Branding is the first impression to your audience and it’s what makes you unique. Brand of your charity foundation is the direct reflection of what your followers should expect from you. Branding plays a key role when it comes to your followers decides and contributes to your foundation over others. Charity branding is more than just creating a logo, rather it is about taking control of how your followers feel about your foundation. A solid charity branding will help you to manage reputation and build trust. 

Market Research and Identifying Your Target Audience 

Like the world’s most iconic brands, charity foundation’s brand strategy starts with a thorough understanding of your target audience. After all, it’s all about people who will believe in your foundation and want to part of it. End of the day, you need to decide what kind of donor is most likely to support your foundation. This means thorough market research to identify

• Age group
• Type of donors
• Location (local or international)
• Gender
• Values of donors 

Identify Your Unique Selling Point (USP)

The first impression is everything. The unique selling point of your charity foundation will help you stand out among thousands of other charity foundations. In the Netherlands alone is more than 150,000 charity foundations, in others, you need to stand out among these thousands of charity foundation by setting your foundation apart. For example, one of the rookie mistake founders of foundations do is that they go for a quick solution and create a word-based logo on Paint or Microsoft word. Many cases they have a set strategy for their brand. There’s no meaning behind their logo. When your logo has no meaning to it, how do you expect your audience to believe in you with their money?

Take some time and identify how your foundation is can change the world or address a problem that no-one else has been able to face. Simultaneously combine those unique characteristics of your foundation with your charity branding to set yourself apart. 

Start that by…

• Coming up with a unique name and logo
• Brainstorm on the exciting mission statement and share it via online platforms
• Identify the maximum four brand colours that go with the uniqueness of the foundation 
• Be consistence with the usage of colours
• Give your brand a personality ( such as Strong or Emotional or Bold )
• Use professional photos ( not blurry, low-resolution pictures )
• Invest in buying a camera.

Use the Power of Emotion

Emotion is a vital part of charity branding. Branding has always been, a transfer of emotion; It’s about changing how people feel. Nowadays the big corporates use emotional stories and marketing to connect with their existing followers to a deeper level and to gain a new fan base. 

Today, companies from all backgrounds are using heartfelt stories and emotional marketing to help them resonate with their fans on a deeper level. When it comes to the charity foundation, emotion is their most valuable tool in engaging with your target audience and gain devoted donors.

Core human emotions such as sadness, fear or anger can be used through the message, images within the online platform for marketing purposes. For example, large foundations such as Save the Children uses strong images of children’s in the war-affected zones. It is important to be consistent when it comes to using the power of emotion. Consistency will pave the way for loyal, devoted followers, supporters and donors. 

Be Transparent

One of the key issues charity foundations are faced within the 21st century is transparency. Donors are constantly asking to know how their money is used and where. Putting transparency in the heart of your branding will make sure that you are providing your supporters and donors with the most up-to-date information. 

Transparency can be achieved easily via 

• Regularly sharing success stories
• Creating monthly/quarterly newsletters 
• Individual emails to the donors on progress, how money is being spent
• Publishing yearly report on funding and usage of funding

Define Your Story Backed by Strategy

Different charity foundations have their unique and different stories. Stories about how the charity foundation came to life, how it all began. What drove you to establish this foundation? 

Once this story is based on methodology and brand strategy, it becomes powerful. At oridoc always start with four steps:

1. Discover
2. Define
3. Design
4. Deliver

Discovery of your story with the designed targeted audience will help you to define your brand positioning. Once this story and target audience are defined, a solid brand strategy backed with the design will differentiate your charity foundation from others. 

At Oridoc, we have years of experience in starting businesses from scratch including charity foundation. If you want to differentiate your charity foundation from the rest and gain supporters through a solid brand strategy, feel free to get in touch with us. We will help you in building relationships between charity foundation and your supporters.