The Five Functions of the Nonprofit Brand

The brand strategy and messaging frameworks that I’ve seen, studied, and used with nonprofits and businesses are all very similar. While the approach to research, discovery, and distilling insights may differ from strategist to strategist, these frameworks typically look to define the many of same elements: an organization’s mission, vision, values, positioning, audiences, landscape, brand promises, personality, voice and tone, messaging pillars, and visual branding elements.

Implementing a brand strategy, however, can be challenging for organizations. These elements must be woven into the fabric of the culture, and it’s a lot of work. And it’s even more challenging for people outside the organization to understand a nonprofit solely through these brand elements by themselves. Putting them on the website or in a brand guide isn’t enough. It’s only when they are applied that they have the power to create clear and effective communications or to deliver a memorable and intentional experience.

Strategies are simply decisions until they’re acted upon. And this is why we need to look at brand strategy through a second dimension—as functions of a brand—to make it easier to apply strategies across the full brand experience.

A function contains action. It serves a specific purpose. It accomplishes a task rather than being static or simply living on the surface. For example, a story’s function might be to instruct or entertain—it’s not just content or words floating in the ether. It accomplishes its purpose through carefully crafted words and imagery. Similarly, Brand Strategy is a holistic strategy with a distinct purpose. The elements of a nonprofit brand function together to communicate, teach, inspire, and connect. If they’re not seen as functions, then they’re just words in a deck, and they give up all of their power.

At a high level, the five functions of a nonprofit brand are:

• Ideological Function — Builds a foundation on shared human truths
• Visionary Function — Communicates a vision for the future
• Differentiating Function — Shows why and how an organization is unique
• Informational Function — Teaches and communicates clearly
• Experiential Function — Creates an intentional and purposeful experience

The Ideological Function creates connections through universal human truths. It focuses on human-to-human connection and is born from an organization’s core beliefs, which are the fundamental reasons for its existence in the first place. This function can even elevate our consciousness, awareness, and understanding of the world.

Many nonprofit brands mistakenly define themselves through their methods (the “how”) rather than their purpose (the “why”). Organizations exist to solve problems, not just provide services. For instance, AAPR will build more support around the belief that we can improve the quality of life for aging populations rather than focusing on tactical objectives like reducing prescription costs or protecting social security.

If you find your organization is emphasizing activities over its purpose, consider these exercises:

• Apply the “Five Whys” technique. This is a familiar exercise that can go deep and uncover numerous possibilities. Push yourself to uncover the most fundamental human truths at the core of your organization’s brand.
• Examine your core beliefs. Start with “We believe…” and expand to “We believe that all people deserve…” This simple but crucial exercise reveals how beliefs influence your words and actions, and ultimately shape your reputation.

The Visionary Function paints a clear picture of the world when your mission is succeeding. It serves as your North Star and should inspire others to join you. Your brand must create a tangible vision larger than any individual or organization, building upon the truths established through the Ideological Function.

Long-term visioning is challenging. Focusing on short-term goals or individual aspects of how an organization achieves its mission doesn’t create compelling visions. The vision should emphasize outcomes, not outputs. These outcomes can also make it easier to identify ideal partners and their roles in achieving the vision. For example, a research-focused think tank can use its vision to identify and proactively build relationships with implementation partners as part of the larger system of change. Or as part of a movement.

To strengthen your organization’s vision, try these exercises:

• Think about what the world looks like when you’re achieving your mission. Complete this prompt using your vision statement: “In this world…” This helps identify concrete desired changes and long-term outcomes.
• Explore deeper questions: How do people behave differently? How might their beliefs be different? What’s different about the world?
• Consider your role and ask: How do we directly contribute to this vision? Which partners do we need? What movements are we serving? What systems are we building?

Creating differentiation is one of the most basic and essential functions of brand strategy. It clearly communicates your organization’s unique value and tells people why they should support you. Brand strategy positions your organization relative to others—peers or competitors—and within the broader culture. The Differentiating Function highlights tangible, intangible, and aspirational value propositions, combining all elements to create a distinct presence in your audiences’ minds.

Blue Ocean Strategy provides an excellent framework for exploring differentiation—from philosophical approaches to external brand expressions. This strategy helps organizations create new markets by identifying underserved or unmet needs. Organizations that find significant overlap with peers can differentiate themselves by doing more of some things, less of others, or introducing completely new approaches.

To enhance differentiation, consider:

• Where do we overlap with other organizations? What common approaches do we all share?
• What could we do more of? What should we reduce? What new approaches might we introduce that would create differentiation?

The Informational Function is the most practical, and one of the hardest to get right. It tells the world what the organization does in clear and human-centered language and focuses on the how, why, where, and who of their work with. Nonprofits can always improve in this area.

How the brand communicates such practical information doesn’t have to be overly formal or dry. Carefully chosen words will help people understand the issues, a nonprofit’s position, and how it is infused into its brand identity. In fact, words here matter a lot. The key to getting the Informational Function right is to anticipate the questions — and assumptions — that someone might make about an organization. This includes being clear about the visible and tangible work of the organization rather than assuming, for example, that all people know what advocacy means, how it happens, what success looks like, and what they can do.

To find out where your communication might not be as clear as they could be, ask:

• How would a teenager understand our work? (Note that this isn’t how you explain it, it’s how they understand it.)
• How can we clearly explain our processes and the outcomes we’re looking for without relying on jargon?
• What insider knowledge do we take for granted? What do we assume people know?

This function primarily concerns maintaining consistency across the brand identity, experience, and all touchpoints. It creates the brand image in the minds of others. It creates an intentional experience that demonstrates how you want people to feel and remember the organization. And it delivers this experience over and over again.

The Experiential Function is tied to every brand expression: logos, colors, typography, imagery, visual and verbal language, stories, websites, annual reports, events, newsletters, social media, presentations, and so forth. It takes an entire organization sharing the same understanding, rowing toward the same destination, and reinforcing the brand experience through every interaction and touchpoint to maintain consistency.

If you’re interested in evaluating the experience your brand creates, you can explore the following exercises:

• How would people describe the experience that our organization creates? How do people describe us today? How would we like people to talk about our organization? What would we never want people to say about us?
• How would a young person describe our organization?
• Take an inventory of your organization’s stories, imagery, and key messages. Do they support one another or create different experiences? Are they interconnected or do they live in siloes?

As a brand strategist working with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations, these five functions help us move beyond outputs to focus on the big outcomes that are supported and driven by the brand. They help us prioritize our audiences, challenge assumptions, and stand out in an increasingly crowded sector that appears to have many overlapping strategies. Together, they move Brand Strategy and messaging beyond the surface, giving organizations more power to achieve their missions and reach bold visions for the future.