Brand as personality: The implications for nonprofit fundraising

Brand as personality: The implications for nonprofit fundraising
January 10, 2005
By Louise Chatterton Luchuk

If you think of branding as building your organization's "personality" - the face that interacts with the public - then an organization's brand identity is more than just the look of a logo, more than just a marketing function. Brand identity encompasses everything...and that includes fundraising.

This is the experience of Owen Charters, national director of marketing and development for Muscular Dystrophy Canada. It became clear about three or four years ago that Charters' organization needed to take a good look at their brand identity. As Charters explains, the problem stemmed from the fact that in North America the organization was fairly synonymous with the Jerry Lewis telethon. In fact, in the United States the organization considers the telethon to be their brand and it has made them one of the most successful charities in that country.