Finding Your Nonprofit's Voice

By Sruthi Sadhujan, Senior Strategy Director at Hyperakt

Our prospective clients come to us in all shapes and sizes. Some are looking for a website refresh (“we want to tell a more compelling story through digital") while others are looking to spruce up their visual brand (“we want to look as powerful as we feel”). Naturally, as a branding studio, we ask to review everything—their brand strategy (the often-invisible underpinning and rationale that drives the brand), their visual brand (logo, colors, typography, etc.) and their verbal brand (the language they use to express themselves to the world).

By Sruthi Sadhujan, Senior Strategy Director at Hyperakt

In a recent branding project, we surveyed the entire organization on communication challenges. Specifically, we asked, “What do you struggle with the most when communicating with outside audiences.” Amongst all the responses, we stumbled across a response from an individual in the middle layers of the organization.

“I hear our leaders use phrases like, ‘We’re a different kind of funder. We’re onto something new…” but I struggle to authentically use these catchphrases that I know are meaningful to us.”

By Sruthi Sadhujan, Senior Strategy Director at Hyperakt

How frequently do you and your colleagues use words like these: “innovation,“ “in community,“ “transformation,“ “champion,“ “proximate,“ “dollars out the door,“ “disruption?“

Jargon is technical slang that holds specific meaning to one group, but may be interpreted completely differently by outsiders. Jargon isn’t inherently bad. It can help bring like-minded individuals together around a similar cause, giving them shared language and verbal shortcuts for working together. While jargon can feel both natural and easy in our everyday lives, its presence is often a sign of a lack of clear thinking. Excising jargon can actually lead to sharper thinking, which in turn can breathe life and meaning into your communications.

By Julia Zeltser, Partner at Hyperakt

Francis Coppola was only 29 years old when he began working on The Godfather. As an inexperienced director, he was managing the film crew, writing the screenplay, and answering to executive bigwigs. Coppola feared dropping the ball. The film had so many complex scenes, historical details, and questions to answer that it was nearly impossible to manage.

To keep the byzantine project under control, Coppola developed a tactic we can all benefit from: he reduced every situation and every scene to a one-word theme. The Godfather's big theme was succession. Everything from clothes to lighting or wedding party scenes spoke to that theme.

By Sruthi Sadhujan, Senior Strategy Director at Hyperakt

Your nonprofit organization embodies so many elements: programs, initiatives, issues, teams, passions. And it has so many stakeholders: funders, clients, staffers, partners, community leaders. You’re a lot of things to a lot of people.

But when it comes to branding, your brand needs to communicate one single idea – layered and dimensional of course, but still one that can be boiled down into a short phrase or sentence. Even if you attempt to communicate 20 percent of all the things you are, you risk watering the brand down into a bland discourse about nothing.

By Deroy Peraza, Partner at Hyperakt

We love nonprofits, but sometimes you tend to get a bit carried away with fancy words and long sentences. This verbosity 😉 can create barriers, making it tough for people with limited time and short attention spans to grasp your mission.

By Julia Zeltser, Partner at Hyperakt

There is not a generation in my family that has not crossed borders. From small shtetls to large cities, from one republic to another, from country to country, from language to language, from sautéed cabbage to hamburgers, from birch juice to Coke.

My husband’s family, who have a very similar background, spoke a different language every single generation. I kid you not: Over the past 120 years, five generations went from Yiddish, to German, to Romanian, to Ukrainian, to Russian, to English.

By Sruthi Sadhujan, Senior Strategy Director at Hyperakt

Whether you’re crafting the perfect sentence, explaining an abstract idea, or building a new brand identity, it’s easy to fall into habitual thinking as you search for solutions. Look for fresh ideas by using analogies. This technique of reframing the puzzle can help you see your organization in a new light and unlock new ways of representing and talking about what you do and why you do it.

By Laura Staugaitis

This article was originally published on Charity Navigator.

While working with purpose-driven organizations on branding and storytelling for the last twenty years here at Hyperakt, we’ve learned a lot about what lights a fire in nonprofit audiences. One of our favorite frameworks to apply to the field of mission-driven work is inspired by Simon Sinek’s golden circle: that there are three fundamental components to how you introduce yourself.

By Kade Burns, Senior Strategist at Hyperakt

You know your organization needs high-level language to communicate who you are: one or two statements that serve as core messaging.

Despite universal agreement that all organizations need this language, there isn’t a consistent framework for it. The industry has different statements that attempt to communicate different aspects of your organization, whether that is in a Mission statement, Vision statement, Purpose statement, Value Proposition, Positioning statement, Promise statement, or [insert statement name of your own].

By Sruthi Sadhujan, Senior Strategy Director at Hyperakt

Today, a brand is no longer just a communications tool, it is a tool for narrative and systems change. While crafting a compelling mission statement and designing a unique logo are still essential, they have become table stakes. A well-executed brand can go beyond the basics to shift your audience’s values and remove obstacles standing in the way of meaningful change.