Imagine you’re watching a movie. Suddenly, the scene darkens. A low bassline swells. A flash jolts across the screen. Before you’re even aware, subtle cues have you on the edge of your seat. Your attention is locked in.
That’s because good creative triggers a response. Every fundraiser knows this well!
Now imagine taking that evocative scene and applying a set of rules to every frame. The lighting remains consistent. The music holds steady. Colors stay in their palette. Suddenly, every element that created tension has been flattened.
Does this sound familiar? It should. This same tension plays out in nonprofit marketing.
Both are important, but sometimes the two can clash.
So how can fundraising and branding work together? Let’s explore how these two can be friends.
This is Branding. Branding really cares about:
This is Fundraising. Fundraising really cares about:
Fundraising admires how Branding answers to a high calling: Changing the way people speak — and think — about animals. But Fundraising also has a big job to do: meeting revenue goals. (And Fundraising is beholden to the results!)The key to a harmonious relationship is knowing who should take the lead in which conversation. This balancing act is not unique to animal care organizations. Consider the marketing you may see from a children’s hospital. Branding instills confidence by featuring healthy kids and state-of-the-art care. Fundraising shows the urgent need for new research and cures, and it asks donors to provide hope for kids who are ill.
At an animal care organization:
It’s a different approach to the same goal. And knowing which one takes the lead plays out in the results.
TrueSense recently tested two versions of our animal care acquisition creative. The control version followed fundraising best practices without incorporating the organization’s specific brand fonts, colors, or stylizations. The test version applied them.
The more heavily branded package underperformed.
We’ve also seen specific cases in which language that was “on brand” proved to be “off fundraising.”
The takeaway here is that more branding doesn’t automatically make fundraising more effective. And sometimes, it can hurt. What you need to consider is which brand elements strengthen the donor experience and which ones may get in the way of the fundraising objective.
So where should our friend Branding come into fundraising appeals? Here are some areas that are almost always non-negotiable:
But sometimes, Fundraising needs to deploy tactics that creatively bend the brand. Here are some good places to be flexible:
Fundraising doesn’t abandon the brand, but it may bend the brand on purpose, with a rationale grounded in data, donor behavior, and proven strategy.
Branding leads when the goal is recognition, reputation, and long-term affinity: awareness, community education, advocacy, corporate partnerships, your website, and your annual report.
Fundraising leads when the goal is urgency, emotional engagement, and action: renewals, reactivation, acquisition, and emergency and matching-gift campaigns.
Branding and fundraising have different priorities and different measures of success, but they share one objective: deepening the relationship between your organization and the donors who make your work possible. The tension becomes a problem only when Branding and Fundraising see themselves as frenemies instead of a lifesaving team!