Ken Goldstein, MPPA

Ken Goldstein has been working in nonprofits and local government agencies from Santa Cruz, to Sacramento, and back to Silicon Valley, since 1989. He's been staff, volunteer, board member, executive director, and, since 2003, a consultant to local nonprofit organizations. For more on Ken's background, click here. If you are interested in retaining Ken's services, you may contact him at ken at goldstein.net.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

What's your tagline?

Does your nonprofit have a tagline? Most small organizations that I'm aware of don't, and have never even considered the need for one.

Nancy Schwartz, of the Getting Attention nonprofit marketing blog, believes taglines are essential ingredients to success. According to Nancy:
In today's competitive marketing (including fundraising, of course) environment, nonprofit taglines must be strong enough to get attention and provoke questions.

Effective taglines complement an org's name, convey the unique value its delivers to its community and differentiates it from the competition? (Americorps' "Getting Things Done" is a great example of a tagline that works on all three fronts.)

But more often, nonprofit taglines are vague, ambiguous, over-reaching, too abstract or simply non-existent.

Unfortunately, there’s little available guidance for organizations striving to strengthen their taglines. That's why I'm making a special effort in 2008 to help nonprofit orgs craft better taglines.
You can help Nancy with her research project on nonprofit taglines by taking this short online survey (click here).

1 comment:

  1. Taglines can be great, but what I think most not-for-profits, as well as most businesses, are missing is a USP (Unique Selling Proposition). The USP applies equally to businesses and charities because it is a succinct statement of a single and unique reason why someone should give to you or do business with you rather than another charity or business.

    Too many taglines are pithy and say nothing. In fact, not only is a USP a powerful statement, but the process of creating it is often even more powerful for the organization.

    The USP makes you seriously look at the reason you were created and continue to exist. Put that way, perhaps it is needed by every individual as well.

    Joshua C. Karlin
    Marketing & Fundraising Ideas

    ReplyDelete