Nonprofit Performance 360 Magazine Vol 3 No 2

Positive First Impressions JäN PAuL OSTENDORF & AuSTIN MuNHOFEN Design Corner

F irst impressions are important. For-profit and nonprofit organizations alike have a responsibility to present themselves authentically and accurately to their potential and current stakeholders. Appearance is a significant component to creating that first impression. Whether it’s a website, business card, or printed material, how your brand looks is a reflection of your purpose, your mission, and your why. A brand isn’t just a logo or tagline, however. It’s not a corporate identity system, and it’s not a product, service or company. It’s defined by individuals, not by companies. And while you can’t control individual opinions, you can influence collective opinions through the authentic visual and verbal story you tell. When enough individuals digest your story and message to arrive at the same gut feeling, you have a brand. A Case Study Tina Patterson, Homefull Executive Director, had a brand that wasn’t working to help achieve her organization’s business goals, where the primary goal was fundraising for services for the homeless. Tina, like many nonprofit executives, was struggling with the gap between brand aspiration and brand reality. When her organization reached out to us for help, they were simply called The Other Place, a safe haven for the Dayton, Ohio, homeless who were turned away from other full shelters. During the branding process, however, we quickly realized that their name wasn’t representative of the entirety of the organization’s services. The Other

Place wasn’t just a shelter alternative; it was a resource for everything from education to advocacy and, most importantly, it gave people hope. Tina confessed that it took her nearly 20 minutes to describe her organization to a potential donor, and the name didn’t support their vision, to end homelessness. When building a brand identity, it is imperative to have the organizational leader describe the challenges and business goals of the organization. In Tina’s case, we quickly realized her greatest challenge was the time it took to make that first impression with a potential stakeholder, and her primary business goal was to make it easier for potential donors to understand what The Other Place does. Beyond the initial understanding of the organization’s activities, a pressing need was to make the organizational identity something that service recipients would be proud of, and it was clear that The Other Place wasn’t the answer. In its present iteration, the name neither offered clarification of the services, purpose, or reason for the organization, nor did it evoke a kind of pride for its users. The Other Place sounded more like leftovers than a place of empowerment and advocacy. Given the name evaluation, it was easy to see that the first step in this unique branding process was a name change. What’s in a Name? A company’s vision is always at the forefront of a branding process. The Other Place’s vision was this: A community where there is no homelessness.

40 I Nonprofit Performance Magazine