National Nonprofit Day honors organizations whose primary purpose is to give back to their communities. We recognize that marketing and branding can be a significant challenge for not-for-profits, and we’d like to take this opportunity to offer some recommendations:

Know your audiences.

Your primary audience is not your only audience. Along with advocating for a particular group, you must also attract interest from volunteers, board members, and prospective and current donors. And the messaging for each of these audiences will look different from the rest.

Spread the word about your organization’s mission.

Before giving of their money or time, prospective donors will want to know why their support is valuable. What cause(s) are you advocating for and why? Is your mission clearly stated and demonstrated? What makes your nonprofit different from peer organizations? The more details you can provide, the more focused your branding strategy will be.

Establish a consistent visual and verbal brand identity.

As part of your marketing efforts, put together a brand standards manual to help you enforce a uniform appearance across your website, social media channels, and print publications.

Create accessible digital content.

Many online visitors live with disabilities, and having an accessible website can make the difference between their leaving the site in frustration and navigating through multiple pages to learn more. But having a website that’s accessible is more than a kindness— it’s the law. Be sure to follow accepted standards as you create content that promotes your organization and its mission.

Improve your business processes.

Avoid duplication of effort—it’s frustrating for everyone, especially visitors to your website. We helped one community-based organization rebrand by streamlining its event and information session registration, stakeholder application, and online payment and donation processes, thus freeing up staff members for other tasks and making the website a more useful destination for visitors. We also added interactive elements to the site so that users could experience it more dynamically.

Follow the numbers.

Use analytics to help you measure the strengths and weaknesses of your marketing content. Determining the types of content that your audiences find most engaging will help you eliminate what doesn’t work and focus on what does.

Ultimately, all of these recommendations come down to one important principle: always demonstrate empathy. Show your audiences that you understand their needs. This is important for any organization to do, but it might matter to nonprofits more than most. Effective marketing and branding strategies will help not-for-profits make the best use of their resources and offer much-needed services to their communities.

Atlanta-based graphic design agency Badie Designs LLC helps nonprofits and other community-based organizations create innovative marketing and branding strategies. Contact us today for a consultation.