The Role of Brand in

the Nonprofit Sector

February 2012

Produced for discussion at the Role of Brand in the Nonprofit Sector conference on December 8, 2011, with the generous support
and vision of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Preface
We congratulate the Hauser Center on their success in researching the role of brands in
the nonprofit sector and are proud to be their partner in initiating this very compelling
dialogue. The Rockefeller Foundation, on the verge of celebrating 100 years of global
innovation, continually seeks to improve the ways in which we attempt to realize our
mission to promote the well-being of people around the world. While brand management
is a well-developed discipline in the private sector, it is still a nascent, and sometimes
controversial, undertaking in the nonprofit sectorone which requires bold, new thinking
beyond the simple application of frameworks developed in the private sector. Through this
research and the contributions of many other collaborators and partners, we have taken
an important collective step forward in using brand to achieve real impact.
Dr. Zia Khan
Vice President Strategy and Evaluation
The Rockefeller Foundation

Introduction

What People Are Saying

Emily Brew, Brand Creative Director, The Nike Foundation

The perceived role of brands, and attitudes towards branding in

the nonprofit sector, appear to be at an inflection point. While
some in the sector are skeptical about brands, believing that
the brand is essentially a fundraising tool, many are embracing
a more strategic role for their brands in driving long term social
goals and building internal cohesion and capacity. This 18
month study conducted by the Hauser Center, with the support
of the Rockefeller Foundation, seeks to develop a deeper understanding of the current and potential role of brand in the
nonprofit sector, and to propose a framework to help nonprofit
practitioners more effectively leverage their brands to advance
their social missions. The research is based on 73 interviews
with practitioners, consultants, donors and academics in 41
organizations and reflects both current attitudes and practices,
and insights into the future role brands might play in strengthening organizations in the sector.

This Hauser Center work and the ideas it contains

are rebranding brand for nonprofits. It shows that
brand thinking can drive a theory of change, rather
than just support fundraising. No one will argue
against the power of a simple shorthand99%,
Arab Springto capture emotions, spread ideas and inspire
participation. Thats what a democratic brand can do. It can
coalesce supporters and give them an avenue to make the
movement their own. There are real tensions in that, but also
real opportunity. This workdelves into both, and has started a
dialogue that I believe will make positive change in the world
happen faster.
David Fenton, CEO and Founder, Fenton
This report is a sign of a great deal of progress.
Thirty years ago I could barely convince nonprofit
groups to hire press secretaries or focus on
communications. Even today many groups and
philanthropists are uncomfortable with the
concepts of marketing and branding. They understandably
fear that simplifying messages means distorting thembut
this need not, and should never be true. In the modern world,
being opposed to branding is being opposed to contemporary
forms of effective action. In the public interest world, we want
everything to be so detailed, literal and specific. This is a big
problem, as people do not learn from facts alone. Until we
understand that facts, if not embedded in moral frames and
narratives, have little impact and almost no stickiness, we are
not going to succeed. I applaud this effort to help the public
interest world be more effective.

Our key findings are summarized in three sets of documents:

an article published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review
in Spring 2012, entitled the Role of Brand in the Nonprofit
Sector; a collection of four case studieson the World Wildlife
Fund, Amnesty International, Publish What You Pay, and The
Girl Effect; and a brief summary of the conference held at the
Rockefeller Foundation in New York in December 2011.

The Role of Brand in the Nonprofit Sector

The article explores the sources of skepticism towards brand in
the nonprofit sector and proposes an expanded strategic role
for brand that both addresses these skepticisms and builds on
the corresponding sources of pride in the sector. The role of
brand in the sector is seen as cyclical and nested within the
mission and strategy of an organization. An alignment between
the internal identity and external image of a nonprofit creates
internal cohesion and external trust, resulting in increased
organizational capacity and impact. This, in turn, influences the
organizations identity and image, thereby closing the cycle.
The proposed framework emanating from this understanding of
the cyclical role of brand and the sources of pride in the sector,
comprises four principles captured in the Brand IDEA, where
I stands for brand Integrity, D for brand Democracy, E for brand
Ethics and A for brand Affinity.

Ingrid Srinath, Secretary General, CIVICUS: World Alliance

for Citizen Participation
The truth consistently well told has always seemed
to me to be the secret of powerful, durable brands.
Achieving that has never been easy. Today, when
trust is in short supply, negative news travels at
the speed of light, and brands are required to
be present across more platforms than ever before even as
resources dry up, the challenges are greater than ever before.
The brand whose purpose and values are inspiring to, and
shared and championed by, all its stakeholders in a world
where norms of legitimacy, transparency, accountability and
collaboration are being radically redefined, is now the holy grail
of marketers and communicators in business and government as
much as in civil society. The IDEA framework could not be more
relevant or timely in this context.

