Building strong community relationships is critical to your nonprofit’s ability to further its mission. When supporters feel like your organization values them, is trustworthy, and makes a real difference for an important cause, they’re more likely to continue contributing their resources and time, leading to sustainable support.

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One key tool your nonprofit has at its disposal for strengthening relationships is its brand. According to Loop, “Nonprofit branding is the way an organization communicates who they are and the heart of their work. It’s a promise to participants, partners, and supporters and encapsulates why these people should believe in them.”

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Your nonprofit might be strategically considering its branding for the first time, or you may want to revamp your existing brand so it aligns more with your current values and identity.  Either way, this guide will help you develop a brand that aligns with your nonprofit’s mission and effectively communicates it to your community. Let’s get started!

Choose Colours Carefully

Colour is foundational to communication design, so using a consistent colour scheme throughout your nonprofit’s communication materials will reinforce its brand identity. Plus, certain colours tend to evoke associations with feelings or character traits, meaning your brand colours can communicate your organization’s mission, values, and personality.

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Here is a quick overview of the cultural associations of several brand colours and the types of nonprofits that might use them:

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• Red evokes passion and urgency, making it a favourite brand colour of healthcare organizations.
• Orange is associated with energy and friendliness, and it’s popular among youth-oriented social movements and animal rescue organizations.
• Yellow creates feelings of warmth and optimism, so many nonprofits that serve families and communities use it in their brand palettes. Meanwhile, gold is associated with success and winning, making it a popular colour among schools and universities that want to show their academic and athletic prowess.
• Green is linked to growth, prosperity, and the natural world and is used by many environmental organizations.
• Blue can be associated with peace, professionalism, or trust, so it’s a common brand colour among nonprofits with a wide variety of missions, from faith-based organizations to professional development services to international relief groups.
• Black can be added to any brand palette to evoke seriousness and boldness.

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Compile your colour palette and other brand standards into a single document known as a brand guide for easy reference. Include the name of each colour and its unique hex code (for example, “light green” could be #adf542 or #c3fc81) so you can enter the code into any nonprofit graphic design tool and get the exact same shade every time.

Create a Memorable Logo

When most people think of a specific brand, the first thing that comes to mind is its logo. To put this into practice, see if you can match each of these logo descriptions with its respective for-profit or nonprofit brand:

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• A silver apple with a bite taken out of the right-hand side
• A checkmark-like shape commonly known as a “swoosh”
• A green trefoil, sometimes featuring the outlines of three young women’s profiles
• A giant panda

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While not every brand’s logo will penetrate society as strongly as Apple, Nike, the Girl Scouts of the USA, or WWF have, you should still try to develop a logo design for your nonprofit that’s memorable for your supporters. These tips will help you get started:

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• Choose a unique symbol or typographic design. Your logo can consist of words only (a wordmark), shapes only (a symbol mark), or both (a combination mark). Most logos are symbol or combination marks so the brand can use a distinctive shape to represent itself, but wordmark logos can also work as long as there is a unique aspect to the typography, like a hidden image within the words.
• Keep it simple. All of the logos mentioned above feature one or two colours and one core shape, and the combination marks only include a few words or initials. Simplicity allows community members to recall your logo quickly.
• Develop multiple variations on the design. Your logo serves as a stamp of approval for your communications, so you’ll need a version that aligns with every material’s design. Consider approving black-and-white variations for multi-page printed content, condensed designs for small spaces like social media profile pictures and website favicons, or other variants of colour scheme and orientation.

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Consider how you want to portray your nonprofit and what type of design will resonate with your unique audience, then draft and refine your logo from there.

Develop Consistent Messaging Standards

Branding extends beyond visuals to how your nonprofit talks about itself and tells its story. In addition to specific colours and logo design variations, use your brand guide to establish the messaging standards your team will follow when writing branded content.

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To define your organization’s brand messaging, ask yourself the following questions about:

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• Name usage. Is your nonprofit always referred to by its full name, or do community members frequently use an initialism or other shortened version? Do you have to distinguish your organization from other local chapters of the same nonprofit or other nonprofits in your vertical with similar names? Does your audience speak multiple languages, and should your nonprofit’s approved name usage reflect that diversity?
• Tone. How do you want your audience to perceive your nonprofit when reading its messages? Are you optimistic, friendly, passionate, or something else? Do you want your writing to sound more casual or professional?
• Word choice. How do you describe what your organization is and does when talking to current and prospective supporters? For example, is your animal nonprofit a “rescue,” “shelter,” or “society”? Does your organization “help,” “partner with,” or “come alongside” those it serves?
• Mechanics. What standards for capitalization, punctuation, and other writing-style elements will your team follow when writing content for your nonprofit? Will you use an established style guide like the Chicago Manual of Style or the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook? Or will you modify the rules to better suit your preferences (e.g., using the Oxford comma but otherwise following AP Style)?

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Consider the wording of your mission statement and list of values as you decide on messaging standards, since those elements should also align with your communications.

Apply Your Brand Across All Touchpoints

The easiest way to know that your nonprofit's brand aligns with its mission is to put it into practice. In your brand guide, include examples of your visuals and messaging being used across the following materials:

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• Key areas of your nonprofit’s website, such as the homepage, About page, and contact form.
• Marketing content like email newsletters, social media posts, flyers, and direct mail.
• Fundraising channels such as online donation forms, crowdfunding platforms, and event software.
• Thank-you messages—as eCardWidget points out, maintaining consistency in branding and visuals is also critical after a supporter contributes to boost retention.

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If you run a campaign involving user-generated content (UGC), post your brand guidelines on your website and create downloadable graphic assets involving your nonprofit’s logo, colours, and fonts. This way, participants can easily incorporate your branding into their peer-to-peer fundraising pages, videos, or other materials, allowing all UGC to align with your established brand.

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As you develop or redesign your nonprofit’s brand, keep your community in the loop at every stage. Conduct surveys and focus groups to see what potential designs resonate with your target audience. Once you’ve made some final decisions, share sneak peeks of the updates before your official rollout so supporters aren’t surprised and your brand (and mission!) can penetrate more effectively.

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