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Becoming a more welcoming and effective organization
As a nonprofit, your "brand" is what you feel like to those who experience your organization. Granted it includes your logo, but according to nonprofit branding expert, Farra Trompeter of Big Duck, your nonprofit’s viability and impact is based upon perception as much as reality.
Unlike a for-profit organization selling a product that people feel they need, your nonprofit is “selling” or “marketing” the need to address a community problem or challenge.
That means that how you frame your work and impact, how you draw people closer to you or accidentally push them away, and how you inspire and connect with them is critical to your success, and in being known as a friendly, welcoming, and inclusive organization.
To help you strengthen your brand, fundraising success, and impact, we provide coaching and services that include:
Communications and fundraising audits
We look at and provide suggestions to enhance your strategy, rhythm, messaging, engagement, and tone; your level of inspiration, personalization, and customization; your use of various platforms including press, email, print, and social media; your branding and use of technology to further effectiveness, efficiency, and impact.
Fundraising as part of your brand
We work with you to enhance your fundraising work (including related outreach) to convey your organization as one that is welcoming, inclusive, friendly, and helpful. This often results in changes to fundraising materials, segmentation, outreach materials, and programs.
Storytelling
We review your past stories and provide coaching on how to repurpose them in order to connect with people in new ways. As part of that, we work with you to develop a Story Library (visual and written) that is based around Stories of Change (those stories that convey the impact of your conservation work, using conservation as a tool for change).
Organizational culture/teams/partnerships strategy and coaching
We work with you to identify ways in which you can be more inclusive internally, as well as within your community, and become a team that is valued for years to come. As part of this we consider your organizational values, how you treat people, and how you celebrate and empower those with and around you.
We look for low-cost changes as well as organizational shifts; changes that can be undertaken fairly quickly (changing up staff, board, or volunteer meetings); as well as policy changes and/or situations that need more lengthy consideration.
Program design and implementation
Conservation organizations historically have provided programs that “educate” members in their community who are interested in—and have access to—those topics. There is a shift, nationally, to think about programs strategically, as part of your effort to build greater community appreciation for conservation, the community itself, and your organization.
We provide coaching on how to create a mix of programs, reflective of your capacity, that will help to engage a diversity of people in your community and inspire others. These “deep” and “wide” program elements allow your organization to develop relationships, raise awareness of your organization, address community needs and challenges, and use conservation as a tool for change.
Inclusive conservation
If you are working to become part of the fabric of your community, and build more trust and support over time, the lands you conserve and the way different sectors of the public relate to them, is critical.
We are available to assess where—and what—lands you have conserved and how they may feel different to different sectors in your community. While it is ideal to see these lands in person, this can also be done remotely via Google Earth, videos, images, and descriptive conversations with you.