Charity Marketing – Fundraising vs Branding?

A recent report by the Philanthropy Centre, commissioned by ACA Philanthropy and Fundraising found branding needs to be built to support an organisation’s fundraising needs, not as an object of pure vanity, which can ultimately tarnish a charity’s reputation. It was also found that investing in fundraising rather than straight branding is proven to get better results financially in charity marketing

If you are a non profit you will understand just how passionate and invested your employees are as well as your supporters. Everyone wants to know donations or funds are being utilised as efficiently as possible and branding can seem like a non necessary expense to people not involved in marketing.  

In the research study they examined the finances of 30 top UK charities, and the organisations with high fundraising growth were interviewed to understand how branding could be utilised to increase fundraising performance.

nonprofit marketing campaignsWhile it is believed that good branding can help your fundraising efforts, the research found that money spent on fundraising accounts for 87 percent of the increase in fundraising income, while money spent on branding contributed to a tiny 1 percent in comparison. 

Although saying that, the report found that branding can play an important role in making a charity better at fundraising. During the brand strategy process everyone needs to be involved and understand the role of branding and how it can be used to build fundraising success. The report also suggested that lessons could definitely be learned from the for profit sector on how to develop exceptional, trusted brands. Because of course you want your non profit to be easily recognisable and branding does play a big part in this.

So the Moral of the Story

Fundraising will directly bring in the majority of the funds you need to operate but if you get everyone on board and to understand how the use of branding can successfully portray your mission and message, you will increase your fundraising efforts and be even more successful. A good brand can build trust and rapport with your supporters – but just take into consideration how much resources you should be putting towards fundraising efforts and towards branding due to which brings in the majority of your income.  

For more information on nonprofit branding or fundraising get in touch with the team here at 4DP – we’re more than happy to chat. Or find out more about charity marketing here.

 


Sources: Pro Bono Australia
You can also find the full research report here:
www.acapf.com