Storytelling has long been an integral part of branding but is perhaps more relevant in the charitable sector than in any other. The history, purpose, vision and values of a charitable organisation are pivotal to raising awareness, creating a brand identity target audiences relate to, and developing authentic, emotive and memorable campaigns that drive greater support.
Brand narratives can be complex, but breaking down the brand creation process into methodical steps is incredibly important. This ensures you create a strong brand that delivers the responses you need, will stand the test of time, and plays a positive role in shaping perceptions of your charity and work.
Great branding isn’t just about fantastic logo design or one amazing campaign but about building a sustainable foundation that encompasses the charity’s mission and beliefs.
Your brand strategy should clearly define why your charity matters, why donors or supporters should get involved, and what it means and feels like to contribute to fundraising.
Understanding the Power of Charity Brand Narratives
In recent years, the way most successful charities define themselves has shifted enormously, which helps us explain the role of brand identity and how that feeds into every communication, image, or piece of content you might share.
Traditionally, charities focused on campaigns that attempted to evoke support through sympathy, comparison or guilt, featuring heart-wrenching images to initiate responses.
For a number of years, this worked to a degree, but charities kept finding that their audiences were desensitised or less receptive to their campaigns, being bombarded with difficult scenarios through every medium, with a drop in support as more and more charitable organisations deployed similar strategies.
Today, and in line with the expectations and priorities of modern audiences, charities are far more likely to focus on the power of their achievements and success stories and how every donation, contribution, or purchase helps to actively improve disadvantage within the applicable area.
Whether your charity relies on individual donors, corporate partnerships, advocacy from important stakeholders, or overarching support for your cause within society in general, the tone, pitch, and methods in which you communicate can make a substantial difference to the results your campaigns deliver.
Guidance on Creating an Impactful Charity Brand Story
We talk about brand narratives and identities, and while we are always happy to discuss the intricacies of each element of your branding, the big picture is to build a charity brand that summarises everything you stand for in the most concise way possible.
Capturing attention and incentivising individuals or organisations to engage or follow your work or contribute to fundraising events and initiatives relies on immediacy. That is because a person new to your charity is unlikely to conduct extensive research to find more information beyond that put in front of them.
This is where storytelling and narratives become so vital – because the mission should always be front and centre.
Every donor, in every guise, supports a charity or chooses the causes they get behind because there is a reason to care, a tangible value to them in offering their support, and a trust that the charity will use their contributions for the movement, purpose or solution they are working towards.
Bringing history, background, and real-world stories into that branding is hugely effective. It transforms a worthwhile cause into one with a human reason behind it, giving you better ways to establish rapport, create campaigns that are relatable on a personal level, and reinforce engagement with the brand.
Elements of Strong Branding for Charitable Causes
Every charity is different, and there isn’t a template or pre-set pattern that will help you drill down into the essence behind your brand – but we can point out some of the key aspects that all great charity brands have:
- An understanding of the audience: As we’ve mentioned, charities depend on support from varied sources, and you need to know who your supporters are, what matters most to them, and the platforms and channels they use most often to ensure your campaigns are properly targeted and speak directly to those key groups.
- Clarity about vision and values: Charities need to build each campaign on a solid sense of purpose, with a mission that steers every decision, from their day-to-day work to how they define their objectives for the future.
- Compelling brand stories: Knowing how the charity came to exist, the impacts it makes, and how that history is represented through the charity’s visual identity gives viewers something to connect with.
Building a charitable brand one step at a time is essential, beginning with brand audits and audience research and developing an immersive brand story before working on your visual identity elements such as logos, fonts, lettering and slogans.
Consistency is key, and the brand’s tone and style, whether approachable and friendly, informative and professional, or warm and compassionate, need to be cohesive across every potential touchpoint.
Examples of Storytelling in Charity Branding
The Flintlock Marketing team were delighted to collaborate with an extraordinary local charity, Stonepillow, based here in Chichester, which works to prevent homelessness.
We were appointed to help the charity following an internal strategy reset, during which the organisation refreshed its services and looked at the best ways to help homeless people and those vulnerable to homelessness restore their lives and feel empowered.
During the brand project, we recommended changes to improve navigation through the website, clarify how supporters could donate, and use inspiring stories, colour palettes, and messaging to explain everything the charity does and aspires to achieve.
Even a quick glance at the Stonepillow website demonstrates how all these puzzle pieces came together, with fresh, lively and compelling communications and immediate messaging with excerpts from real people who have benefited from the charity’s support, showing in one glance what it means to be a part of.
The story is, of course, prominent, with the charity founded by a local church congregation following the tragic death of a young homeless man who was known to be a kind and understanding person who had fallen on difficult times.
Twenty years later, Stonepillow has introduced numerous projects to prevent this tragedy from ever recurring.
Through its branding and communications, it continues to be of tremendous importance to the city, offering supporters opportunities to help with donations of their time and unwanted items alongside financial contributions—embodying the message that ‘big changes start small’.
