Mission-Brand Collaboration is Critical for Nonprofits

Many nonprofits today think about their brands as separate from the strategic work that drives organizational efficiency, effectiveness, and growth. The mission often resides with leadership and program teams—the logical core that defines what the organization does and why. Brand lives with marketing and communications—the emotional layer that talks about the work and shapes how people feel about it.

This division may have been efficient at one time, but the imperative to break down organizational silos has intensified over the past decade or more across both for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Many companies and organizations today recognize that isolated departments limit their effectiveness. They see their brand as a revenue generator rather than a cost center. The topic has inspired numerous articles in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and Harvard Business Review, demonstrating its impact on product innovation, culture, and peoples’ perceptions of brands.

Twenty years ago, design and business strategy were unlikely collaborators. Design’s main role was to make something look good after all of the strategic decisions were made. Companies like Apple figured out that design is strategy, and it propelled the brand well into the future, and far beyond its competition. Design strategy became business strategy. The companies that got this did well. Large consulting firms acquired design firms. And the link between design and business was no longer in question.

The Mission-Brand connection—much like the Design-Business connection—is essential in creating experiences for audiences and stakeholders that help them understand you while driving engagement, trust, and loyalty.

When mission- and brand-focused teams collaborate, organizations develop remarkable consistency across how they talk about what they do in different channels. They also take into consideration how people outside of the organization understand the work. How it shapes perceptions of the organization. How it connects with culture and larger movements. How it creates meaningful connections between the organization and its supporters. And how it moves the mission and brand into the future, toward its bold vision. ◼