Nonprofit brands should be democratic

The always-worthwhile Brands Create Customers blog takes a good look at the way companies use their brands at Some brands go medieval on their customers:

The medieval style of brands ... wants to freeze time, and to freeze customers in place.... In the medieval model, a brand that might become a joint (customer) venture with a live edge is reduced to a steady stream of preachments from on high, into a confined, compressed 2-D space without perspective or horizons -- with no place for customers to grow.

The top-down hierarchical brand just isn't going to persuade. People have too many choices to make that acceptable or interesting.

Does your nonprofit have the illusion that their way of thinking is the only possible way? That you control your donors' perceptions and experiences?

You don't. You barely even influence how they see things.

You'll make a bigger difference when you enter their world and speak to their needs, aspirations, and beliefs than you will be trying to force them to join your world.

Like it or not, democracy is now the way people think. We don't control them.

Technorati Tag: fundraising

Comments

[Tom Durso]

Interesting thoughts, Jeff. I'd argue that the flip side is true as well: Donors cannot and should not control how nonprofits execute their mission simply by virtue of their gifts.