Is Your Board Too Busy for Branding?
Your organization is considering investing in strengthening its brand. Maybe your reputation needs updating. Maybe your messages need freshening. Maybe you need big changes like a new name, tagline, or...
View ArticleAll-Call for Independent Schools: School’s Out—But You Should Be In
Ahhh. Admissions season is over, summer is nigh, and it’s time to recharge before the fall frenzy starts up again. Before you take out the margarita glasses, Mission Minded is here with a suggestion...
View ArticleIs Your E-newsletter a Must-read or a Yawn?
Is your newsletter one that people welcome? Do your supporters read and get inspired by it? If you’re not sure, or if you have a sinking feeling it could be better, we’re offering 7 ways to make your...
View ArticleA Branding Mistake We Almost Made
At Mission Minded we counsel our clients to think of branding as everybody’s job. It’s not only the responsibility of the executive director, or the marketing committee of the board, or the marketing...
View Article9 Mistakes Your Independent School Can Avoid This Admissions Season
Knowing how to create a great admissions experience can be tricky. You want to attract new families to your school, yet you know your school isn’t right for everyone. You want to communicate...
View Article5 Ways to Communicate Better in the New Year
There are best practices of branding and communications that any nonprofit can put into place without a lot of hullaballoo. Like the new year’s resolutions so many of us make this time of year,...
View Article3 Ways to Ensure Your Next Email Solicitation is On Brand
Do your emails align with your organization’s brand strategy? Do they send a clear, consistent message about the value of your work and the difference donors can make by supporting you? Not sure? Too...
View ArticleWhen it comes to your message, how much is enough?
We counsel our clients to repeat, repeat, repeat: Get a good message and stick with it—in print, digital, and spoken communications. In fact, we often say that someone needs to hear a message 14 times...
View ArticleShould Each of Your Programs Have its Own Brand?
We hear this question often: Should we be branding each of our individual programs, or trying to create one single “umbrella” brand under which all our programs can live? Many nonprofits have named...
View ArticleWe just changed our tagline…and it wasn’t easy.
We had a great tagline, and it served us well for over a decade. And then our tagline stopped working. How did we know? It just didn’t feel like us anymore. It wasn’t bad; it just wasn’t as good as it...
View Article13 Reasons Your Nonprofit Might Need To Update Its Brand
We get calls from nonprofits, foundations, and independent schools eager to address communication challenges of every kind. Some recognize that an unclear brand is at the center of their issues, and...
View ArticleHow To Turn A New Brand Into a Fresh Admissions Campaign
Being crystal clear on the brand of your school—that single big, differentiating idea that you want to be known by—is how smart schools create an admissions campaign that excites everyone from faculty...
View ArticleYour Annual Report Question: Deliver Digitally, By Mail, Or Not At All?
In today’s digital world you may be wondering if printing and mailing an annual report to your supporters is appropriate. And if your budget is tight you may have already decided to save the print and...
View ArticleIs Emotion Missing from Your Capital Campaign?
Capital campaigns are launched to raise the money to fill a nonprofit organization’s need. Case statements are written to prove the rational point that the money is needed and will go to good use. So...
View ArticleYour Case for Support: Good Design Will Make it Stronger
In my last post, I relayed the importance of injecting emotion into your next capital campaign. Emotion, after all, is a key element in our equation for a great case for support. Rationale + Urgency +...
View ArticleYour Organization’s Story: In One Minute
Most of us know how frustrating it is to miss an opportunity to hook someone on our organization. If you’ve ever felt like you haven’t communicated clearly about the organization you love when you had...
View ArticleYour Organization’s Story: In Two Minutes
As part of our series on the Minute Message Model, we recently shared an easy way to write your organization’s One Minute Message. That’s our term for the pitch you should use any time you are...
View ArticleYour Organization’s Story: In Five Minutes
With your One Minute Message and your Two Minute Messages developed, you’re well prepared to give an arresting introduction and explain why your organization is needed. Used effectively, these messages...
View ArticleYour Organization’s Story: In Ten Minutes
“Tell me about your organization.” This command often strikes fear and freeze in the minds of nonprofit staff and board. Not quite sure how to summarize all the good done by their organization they...
View ArticleRebrand, Rename, Celebrate: 5 Tips For Your Launch
You’ve come a long way since you first realized your organization needed a rebrand. At first, you thought strategically about your brand and values. Then you embarked on changing your name to something...
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