5 Ways in which Non-Profits can benefit from Branding!

While many social organizations continue to take a limited approach to brand management, using it, at best, as a tool for fundraising, there are a few enlightened ones who are moving beyond this approach to explore the wider, strategic roles that brands can play- long-term social goals, while strengthening internal identity, cohesion, and capacity.

1. Long-term social goals

While one may not intuitively think of competing in the non-profit sector, but, after all, all organizations, NGOs included, are trying to position themselves with ‘unique propositions’ or ‘value adds’! The other part of the coin is that your supporters have lots and lots of choices—about which organizations to uphold! And they may not be limited to the organizations that are obviously similar to yours. And when your brand stands for something clear, compelling, and valuable, it becomes easier for you to stand out in the crowd of notable non-profits. A clear, strong brand is almost like a gift to your would-be supporters because it allows them to relate to an entity that they presumably share values with.

2. Helping staff and volunteers to be at their best

With a clearly explained brand, everyone who works or volunteers with your organization understands your ‘brand’ and what they can do to highlight it every day. They keep it alive so that it easily and frequently reaches your supporters.

3. Attract and maintain a great staff

We often think of the financial donors and the participants as our stakeholders — the result of an effective branding and a strong communication mechanism. But there is another stakeholder group for whom the strength of your brand matters: the paid and volunteer staff!

4. Defending against the negative news

If you are a well-known organization with a big staff and hundreds of volunteers, it may come to pass that you get some negative press someday. This is true especially if your mission has defamer who actively search for ways to make you look shady. But When your organization consistently sends positive impressions through the word choice and actions, the occasional slip-up are more likely to be overlooked by your supporters.

5. Intensify the self-image of your supporters

Each of us likes to be associated with brands that make us feel good about ourselves and that send a positive signal to the world about who we are. If you stand for something clear, powerful, and strong, the like-minded people can easily find you. And when they feel good about being part of your work, they will proudly promote you to their own networks.

CITRON is an innovative fundraising and communications agency that works exclusively with non-profits. We work in three areas – build the brand, raise funds & training – to help organizations reach supporters, build awareness and raise money. It works only with non-profit organizations and therefore we understand and empathize with their special needs and challenges. We aim to be a supportive partner to our NGO partners at every step of their journey.

5 Reasons to Outsource Fundraising for Your Non-Profit Organization

Operating a non-profit in a way to make a real difference requires an extensive investment in upfront costs and ongoing expenses, the fundraising for which needs a unique skill set, and can distract you from focusing on your core work – that of making a difference to those who need it! An increasing number of charities, non-profits & NGOs are realizing that keeping these operations in-house is not always the best decision as they opt to partner with fundraising agencies to satisfy this need. These are the 5 primary advantages they have got from doing this:

1. Focus on core competencies: When an organization outsources their fundraising, they are putting a difficult function of their business in the experienced, capable hands of an agency so they can focus on their core work. CITRON is an innovative fundraising and communications agency that helps small and mid- sized NGOs raise funds and provides them with the necessary communication services.

2. Leverage technology, methodologies and people: Why invest in the hardware, hiring, and management when there are fundraising outsourcing agencies who have already done that and are just waiting for companies to team up with?

3. Benefit from proven processes developed over years of experience: When non-profits decide to keep their fundraising work in house, they encounter a learning curve that can be difficult to get over. By partnering with an established outsourcing partner such as Citron India, the curve is eliminated altogether.

4. Reduce capital, staffing, operating, and training costs: Capital & Operating expenses of an internal fundraising function can stack up quickly, but outsourcing that function of work reduces those operating costs by eliminating hard to manage functions. Rather than having to hire new people, bring in experts, and train a whole staff, which takes massive amounts of time and effort, social organizations that outsource fundraising immediately tap into Citron’s highly skilled set of resources.

5. Enhance speed of service for increased customer satisfaction: When you rely on your own team to keep up with all prospective and current donors & investors, it can sometimes take days to respond. With a great outsourcing program, that response time can be cut down to a matter of minutes, which delights them and develops a loyalty, and by opting to outsource fundraising to a partner like Citron, a non-profit can maximize their internal resources so they can focus on mission-critical operations.

Outsourcing is not just about cutting costs and saving money. It is also about how to do things quicker, more efficiently, getting to the target audience faster than your competitors, maximizing workforce flexibility and gaining access to highly qualified employees.

Outsourced Fundraising is becoming one of the most significant business trends globally and we at Citron can help you ride the early wave in India!