According to a recent Advertising Age article Nonprofits need to rapidly embrace modern branding strategies in order to reclaim the cause-marketing arena which has been co-opted by traditional for profit companies.

“It’s simple. In today’s market, brands matter. In fact nonprofits, NGOs and social organizations are starting to spend big bucks on marketing… And they have to. There’s calls to buy green. Support this cause. Threats of recession… It’s no wonder that donor fatigue has set in.”

The article’s Author, Noelle Weaver, warms to the theme, “Organizations have to move beyond mailing out a cute, fuzzy brochure when 223 other nonprofits and corporate cause marketers are competing for the same dollar.”

The irony is that nonprofits often struggle to justify marketing spend to their key stakeholders. Marketing has long been seen as a barely necessary evil in the sector, yet those same organizations constantly complain that “no one knows their brand”.

Yet many succesful nonprofit organizations have already made the switch and avidly follow the laws of marketing simply because they’ve learned from the corporate sector’s lead: success is determined by the way a potential donor perceives your organization. And if you’re not actively managing that perception, your chances of success become rather slim.