Brand Integrity means that the brand is aligned with, and

bonded to, the mission of the organization and that the brand
identity is aligned with the brand image. The word integrity
here is used in the sense of structural integrity, not moral
integrity. Internally, a brand with high structural integrity
connects the mission to the identity of the organization, giving
members, staff, volunteers, trustees, and others a common
sense of why the organization does what it does, and why it
matters in the world. Externally, a brand with high structural
integrity captures the mission in its public image, and deploys
that image in service of its mission at every step of a clearly
articulated strategy.

What People Are Saying

Marinke van Riet, International Director, Publish What You Pay
For Publish What You Pay (PWYP), this study
could not have come at a more opportune time.
It coincided with the launch of a global strategy
development process and provided a clear and
thorough external analysis of brand issues related
to our mission and identity which internally we already
suspected but wanted to see confirmed. The IDEA framework
provides a great framework against which PWYP will be able to
design our brand management to take the coalition to the next
phase of growth and evolution. I strongly encourage the team
at the Hauser Center to come back to PWYP in two to three
years to assess how the IDEA has moved beyond an idea and
theory to a true practical framework for brand governance and
wider accountability.

Brand Democracy means that the nonprofit organization trusts

its members, staff, participants, and volunteers to communicate
their own clear understanding of the organizations core identity
and be its brand advocates. The need to exert control on how the
brand is presented and portrayed in order to exercise consistency,
is largely eliminated and replaced with brand democracy in
which every employee and volunteer becomes an effective brand
ambassador. With the rise in social media, brand control becomes
increasingly difficult, if not impossible. The concept of brand
democracy extends beyond the traditional boundaries of the
organization, which become increasingly porous, to include
anyone blogging or tweeting about a particular organization.

Kate Roberts, Vice President of Corporate Marketing and

Communications, PSI
In bringing together this multi-focused group of
branding agencies, academics and non-profits,
the Hauser Center has helped us place the
power of brands back on the agenda. We need
to sustain the momentum of our time together,
share our brand promises, visions and plans with each other,
maybe even visit each other and tell our stories to our internal
teams so we all feel less alone! The truth in brands has always
been straightforwardthey must be real, evolve with their
audience, yet remain strong. Just like them, our organizations
view of brands needs to be realistic, evolve thorough insight
and knowledge, yet stand steadfast. Whether you work at a
for profit or a not for profit, the same issues and concerns
are raised time and time again: we need coherent brands
understood by our people internally and our customers
externally. We must define tangible brand visions that enable
our people to do their jobs smarter and more effectively. Global
organizations require simple brand packages that allow for
freedom of local expression but ensure consistency of voice
wherever their brand may reach.

Brand Ethics means that the brand itself and the way in which
the brand is deployed, reflects the core values of the organization. Just as brand integrity aligns and cements the brand with
mission, brand ethics aligns both the brand identity and the
brand image with the core values and culture of the organization. Brand ethics appear in a double role: the establishment
of an ethical brand, and the ethical use of brand.
Finally, Brand Affinity means that the brand is a good team
player. It works well alongside other brands, sharing space and
credit generously, promoting collective, over individual interests. Such a brand attracts partners and collaborators, for it
lends value to the partnerships without exploiting them. An
organization with high brand affinity has shaped and managed
its brand so that it combines smoothly and generously with
its partners, collaborators, and coalition members. Indeed,
nonprofit organizations with the highest brand affinity actually
promote the brands of their partners as much or more than
they promote their own brands. Although the concept here
is focused principally on organization brands, brand affinity
appears to be at work especially clearly in coalition and movement brands, where multiple organizations join in a common
cause that has its own image and identity.

Case Studies

What People Are Saying

The case study on the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) brand considers a fifty year old organization with an iconic brand
embodied by its panda logotrying to understand how best to
leverage that brand to deliver on the organizations bold ambitions. WWF is faced with an uncomfortable reality: while
awareness of WWF is high (the brand is well recognized),
understanding of what the organization does is low. When
information is provided on the breadth of WWFs work, people
feel even more positively about WWF. This confronts the WWF
brand with this challenge: how to convey WWFs breadth of
work without losing its identity. This dilemma highlights the
importance of Brand Integrity. To confront this challenge, WWF
has simplified its vision and mission statement, is building a
cadre of master communicators, has introduced a set of story
themes to bring clarity to its external communications and is
adopting an umbrella message Be the Voice for Those Who
Have No Voice. The organizations approach in building external communication is an example of Brand Democracy at work.

Asif Saleh, Director of Communications and Head of the

Social Innovation Lab at BRAC and BRAC International
I found the conference very timely and relevant.
As the director of communication for the largest
development organization in the word, I often
have to struggle internally to articulate the
need for branding. However, I found from the
conference that I was not the only one. It was refreshing to see
that there is a fresh approach with a framework shift towards
highlighting values, theory of change and mission impact
in the field of nonprofit branding. While setting this years
communication strategyboth internal and externalI kept
that heavily in mind.
Terry Macko, Senior Vice President for Communications and
Marketing, WWF
With an iconic logo like the WWF panda, World
Wildlife Fund shoulders enormous responsibility
for reinforcing the trust and values built over its
50 years of operating each time we communicate.
People around the world love the panda and
they hold us to the highest standards. Working with the
Hauser Center, WWF learned important lessons in how critical
authenticity is for all NGOs who rely on the power of their
brands to amplify their message and aim for it to resonate
with key constituencies. Working collaboratively on this case
study was an extremely helpful exercise for all of us at WWF
as it helped us to crystallize our own thinking on how we
should manage our brand going forward as we strive to engage
hundreds of millions of people in the cause of conservation of
the planet.

