Reimagining Your Nonprofit's Image: 4 Key Rebranding Steps

Have you looked at your nonprofit’s logo, color scheme, or other brand elements recently and thought, This branding doesn’t really represent our organization’s identity and values anymore? If so, it might be time for your nonprofit to consider rebranding!

Nonprofits might choose to rebrand for many reasons, from modernizing their marketing content to attracting a new audience to signaling a transition in leadership. However, rebranding involves managing many moving parts—which may seem daunting if you’re new to it.

Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place! In this guide, we’ll break down the rebranding process into four steps to help you effectively update your organization’s image and identity. Let’s get started!

1. Set Goals for Your Rebrand

Think about starting the rebranding process the same way you would launch a fundraiser for your nonprofit. According to NXUnite, establishing clear goals lays a strong foundation for the rest of your work in planning and executing a campaign. And, of course, it allows you to gauge your success upon completion.

Setting goals for your nonprofit’s rebrand serves a similar purpose—to guide your efforts and allow you to determine if you succeeded. As you set these goals, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is your definition of success for your rebrand?
• What is the intended impact of your efforts as they relate to your mission?
• On what scale do you need to rebrand to achieve your goals (i.e., do you need to completely overhaul your brand or just revise a few elements)?

Unlike most other nonprofit goals, rebranding goals may be abstract (e.g., “to align our graphic design style with current trends to modernize our communications”). If you attach metrics to your goals, you’ll likely need to survey supporters to determine the effect of your rebrand and ensure you don’t conflate rebranding results with the effects of other efforts (for instance, did you acquire more supporters in a new audience segment because you updated your branding or because you sent more messages to them?)

2. Redesign Key Brand Elements

As mentioned above, not every rebrand involves throwing out a nonprofit’s old brand and starting from scratch. Instead, you might update any or all of the following brand aspects:

• Name. Reimagining your nonprofit’s name could involve an official, legal name change, or you might simply change how your organization refers to itself in written content and encourage the wider community to do the same. For example, the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) has been referring to itself as “the Y” since 2010 to reflect its commitment to serving individuals of all religions, genders, and backgrounds.

• Color scheme. You might update your nonprofit’s color palette for accessibility reasons: if all of your brand colors are very light, consider adding a darker shade to ensure adequate contrast in marketing materials. Color psychology also applies heavily to branding—for instance, if you want your community to see your organization as trustworthy and professional, you could change your main brand color to blue, which is associated with these feelings.

• Typography. Updating your typography can also impact both accessibility (i.e., ensuring text is legible) and perceptions of your organization—bold, angular fonts appear serious, while lighter, rounded fonts evoke openness and friendliness.

• Logo. According to Loop, your nonprofit’s logo “translates your mission, vision, and values into a graphic that encapsulates who you are…and the impact you strive to make.” Consider whether the imagery and graphic style of your logo reflects your organization’s identity, and ensure the design aligns with any changes you make to your color scheme or typography.
• Messaging. Branding extends beyond visuals to the way your nonprofit talks about its mission and work in written content. Rebranding may involve revising your organization’s tone of voice and word choice (e.g., do you “help” people or “partner with” them?). Or, you might even change guidelines for mechanics—for instance, if you usually follow the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook but realize your marketing team is strongly in favor of Oxford commas, you may instead specify “AP Style, but we use the Oxford comma.”

As you finalize each new brand element, update your nonprofit’s brand guide so anyone who works on your marketing materials has an accurate reference for how to communicate about your organization.

3. Get Stakeholders Involved

The main purpose of your nonprofit’s brand is to make your organization recognizable to its community. To ensure your rebrand is relevant to key stakeholders, engage them in the process—here are some ways to do so:

• Employees: Invite members of every department to a brainstorming session so they can express their views on your organization’s identity, which can inform your rebrand.

• Board: Besides having them approve your rebranding plan, ask your board to help spread the word about your rebrand to the wider public as your organization’s representatives in the community.
• Supporters: Send out surveys and hold focus groups to assess longtime supporters’ reactions to the changes you’re considering, and take their responses into account as you make decisions.

Additionally, announce your rebrand well in advance of the rollout so the wider public isn’t caught off guard by it and continues to recognize your nonprofit with its new image.

4. Roll out Your Rebrand in All Marketing Materials

For your rebrand to be effective, you need to apply the updates consistently across all of your nonprofit’s marketing channels, since this repetition will help your new brand elements stick in supporters’ minds. Update your branding across the following materials:

• Every page of your nonprofit’s website, from the homepage to the blog roll.

• Email blasts, newsletters, and online donation confirmations.

• Social media posts on every platform your nonprofit uses, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok.

• Direct mail messages and other print communications.

Using templates for various types of marketing content will make rebranding significantly easier. By updating the templates in your website builder, email marketing software, and other graphic design tools just once, you’ll be able to create countless branded materials down the line with just a few clicks.

By following the tips above, your nonprofit will be well prepared to navigate the rebranding process. Keep your organization’s unique needs and overarching strategy in mind, and don’t hesitate to leverage professional nonprofit branding services if you have any questions or want the benefit of outside expertise during the process!