What’s in a Name

Plenty, if this article from BisNow about the names nonprofits choose, is any indication.

An excerpt.

“Carol Cone is known as the "mother of cause marketing" for her work on campaigns such as the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women, Avon's Breast Cancer Crusade, and ConAgra Food's Feeding Children Better. We spoke to her yesterday about a book she co-authored with three other non-profit veterans, Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding.

“Branding is a dirty word to many organizations, says Carol, explaining that they think it's all about marketing and not mission. But an authentic brand appeals to the "head, heart, and hand." To achieve that, organizations need to determine what they do better than anyone else, create an emotional bond, and engage people into their cause. One of the first and most critical steps is determining the organization's focused, compelling identity. "Focus is your friend. It helps you pick what you're going to do and what you're not going to do."

“She points to a small organization in Austin, TX previously called Admission Control, which provides college access and support services to underserved young people. Its name was such an impediment that it would get calls for the space program. The non-profit did some focus groups to determine what it really stood for and realized it not only wanted to help young people get into college, but move forward in their lives. That led to a new name for the organization: College Forward. But the introspection also led the non-profit to an expansion in services for mentoring and support throughout college. College Forward has since grown from a budget of $200K to $1.8 million over four years. "More people came forward because they were clear about what they did. It became their rallying cry," Carol says.

“For more on branding, we headed to Association Media & Publishing's event yesterday. Bates Creative Group president Debra Bates-Schrott spoke about the role of a name. She says it should represent what the organization is about and what the membership is looking for. But for many organizations, their initials represent something in the past or their terminology is no longer appropriate to the world today. Others rely solely on their tagline because their name means absolutely nothing. The American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) recently decided to drop the word "association" from its name altogether and rebrand itself as LeadingAge to reflect its innovating and forward-thinking approach. Debra says organizations should also consider how the names of their events, publications, and websites relate to the organization's name. Land Trust Alliance, for example, changed the name of it's magazine from Exchange to Saving Land. "It gets to the core of what the organization is about," Debra says.”