Change is constant. And as your organization changes, it’s natural to focus on keeping up. But sometimes, the visuals are the last thing to evolve.

When your organization is doing great work, it’s important that your visuals and outreach materials always reflect the caliber of that work (because they strengthen your mission and help you engage with more supporters)!

Here are some before and afters that helped these organizations better convey their message.

The National Security Archive is a nonprofit research and archival institution who needed to brand their organization in a way that showed the importance of the work they do. Their original logo was confusing; it didn’t even say their name. Together we worked to create a strong logo and clear brand guidelines that would serve them more accurately.

The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States. I worked to redesign their Community Remembrance Brochure to highlight the four component activities of the campaign and lead to a deeper engagement while being more aesthetically pleasing. Icons, infographics and photos were added to the brochure to add visual interest and help highlight important facts.

The L.A. Opportunity Youth Collaborative (OYC) is a network of public agencies, nonprofit organizations, education systems, and employers working together to support and connect transition-age foster youth in achieving education and employment. They needed a brand that conveyed partnership, collaboration and networking. We worked together to create a logo, brand guidelines and an identity system inspired by shape-like letters that fit together—because that’s what their work is all about.

What does your before and after look like? Let’s figure it out together.

When was the last time you took a really deep breath and exhaled slowly? As spring arrives, I can’t help but notice an increased desire to slow down, simplify and clarify. In life and business, I think spring is a time for new beginnings and renewal.

Which is why I want to ask you this question:

Does your business need a breath of fresh air?

If yes, let me provide you a complimentary (no obligation!) brand audit.
I have five slots available. Sign up by Wednesday, April 19^th to reserve yours.

Why am I doing this? Because I want you to have a fresh, clear start and an objective perspective. I know sometimes we all need one! If this turns into a creative partnership, that’s wonderful. If not, that’s wonderful too…especially if you walk away with something helpful.

Together we’ll answer these questions:

• Can your brand be simplified?
• Does your brand tell a consistent story?
• Are you attracting your ideal clients with your branding?
• Does your branding make you stand out from your competitors?

Plus, I’ll share at least 3 specific recommendations to make your brand stand out.

Try it.

Happy Spring!

Have you ever gone to your favorite restaurant and had terrible service?

Bought one of your stand by products only to find that they changed the formula and it doesn’t work the same way?

Gone to the grocery store to get a few basic items and they were out of all them for the third week in a row (this really happened to me!)

What do all these situations have in common? Inconsistency.

How do they relate to branding? Consistency is a key component to success. It builds familiarity and trust, and when people have that trust and recognition in your brand, they are on the way to becoming loyal supporters.

What do you need to do? It’s simple. Be consistent in your brand messaging. Having a brand guideline book is essential for making sure your entire staff has the tools and resources to do this.

A few more tips:

• In your marketing make sure the visuals all have a consistent look and feel.
• The tone of voice in your overall messaging should be consistent as well.
• Have a few set templates for your social media posts so they all have a consistent look.

I know when I have consistently good service and interactions with a brand I remain a loyal customer. My loyalties are now with another grocery store because they have my must-haves in stock!

Want to define your authentic brand story and represent it consistently? I can help you with my Brand Identity Package. Want to see if it’s a good fit for your needs? Let’s talk.

I love to eat! I also love making new healthy recipes. I don’t love chopping vegetables and cleaning up the kitchen. Luckily my family members or dinner guests are usually up for chopping the vegetables. And when I cook, they sometimes even clean up the kitchen.

This arrangement works out very well for me (I hope for them too). I’ve found that while the chopper is chopping things, I can prep the rest of the meal, set the table, plan for the next day or even do some yoga.

By surrendering what I don’t love doing and allowing someone else to help, it has opened me up for more productivity and creativity. When I’m not chopping vegetables, I have more time to do other things I like better!

Think about it. Is there something that you’d don’t love doing or think someone else could help you do better?

If you dislike handling your marketing and design as much as I dislike chopping veggies, let me help you with my Ongoing Partnership Package. Limited spots available!

Want to see if it’s a good fit for your needs? Let’s talk.

I go to meditation classes regularly. I even have a monthly membership at a meditation studio.

Could I meditate at home?

Probably. I’ve tried it, but it just isn’t the same. Dedicating time to yourself is hard sometimes, but when you invest in something, you can find ways to carve out the time and get better results.

Also, I’m new to meditation and at the studio, I am learning from expert instructors with years of experience and training. This is helping me build a better foundation to my practice and learn how to sustain it in the long-term.

I’ve also learned that we all need help sometimes and can’t do everything on our own. At meditation class there’s a community and tons of support.

I feel the same thing can start to happen with our marketing efforts sometimes. We have so many priorities and responsibilities that it can get overwhelming. But with focus, support, and an outside perspective, you can gain clarity and free-up time other important tasks.

Want your design and marketing efforts to be less stressful and more relaxing? I can help you with my ongoing partnership package.

I currently have 3 spots left! Want to see if it’s a good fit for your needs? Let’s talk.

I follow many organizations, not only to see how they’re marketing, but because I believe in what they’re doing. I was so happy when I saw this infographic from Global Fund for Women. I think it deals with a bigger picture message about how to spread change while still telling a story about what their organization does.

