Most marketing managers have a pretty good pulse on brand perception; you work with it (and for it) every day. If you’re feeling like your brand may need a refresh, you’re probably right, but how can you convince management and/or your board to buy in? Most likely, they’ll want to know what type of ROI you’ll receive from the investment. We have some tips for you on how to respond to that request, but first, let’s start with the four fundamental reasons you should consider a rebrand.

Your brand or messaging is:

  1. Misaligned. Your brand doesn’t match up to your business strategy, goals and/or priorities.
  2. Splintered. Your image and marketing messages are scattered to point that they are disjointed, inconsistent and have muddied the brand.
  3. Outdated.  The public sees your existing message and/or image as outdated and the perception is that you are not “current” in the marketplace.
  4. Shifted. Your organization has gone through a change or expansion in mission, audience, products or services that fundamentally change who you are.

If your nonprofit is struggling with one of the reasons above, you may benefit from a rebrand.

While it is difficult to connect donor dollars directly to a rebrand effort, you can make the argument for it by building a deeper case of these benefits:

Increase in # of donors and $donations
A clear and direct brand message will influence their decision to donate
Attraction of new audience
Advance the brand and gain attention from new potential stakeholders
Increase in brand awareness
Make the case to become the go-to nonprofit in your service category
Increase in corporate partnerships
New audience + brand awareness + more interaction = sought-after partner
Increase funding from the Board
For other helpful marketing tools: website revitalization, social media management, etc.

Here are some other great resources from around the web on nonprofit rebranding:

1. Courtesy of the Red Rooster Group: a graphic timeline showing 200-year history of nonprofit brands
2. Another great resource from Red Rooster Group: a website dedicated to nonprofit rebranding news
3. Blog Post on Kivi Leroux Miller’s site from NonProfitMarketingGuide.com “How Do You Know When It’s Time to Re-Brand?”
4. A review on the book “Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding” authored by some of the industries’ key consultants.
5. The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard has an entire webpage dedicated to nonprofit rebranding that includes case studies and research articles.
6. From the queen of nonprofit marketing, Katya Andresen’s site NonProfitMarketingBlog.com, quick points to think about in  “New Logos vs. True Rebranding”