What are you? A non-profit that has committed to the well-being of animals? Or a social enterprise creating business opportunities with a cause? Is your purpose a campfire idea or is it a more solicitous approach towards social upliftment? It doesn’t matter if you run a charity foundation for the specially-abled or walk a rally for human rights. What you need is a vision that is strong enough to move mountains.
So being a non-profit, what’s your superpower? Since we want to put this across in a much-disentangled way, let’s say that your dominion lies in the vision that drives your organization. It also consists of the assembly that supports your cause. Of course, in today’s world, you need a bridge that connects your vision to the swarm and that bridge is named as branding. But let’s talk about why the superpower precedes the die-hard need to market your cause.
Back then in the 1970s, digital didn’t exist. It was not like a #metoo movement getting viral in two shakes. But even then nonprofits existed and did herculean social tasks. Think about small, inconsequential movements that went unnoticed but still contributed for good.
In 1973, a social movement flared up for the protection of Silent Valley in a small district in Kerala. The protest aimed to stop the valley from being flooded by polluted water from a hydroelectric project. This protest continued until 2015 and positively strived to save the evergreen tropical forest of the region.
Similarly, the Chipko Movement saw people protesting against deforestation by hugging trees to stop from being cut. The action ignited when in the early 1970s a group of women opposed the cutting down of trees. Their actions spread like wildfire (despite any branding) and thousands of people across the nation stepped forward to support the green movement. We could fill pages if we sit down to pen down thousands of such movements backed up by small yet phenomenally-thought organizations.
Why? They never used a billboard that asked people to hug trees or created brand elements for their organization. Then what was the fuel that pushed the wagon forward?
These movements had a strong cause behind them. Their actions were supported by a purpose to establish some concrete change. And that is a non-profit’s greatest imperium; It’s vision for why it stands tall and what it aspires to do.
The vision is also the first building block of branding. When boardroom meetings go to a different level (or go nowhere), this is the first and most important thing that’s canvassed; an organization’s vision and what it wants to realize. Most often, with businesses, the problem is that shuffling market dynamics and shifting consumer behaviors affect the orientation of its goals. A company set out to solve a problem X might think of problem Y because in course of time maybe that’s what its consumers want.
For non-profits that rarely happens. No matter what is happening in the world out there, you are going to stay true to your vision. Your purpose of educating underprivileged children, or empowering a community of grassroots women is going to remain just the same.
When vision is strong, unified and singular, it only needs an audience to support it. That’s where branding comes into the picture. You have a vision, which means you have a story. What you might be missing on is a compelling way to narrate your story so that it attracts the masses, the sponsors and donors, the stakeholders and even the beneficiaries. Without your cause, you just exist. You don’t really make a difference.
The role of branding in a non-profit
Having a cause that’s for society’s betterment is not enough. The requisite lies in building a perception that people resonate with, feel and would want to help.