices in our brand work.
Each nonprofit branding, identity or rebranding engagement is customized to your organization’s unique circumstances.
Each branding engagement is customized to your organization’s unique circumstances. Here’s how our rebranding process works, at a high level.
People
We begin all rebranding projects with an audit of your nonprofit’s stakeholders to understand how they perceive and are affected by your organization’s brand.
Often, we involve them in a study to uncover the risks and rewards of rebranding your nonprofit to ensure it is indeed the right decision and prepare your organization for challenges that may come up in the process.
We also tap your stakeholders for input and feedback at key points in the brand development process through surveys, interviews, focus groups, listening sessions, and/or stakeholder committees. Ensuring your brand resonates with each of your diverse stakeholder groups is an important step in mitigating the risks that often go along with rebranding and maximizing the rewards.
NEXT: Strategy
Strategy
The Strategy phase of our rebranding engagements typically begins with assessments of how your organization is currently managing its brand, and how it compares to the brands of other, similar nonprofits.
We facilitate a series of workshops with members of your team to work through your goals for your new brand, the nuances of your organization, what you like and dislike in brand styles and more. Then, we bring those elements together into a brand brief that, together with research and stakeholder input, informs the brand directions we explore.
Next, we begin developing your key brand elements, such as your name, tagline, logo and visual identity. This process is highly iterative. If you’re seeking a new name and/or tagline, we typically start with a list of hundreds of options organized categorically, and slowly narrow down to a few key contenders, which we then do more research and clearance work to finalize.
If you’re developing a new logo and visual identity, we typically begin with at least three concepts and refine from there based on feedback from your staff, beneficiaries and other stakeholders.
NEXT: Progress
Progress
The Progress phase is all about ensuring your team has the tools and plans in place to bring its new brand to life.
During this phase, we develop brand guidelines that detail how your organization should use its new brand in fine detail. We also often show the brand in action by creating things like homepage mockups, sample brochures and more.
We develop brand rollout strategies that detail everything you must do to introduce your new brand effectively, first to your staff and board, and then to your external stakeholders.
The process of rolling out a new brand can be complex and risky, and we often stay on board for a period of several months to help our clients through it.
Case Study
Discover how the organization formerly known as the Robert Crown Center for Health Education rebranded to become Candor Health Education and better communicated the scope and impact of their work.
Portfolio Categories
Case Study
Find out Comer Education Campus partnered with Prosper Strategies to rebrand and develop the accompanying marketing and communications plan — leading to a 13.8% increase in fundraising from the previous year.
Portfolio Categories
Case Study
The organization formerly known as Rape Victim Advocates rebranded to become Resilience, transformed its messaging, and grew its impact. Here’s how they did it.