This infographic is a good example because:

1. It shares important information in a digestible way.
2. Global Fund for Women stayed true to the look and feel of their brand.
3. Global Fund for Women repurposed it and got lots of mileage by breaking apart the infographic and using sections in social media posts like this:

Need to share information about your cause in a digestible way? I can help. Let’s talk about how.

At nonprofits, money saved is money spent furthering your mission. So it makes sense that nonprofits would need and want to be especially careful with their money. These are 5 things I regularly see nonprofits doing that waste money:

1. Hiring the least expensive option or crowdsourcing. I’ve had many clients come to me after bad experiences with unqualified, unprofessional vendors they selected because of their low cost. Choosing the low-cost option can cost you a lot more in the end. What often happens is the second vendor (me in some cases) needs to start the project by reviewing the work completed by the previous vendor (which in most cases has been done incorrectly). Almost all the time, that work is unusable and it will cost more to try to work with it than to just start over. So at this point, the nonprofit is not only spending more money, but has also lost a lot of time—something we all know busy nonprofit marketers do not have.

2. Skipping the prep work for your project. Most clients are so eager to have a designer get started on their project that the most important step, the strategy and content planning, can be rushed through—leaving the designer with incomplete content or direction. To avoid this problem, I build a content planning phase into all of my project schedules. This gives us time to do the work upfront to develop the strategy and content for the project. I know this works because it has saved my clients time and money. One client had a 30% reduction in revisions from one year to the next. The time spent working on the design phase of the project was reduced by two weeks.

3. Having a “loose” or nonexistent marketing plan. Sometimes last-minute projects come up. It happens. But when you have a marketing plan in place, you can find a way to fit them in without creating chaos. This plan should be tangible—either written down or someplace digital—with action steps and key dates assigned. Through my marketing strategy & planning offering, I help clients to plan their projects for the year and keep them on track.

4. Not measuring your marketing efforts. It’s important to assess and measure your marketing efforts. Did they achieve your goals? If not, what could have been done differently so you could have gotten a better outcome? Sometimes we need to experiment with our marketing efforts to see what is going to work best for our audience. It may take more time, effort and money to do this at first, but in the end—when you start consistently surpassing your goals, attaining new supporters and getting more donations—it’s all worth it.
5. Avoiding the bigger picture. I just went through my closet and did a major clean out and donation drop off. I noticed that I was holding onto many items that I was not using or several items that were all very similar. I did not need them all; one or two did the job. What does this have to do with nonprofit marketing? Over the years, you develop many marketing pieces: brochures, info packets, one sheets, etc. At some point you need to clean out your marketing materials closet. It’s called a Brand Analysis or Audit. It’s eye opening. You may discover that you have multiple (or very similar) marketing pieces that can be combined into one. Or that you really don’t need a new brochure for that program you were thinking of because a great one already exists. Doing this helps you streamline your efforts, increase efficiency, and even save your organization money by eliminating duplicate efforts. If you need a brand audit, I can help.

Want to that make marketing budgets achieve maximum impact? I can help. Let’s talk about how.

As nonprofit marketers, my clients are pulled in so many directions.

They have hectic workloads and seemingly never-ending lists of priorities.

Over the years, I have found that the organizations who are most effective with design and marketing are also the best at navigating, organizing and streamlining their workloads. Overwhelm is rarely a good place to create effective marketing materials from.

Even for the busiest nonprofit marketers, creating an organized workflow is possible. In my recent guest post on the Nonprofit MarCommunity, I share tips for managing overwhelm in the nonprofit workplace.

I believe in order to be a strong organization you need stay current, measure your progress and always be open to learning something new. Fortunately, the nonprofit world has no shortage of wonderful resources to help us.

To add to last year’s list of my favorite nonprofit resources (all of which are still favorites!), here are some more resources I’ve been enjoying lately that I think are worth sharing:

Podcasts

1. Driving Participation Podcast
Wondering how a rebrand might impact your organization? Or what the most engaged organizations are doing differently? In Beth Brodovsky’s Driving Participation Podcast, Beth interviews fundraisers, marketers and consultants about what’s working in marketing and fundraising. My favorite episode is #066, How a Printed & Mailed Donor Newsletter Generates Over One Million in Revenue.

2. The Fundraising Authority Podcast
In The Fundraising Authority Podcast, Joe Garecht discusses and interviews expert guests on effective tips and tools on fundraising and development for nonprofits. My favorite episode is #17, Writing Better Fundraising Appeal Letters with Mazarine Treyz.

Books

3. Brandraising by Sarah Durham
This is a must-read for nonprofit professionals. In Brandraising, Sarah Durham provides practical and clear guidance on building and implementing a strong brand. It’s an interesting read with many visuals and tips to help walk you through the process.

4. Play by Stuart Brown
When you love your work, you want to do it all the time—but it really isn’t the best thing for you or your work. You need time for yourself to recharge and refocus your energy so you can come up with fresh ideas and keep doing excellent work. This time involves “play” or doing things you love. That is why I recommend the book, Play, by Stuart Brown.

