110. How to Put the Spark into Your Nonprofit Brand - Lauren Atherton

Lauren Atherton, HeartSpark Design, We Are For Good Podcast, Nonprofit Branding

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Overview

Meet Lauren. She's a nonprofit unicorn: impeccable designer and wholly passionate nonprofit ambassador. She left the for-profit world following a life-altering health scare, and she's never looked back. Today, her design agency is building beautiful design with heart. And boy does she get marketing! Join us as she leads us through auditing your brand, trends to be looking for this year and where to start multiplying your brand. If your organizational look/logo/voice may need a refresh - this is the episode for you.

Today’s Guest

Lauren Atherton, Founder, HeartSpark Design

“If you know what you stand for and what you don’t stand for, it makes everything else so much easier.”

— Lauren Atherton

Episode Transcript

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Episode Highlights

The launch of Heart Spark - 2:46
Key steps to building your non-profit brand - 6:17
Where do you start? - 8:57
Pulling donors into the brand - 11:57
Trends in branding for non-profits - 14:46
Investing in design - 18:20
Take a look at your organization today: a mini audit with Lauren - 21:36
Rebranding the brand - 28:00
Lauren’s One Philanthropic Moment - 30:29
Lauren’s One Good Thing: Engage with the creative community. - 33:07

Powerful Quotes:

“Branding is everything from the strategy, your differentiator, going into like your core values, it's a real strategy, then your visual identity, which is the logo, colors, fonts is everything on top of that, that expresses that core brand. So think of it as a person, you have personality, and these different values and things that make you, and then your clothing is kind of like the visual identity on top of that.” - Lauren

“Because the brand is really just the reputation or the connection that someone has with your nonprofit. That's it. And so you can build a brand by being intentional, or you can build it by accident. And you really, it's one or the other. And I would rather have a brand that's intentional, where you're really directing that conversation where it needs to go.” - Lauren

“Changing the mindset right off the gate that everybody's involved in this. It's the way we talk. It's the way we treat people. It's everything.” - Jon

“If you don't have a clear connection point to who you are and what you stand for, and it's going to be really hard to understand what your brand represents.” - Becky

“if you're giving someone a great experience, and you need to experience the experience, what is it like to donate? What is it like to volunteer? What is it like to you know, is your team prepared to actually, you know, ask for gifts? What does that presentation look like? And really, it's a matter of getting those things, right.” - Lauren

“That's what makes your nonprofit remarkable is that experience and connecting, you know that donor story with your beneficiaries and bringing these two things together. So it's really this like beautiful mix of experience, understanding who you're talking to, and knowing who you are.” - Lauren

“The biggest thing is that your brand is exactly what you said, the front porch is the face of your nonprofit, and that matters. The best brands are built over time. So the best thing you can do for your nonprofit, is to invest.” - Lauren

“Even if you're a gift processor, you're going to be pointing people to how to make a gift on the website, you need to know who your what your brand is, who your who your voice is, who your end user is.” - Becky

“Key message on the website needs to be in the top portion of the page. People need to be able to see it right away. And it needs to be memorable. So those are kind of my main things with your website. Definitely have Donate button, easy to find in the top right corner and make that donation process easy for the donor to go through.” - Lauren

“I'm thinking a one liner where it's, who are you? What do you do? And then what are you known for, and really try to tie those things together. It's really hard to get that in a concise statement. But once you get it, it's a game changer for your nonprofit.” - Lauren

“I just think as much as branding, a lot of people think like, ‘Oh, it's just the designers geeking out,’ or ‘Oh, it's just the surface level stuff.’ It can really revolutionize your organization, you know, from the inside out and give people a new level of ownership and excitement.” - Laurens’s One Philanthropic Moment

“My one good thing would be engage with the creative community.” - Lauren’s One Good Thing

“You are, how you dress, how you talk, how you hold yourself how you navigate in this world says everything about the person that you are Yes, you are within an organization or within a company or you're in your family structure, but you are a brand in and of itself.” - Becky