By: Lidia Varesco Art Director & Designer, Lidia Varesco Design I work with many nonprofits in Chicago, and one of the reasons they choose to work with me is because they need help bringing consistency to their branding and marketing materials. For an established organization (or even a new one), branding can start to become diluted over time, with marketing materials using multiple versions of logos, colors and images that are not on-brand, and messaging that is not targeted or audience-focused. This is where brand guidelines can make a big impact. What are brand guidelines? Brand guidelines (also sometimes called...
By: Valeria Basso Symphonic Communications Consulting Here is a fact you most likely don’t want to hear but need to: 98% of your marketing is a waste of money. It’s just noise and your audience is hardly noticing it. The truth is that most non-profits miss the mark with their marketing because their message fails to answer a simple question: What's in it for the donors? You can tell uplifting stories about how your organization is changing lives but if you don’t show your donors how your work impacts and matters to them, those stories are going to be largely...
8 Ways Social Media Can Further Your Mission By: Melissa Lagowski CEO, Founder and Queen Bee, Big Buzz Idea Group When to-do lists run long, social media management is often one of the first things to fall off a busy nonprofit team’s plate. While it’s crucial to stay focused on organizational strategy, building and maintaining a social media presence is a tactic that can help your nonprofit successfully execute that big-picture strategy and meet next-level goals. Social media may seem small-reaching, especially if you’re still working to build a following, but with consistent, engaging content, it has limitless potential. How...