Here’s a quote from the book that sums it up pretty well: “The beneficial effects of getting just a little true play can spread through our lives, actually making us more productive and happier in everything we do.”

So now you might be thinking…I don’t have time to read books! I understand. I’ve started books and then abandoned them half-read before, but I just learned about a reading technique from Ed Gandia that makes getting through books faster and simpler. Check it out!

People

5. Sandy Rees
I heard Sandy Rees speak at a conference a couple years ago. She has a very straightforward and practical approach to fundraising that gets you excited and convinced “I can do this.” I still remember her presentation today; she’s a fellow animal lover and had engaging photos of her pets incorporated into her slides. One thing she said still sticks with me: “The relationship is more valuable than the donation.”

Conferences

6. The Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC)
I think NTC’s website describes it best: “The sector’s signature technology event. Over 100 educational sessions, an exhibit hall highlighting the latest nonprofit products and services, and networking events each day: the NTC is an event that cannot be missed!” This will be my first time attending and I am so excited. If you will be there, please tweet or email me so we can connect.

7. Cause Camp
Unable to travel to go to a conference? Not a problem. Nonprofit Hub’s Cause Camp offers a virtual registration option for $95. Virtual attendees will have access to select live presentations, plus get access to recordings of all of the other presentations as well as the live stream for several weeks after the conference. I have not attended Cause Camp, but for $95 with sessions ranging from “10 Secrets to Optimizing Your Online Donation Process for Maximum Dollars Raised and Retained” to “The Power of We: Harnessing the Science of Stories to Break Down Silos and Win as a Team,” it seems like a good investment.

Do you have any favorite resources to add? Email me and let me know.

As a design partner, I love working with clients to put the rights steps in place (including marketing strategy and planning tools) because it means everything will be better—goals will get met, efficiency will increase and stress will be reduced. I love getting clients organized as much as I love helping them create change with design; the two really go hand-in-hand.

When a recent client said, “Andrea, you need to share your organization routine so everyone knows about it,” I decided I would. Since my days of working on-staff at a nonprofit, to having my own business, I have always maintained this simple work system.

My simple 4 step system:

1. Clean up your desk at the end of every work day. Keeping your desk clean and free of clutter enables you to find what you need more quickly, saving time and increasing your productivity. I know I feel much better and more motivated starting the day with a clean desk.

2. Make a list the night before. Get everything out of your head before you leave the office. That way you can enjoy your downtime and recharge your batteries. Just write down everything you need to do the next day. Then number the list in order of priority. Next, take it one step further. Assign an amount of time to each task. (If it’s something you do regularly, time it so you know how long it takes for next time.)

3. Schedule your day. Take the information from step two and schedule your day starting with your number one priority. Unexpected events will always come up and throw our schedules off; it’s important to pad your schedule so you can make up the time if you need to. (I’ve found that sometimes we try to do too much and we just don’t have the capacity for all that is on our list for the day. As you start to plan and schedule your day, you will start to see what you have the capacity for; tasks may need to be re-prioritized or moved to the next day.
4. Set a timer. When it’s time to start working in the morning, set a timer for 50 minutes. During this time, do not check email, your phone, social media, or give in to any other distractions. Completely focus on the task on your list for the 50 minutes. You will be amazed at how much you accomplish.

I also use some wonderful tools that help make my workflow much more enjoyable and productive.

My 5 favorite tools:

1. Google Docs – Google Docs is a free web application where documents and spreadsheets can be created, edited and stored online. I use it all the time. It has cleared up file clutter on my computer and made my documents easier to find. I love that I can use it on multiple devices. You can also share documents with other staff members and collaborators.

2. Focus at Will – I used Focus at Will’s free trial when I was working on a pretty intense and complicated project. It really made a difference in my focus and concentration and the project ended up a great success. If you do the free trial and decide you want to purchase it, wait a bit because they will send you emails with discounts offers.

3. Trello – Trello is a free tool that I feel is best described as digital post-it notes. It’s an interesting visual planning tool that you can set up however works best for your needs. You can create boards to manage different types of projects, i.e. your social media calendar, blog post ideas, brainstorming. You can also collaborate and share your boards with other staff members.

4. Buffer – I find Buffer to be such a straightforward and simple social media scheduling tool. They even offer a 50% discount to nonprofits! To get the discount, you need to send an email to hello@buffer.com with a 501c3 (or your country’s equivalent) to verify your non-profit status.

5. Sunrise – I love my paper planner, but I can’t carry with me all the time so I needed a digital option. Sunrise has an aesthetically pleasing interface that syncs with google calendar. This free app is very simple to use and nice to look at.

Finally, two important tips!

1. Use what works best for you. Don’t feel forced into a tool or app that does not feel right or makes your life more complicated and wastes time.
2. Know when to stop. Sometimes you hit a wall and you’re just not going to be productive anymore. If you get stuck, that’s when you need to take a break, go for a walk, get a cup of coffee, talk to a co-worker—take some time to hit the reset button. When you let things settle for a bit, fresh ideas will surface.

Hope this helps you get and stay organized. If you need a design partner who will keep you organized and looking great, I’d love to help.