The case study on the Amnesty International brand explores

how the organization has sought to develop a single, global
identity and revitalize the Amnesty brand to coincide with its
fiftieth anniversary. Human rights and campaigning have
evolved in various ways in different countries and Amnestys
many national identities have mirrored this diversity. At the
global level, however, this diversity of identities had become a
source of confusion. Since 2006, against the backdrop of a
complex international governance structure, deep ambivalence
about branding (the B-word), and changing leadership at the
Secretary-General level, a global identity project has taken on
the challenge of developing a clear, global identity for Amnesty
International. The outcome is captured in a Little Yellow
Book which articulates a unity of purpose across Amnesty
International, while encouraging translation to suit a variety of
contexts. The case highlights issues of Brand Democracy and
Brand Ethics.

Bradford K. Smith, President, The Foundation Center

If nonprofits are still in the 20th century,
nonprofit accounting is in the 19thcentury.
The way nonprofits are audited keeps them in
a straightjacket, forced to categorize branding
expenses as non-program, which is on a collision
course with a lot of the metrics being developed for online
giving. The IDEA principles could be particularly useful in reconceptualizing nonprofit accounting, to find a creative way
for nonprofits to stop being so limited by their percentage of
overhead, so they can put effort toward branding in a way that
ultimately furthers their mission.

The Publish What You Pay case study examines the brand of a
global NGO coalition campaigning to increase revenue transparency in the extractive industries. After ten years, the coalitions efforts have resulted in concrete policy gains at the local,
regional and international level, as well as in exponential
membership growth and the mobilization of a diverse and
growing number of civil society actors. By 2012, the expansion
of the coalitions membership and its aspirations calls for a
reassessment of the coalitions brand, including its internal
identity, external image, logo, name and new protocols for

the role of brand in creating simplicity, clarity, identity and

alignment; campaigns and movements as brands; the use of
brand as a decision making tool; and brands within partnerships and at different points in an organizations life-cycle.
Additional themes that were discussed were: the importance
of alignment, both internally and with other brands; defining
brands as relationships; issues of brands and organizational
scale; and brand partnerships and competition. In terms of the
brand IDEA framework, two areas were considered particularly
salient: the difficulty of implementing brand democracy, yet its
necessity to achieve scale and impact; and the role of ethics
and values in ensuring alignment between internal identity and
external image. Three potential next steps for future research
might include: a closer examination of how brand is related to
theory of change; how the brand IDEA might be relevant for
smaller nonprofit organizations; and the development of tools
to help organizations implement the brand IDEA.

brand management that can help maximize mission impact and

mitigate risk. Building the capacity and strategies to project
and manage the Publish What You Pay brand effectively alongside the existing brands of member NGOs, has been a
continuing challenge that has yielded many lessons and
provides insights into the concept of Brand Affinity.
The case study on The Girl Effect brand outlines how the
Nike Foundation sought to place investment in girls on the
global agenda by creating the Girl Effect brand, which is now
taking on a life and trajectory of its own. In 2008, the Nike
Foundation, with the input and participation of a network of
partners, launched the Girl Effect website, which was designed
as an open source platform that provided videos, logos, photographs and data that anyone could download and use to
spread the word about the effectiveness and importance of
investing in girls. This case study highlights the role of Brand
Democracy in building a powerful movement. The Girl Effect
brand seeks to become a banner under which a variety of girl
champions come togetherfrom NGO partners like CARE and
BRAC to the World Bank to girls organizations in developing
countries. This is an example of the power and importance of
Brand Affinity.

Thanks and Acknowledgements

This research was an important collaborative project and would
not have been possible without the financial and intellectual
support of individuals from the Rockefeller Foundation. The
Hauser Centers research team consisted of Christopher Stone,
Nathalie Kylander, Johanna Chao Kreilick, Sherine Jayawickrama
and Alexandra Pittman, with Rahim Kanani, Natasha Sunderji
and Sonali Sharma providing invaluable insight and research
support in the first phase of the project. The Hauser Center team
is also deeply thankful to the nearly one hundred participants of
the study and conference, whose passion, vision and generosity
in terms of time and keen insights has resulted in a body of work
that we are proud to present.

Conference Summary
In December 2011, close to fifty participants, including academics, consultants and practitioners from the nonprofit sector,
gathered to discuss and build upon the Hauser Centers
research on the role of brand in the nonprofit sector. The
energy and enthusiasm for the subject, and a general recognition of the importance and relevance of brand in the nonprofit
sector were evident. Key issues that were identified included: