Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog

How many of these situations sound familiar to you?

•    People call your nonprofit all the time asking for assistance on issues you don’t really work on, because they are confusing your organization with another one in town.
•    You don’t have an “elevator speech” because it’s just too hard to explain what it is you do in 30 seconds.
•    You have trouble finding your own organization’s table at a community festival, because your banner and materials blend in with everyone else’s.
•    When your board members talk to potential new donors about the work you do, it sounds as though they are describing a completely different organization than the one you work for.

In all of these cases, your organization is being confused with others, overlooked or misunderstood.  Why?  It’s often because you have no real “brand” — no clear organizational identity, reputation, or single thing that you are best known for.

On the other hand, when you do have a strong brand, people can immediately explain who you are and what you do and can pick you out of the crowd. They are more willing to donate to you and volunteer, because they “get it” — and can easily explain it to their friends and family. Wouldn’t you rather be in that situation than the ones above?

I’m hosting a conference call this Thursday (April 10) at 3:00 p.m. Eastern (Noon Pacific) with nonprofit branding expert Nancy Schwartz, who many of you know from her fabulous blog at GettingAttention.org.  Nancy is going to share all kinds of great tips on nonprofit branding and explain exactly what you need to do to get your nonprofit’s brand in shape, so you can put the confusion and obscurity behind you.

Registration for the call is only $20, and includes as many people as you can gather around the speakerphone in your office. This would be a great time to bring in a few board members for lunch, listen to the call together, and then discuss the state of your brand!

Get the details and register here.

This week’s Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants is live at Sea Change Strategies, with some pleasantly surprising responses to Mark’s question about how nonprofits can inspire their audiences. A definite must-read this week.

Next week, for April 7, the Carnival returns home here to Nonprofit Communications. It’s early spring here in North Carolina. Yellow bells and red buds are blooming and asparagus, daffodils, and tulips are all making quite a show of it. This is one of my favorite times of year because every day, something new is coming to life again and popping up out of the dirt. Our big backyard garden looks different every 24 hours.

So here is my question to all of you nonprofit bloggers: what are you most looking forward to in the coming weeks and months? What or who is it that you can’t wait to see? In anticipation of what event are you crossing off the days on your desk calendar with big Xs? What’s exciting you most as you look forward? Send your submissions to npc.carnival AT yahoo.com or use the Blog Carnival form by Sunday noon Eastern, April 6, GMT-4.