While business branding tends to highlight value, NGO branding is more likely to focus on vision, mission, trust and transparency.  

A strong brand supports an NGO’s ability to compete for attention, recruit talent, build trust, attract resources and foster relationships with stakeholders, and perhaps most importantly, to inspire effective action.

What branding does for an NGO

In its entirety, an NGO brand expresses the organisation’s mission, values and purpose.

Coherent messages and relevant visuals communicate the essence of an NGO to its team, stakeholders and the communities and individuals it serves. 

A strong brand tells a story – it salutes heritage, makes goals clear and tangible, celebrates its impact and shares its struggles.

A successful NGO brand creates an emotional connection with team, beneficiaries, volunteers, donors and partners.

Over time it builds authenticity, transparency, and trustworthiness – vital for nonprofit organisations whose ability to deliver on its mission often requires external support. 

In short, effective branding helps shape perceptions, enhances visibility and extends the reach of the NGO by better resonating with key stakeholder groups.

When should you consider rebranding?

Changes to the brand can help address a range of challenges faced by NGOs. Here are situations affected by stakeholder perceptions:

• Our vision and mission has evolved but people aren’t aware of it
• The world has changed but people think our organisation hasn’t kept up
• We need to reach a wider group of donors and supporters, or get more commitment from our existing ones
• We are expanding into areas or activities we’ve not previously been involved in
• It’s become more difficult to attract and retain talented team members
• We have difficulty explaining what we do, and why others should care

Getting branding right creates substantial value for the organisation for many years.

NGO brand building step-by-step

Effective branding looks simple. It is not. 

Successful organisations invest a lot of care and thought into brand building because getting it wrong has negative consequences.

Getting branding right creates substantial value for the organisation for many years.

Let’s see how an NGO can methodically approach a rebranding initiative.

Step 1 – Recognise the risks and opportunities

To develop value from your brand, someone with influence in the NGO needs to decide it’s an area with potential.

The idea may meet scepticism and doubt. People don’t join NGOs to develop brands. They join to create positive change in the world. 

What’s wrong with what we do now? How can we justify the cost? Isn’t it obvious why people should support us? These are all good questions.

The answers depend on your organisation’s ambition. If you don’t plan to grow or extend your mission, then perhaps you don’t need to invest in your brand.

However if your NGO wants to expand by reaching out to more people, then a strong brand supports that.

Step 2 – Form a rebranding team

Your rebranding team should include senior leaders in your organisation, ideally with previous branding or marketing experience. A diverse age group is worth considering. 

Nominate a team leader who can make a final decision to break a committee deadlock. And nominate an individual to act as project manager.

Also aim to involve a diverse group of stakeholders in the research and evaluation phases.

You will also need support from experienced professionals, most likely an external branding team with a methodical process who has successfully completed comparable projects. A professionally run branding project includes specialists who bring objectivity, strategy and design skills.

Step 3 – Allocate resources

Among the resources you need will be the time of senior decision-makers, a budget, and a project scope detailing inputs and expected outcomes. 

Depending on the scope, the time and budget can vary a lot. A branding agency can help you accurately scope out the project based on your unique situation, and provide you with a ballpark cost estimate.

Step 4 – Apply a methodology

Effective branding is more than coming up with a logo and slogan.

Yes it is important to distil the essence of your NGO into a few words and a unique graphic. But that logo and slogan must also be expanded into a brand messaging and design system. Clearly branding your assets, and amplifying your message at every stakeholder interaction will support your organisation’s goals.

Building an effective brand requires a process. The methodology will follow a number of phases:

Research and discovery – Identify key stakeholders and influencers to ascertain current perceptions of the NGO, understand the peer landscape where there is competition for attention, resources, and talent. 

People who work in NGOs are often purpose-driven and have strong points of view. It's important to know who we should engage internally, and make sure everyone has a voice (not a vote) so that their views are heard and carefully considered.

A brand perceptions survey is a cost effective way to understand people’s thoughts on your current brand.

Brand strategy development – Apply learnings from the research to develop a brand model and brand DNA. Pinpoint the brand positioning. 

This phase will result in a set of key messages that will play a vital role in creating the right perceptions of your NGO in people’s minds.

Brand identity design – The brand strategy, key brand messages and brand personality will help the design team to evolve a brand identity system, including your logo. 

Brand launch – Plan to launch the changed brand to internal teams before launching to the wider world. Launching internally enables your people to accurately explain the changes to outsiders. 

Start with brand workshops with various department heads so they understand the strategy behind the rebrand, what it means for them, and to resolve any concerns. Only then do you launch the brand to the entire organisation.

The changed brand will be applied to your updated website. Encourage stakeholders to visit your website via email and social media campaigns.

A refreshed brand launch celebration event will bring stakeholders together – such as your people, service beneficiaries, the board, government officials, donor partners and reporters. 

Often a brand launch will coincide with a major anniversary, strategic shift or in response to a mismatch in stakeholder understanding. This is an ideal opportunity to let stakeholders know your rebrand means as a commitment to them.

When a prominent NGO changes their brand, it’s a newsworthy event. Set the public narrative with a press event, and also consider a media campaign and fundraising campaign.

Step 5 – Amplify and evaluate

Following your brand launch there’s a period when all your assets are gradually rebranded. You’ll also launch new initiatives and campaigns that carry your NGO’s new branding. 

During this time, your brand guidelines need to be followed and monitored – people are inclined to do their own thing when it comes to creating communications.

Six months after the launch of the revitalised brand, you can conduct a follow up brand perception survey to review how people feel about brand-related matters. 

Other ways to evaluate branding impact include:

• Internal team satisfaction at all levels, from front-line to board level
• Feedback from service beneficiaries 
• Website traffic 
• Social media engagement
• Email subscribers and click-through rate
• Event signups
• Change in number of people donating, as well as donation size
• Donors moving from one-time to recurring

Getting started

A professional, responsible NGO rebranding project requires six to 12 months. Start as early as possible if the launch is to coincide with a particular event.

Decisions often take longer for NGOs with complex governance structures, where people feel a deep sense of responsibility as custodians of the group’s mission. 

Get started by talking to a branding agency with NGO experience. Ask which organisations they have worked with and the tangible impact the branding initiative had.

Why wait? The sooner you begin, the earlier your organisation and its service beneficiaries benefit.