A recent Harvard Business Review article, well written as usual, persuasive as usual, is nevertheless, an echo of likely thousands of articles and books before it.  The bold headline, “The Cure for the Non-Profit Crisis”, boils down to one central, oft-cited, oft-repeated admonition,

Strategic focus is the key to success.  They use the term “coherence”, which seems, ironically, not as focused as say “focus”.

Semantics aside, consider their (accurate) claim,

“…It is the more versatile, general-purpose charities — including such well-known, diverse institutions as The United Way Worldwide and the Salvation Army — that are faring the worst. For more tightly focused not-for-profits, such as the Cleveland Clinic and the network of Food Banks around the country, the decline is not nearly as sharp.”

We’ve further validated this observation with our recent National, Donor Commitment Study, showing many of these “well-known, diverse institutions” (to borrow their phrase) with low levels of Donor Commitment, a proven, leading indicator of whether donors stay or go.

Our study also affirms the need for strategic focus as, at least part of, the cure.  Consider, the number one activity/action a non-profit can take to increase donor Commitment:

• Give donors a feeling that you are effectively achieving your mission

Our interpretation of this reinforces the Harvard Business Review article and countless other business book 101 sources – It is the brand, stupid.

Brand positioning, as defined by Kotler and Keller (brand luminaries to be sure but pick your favorite, Trout & Ries, etc..) is the act of designing the company’s offering and image to occupy a distinct place in the mind of the target market.

Now consider a survey finding among non-profit managers cited in the Harvard Business review article, “When asked about their organization’s core capabilities — distinctive things their association could do better than anyone else — only 29% said these supported their organization’s strategy”.

This finding is the antithesis of brand positioning – the lack of connection between organization strategy and core, distinctive capabilities.

There are far too few non-profits focused on brand positioning and understanding it is strategic, it is mission and it is core competency.  This lack of brand focus – and remember, a brand is not a logo or a tagline and it is not owned by the organization, it is owned by the constituents (those served, those who donate, volunteer, etc…) – is exacerbated if the organization is more diffuse or diverse in its mission or programmatic areas.

There is enormous competition for donor dollars.  This extends far beyond other non-profits with similar missions; it includes the other outlets for discretionary dollars.  Failure to convey a simple, consistent, compelling brand to donors at every touch, starting with the first donation to the hoped for planned gift, creates confusion.  If this confusion is experienced at the beginning of the relationship the non-profit has all but assured a negative rate of return on those donors.

Call it coherence if you must (we wouldn’t), but don’t miss the main, irrefutable point; it is the brand, stupid.