Organization Taglines are Marketing Gems
Using a Tagline to Reinforce a Nonprofit's Mission and Vision
Aug 9, 2009
With merely a handful (or two) of words, a nonprofit organization can craft a tagline to reinforce its mission and vision, work in concert with other elements of the organization’s brand, and evoke an emotional response in stakeholders.
The Importance of an Organization Tagline
“Taglines,” write Bill Chiaravalle and Barbara Findley Schenek in Branding for Dummies (2006), “are increasingly important as a means to carry your brand identity where your logo can’t go, like your email messages, classified ads, voicemail greetings and other nonvisual communication channels.”
Excluding a tagline from a nonprofit’s brand is to miss a great opportunity to help a wide variety of audiences understand what an organization does and how it does it. The tagline is the second chance to make a first impression.
Elements of Effective Taglines
In the 2008 “Nonprofit Tagline Report,” nonprofit marketing expert Nancy E. Schwartz offers eight major findings from a survey of nearly 2000 nonprofit organizations:
- Taglines fall into four basic categories, those that describe an organization’s work, its impact or value, its core values or spirit, or its strategic approach.
- Most effective taglines relate to the nonprofit’s name without repeating it.
- High-impact taglines tell a memorable story, express the nonprofit’s brand and personality, are distinctive, and motivate audiences to act in some way.
- Nearly three-quarters of the nonprofits rated their taglines poorly, or didn’t have one at all.
- Nearly one-third of nonprofits don’t have taglines because they never thought of it.
- Human services organizations and grantmakers are most likely to have taglines.
- Nonprofit staff members interested in maximizing taglines are marketers, fundraisers and executive directors (in that order).
- Most very effective taglines have been in use for two to four years, so there seems to be a period of time for taglines to become accepted.
Crafting a Nonprofit Tagline
Cass Wheeler, the longtime CEO of the American Heart Association, notes in her 2009 book You’ve Gotta Have Heart, “The most effective nonprofit taglines are action oriented, hopeful and applicable to a wide variety of programs.”
For organizations with existing taglines, a good rule of thumb is to review a tagline every time there is a change in a mission or vision statement, in conjunction with a branding adjustment (such as a revised logo), and after an organizational strategic plan has been updated.
For organizations without a tagline, there’s no time like the present to get started.
Consider these questions:
- What makes our organization different from others in our community and in our specific field/issue area?
- What makes the way we do our work different?
- What are a few descriptive words or phrases our stakeholders would use to describe us and our work?
- What would happen if we stopped our work? (Then turn that around for a new perspective on the bottom line of what the organization does.)
- How do we engage stakeholders?
- In our board chair’s or CEO’s latest speech, what was a key phrase or concepts that got people excited?
Once words are flowing on the paper and concepts begin to emerge, craft the tagline carefully. Shorter is almost always better – think about answering a phone with a tagline or what can be seen on a billboard. Play with words to come up with something catchy.
Put the tagline to the test. Convene a focus group if possible, or informally poll stakeholders. Allow website viewers to vote, or even to submit suggestions.
To maximize an organization’s tagline as a true marketing gem, the bottom line is that it should be succinct, versatile and – in partnership with the nonprofit’s name – not applicable to any other nonprofit.
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