Charities need to remind themselves what they stand for, then own it
Brand awareness is what, brand image is why. And image should be the key point of focus for any brand. Especially for not-for-profits who need to reshape their brand to make profit with pride, says Meals on Wheels CEO John Carroll, in this guest post.
Many companies agonise over vision and mission statements, or some flavour-of-the-month visioning tool. Usually, these pieces of rhetoric are no sooner created than forgotten in the humdrum of daily operations.
But few organisations ever think about their core purpose – why they exist in the first place. And even fewer actually live by that purpose.
Apple and Virgin are two notable exceptions and look at the rewards they have reaped as a result. Both have been able to build long-lasting, cross-category empires under a single brand.
Simon Sinek’s concept that people buy why not what is arguably the reason behind this success. People want to engage with Apple and Virgin because of what they stand for.
I’m not sure “we ripped the Shane Warne foundation to shreds”. Shane got testy when he was asked to account for something that looked (still does) a bit funny, and I guess I might be too in that situation.
But registered charities do need to be accountable for how they spend the money they receive. Questions were asked, that’s not “tall poppy” syndrome.
The media undoubtedly ripped the Shane Warne Foundation to shreds. Sorry, but it was way beyond “asking questions”! Why else did Warne feel compelled to wind it up?
“Personally, I don’t care that they spent money to do that; they’ve done some good in the world.”
Shouldn’t we care about the long term % raised vs revenue is? Many charities seem to be competing with one another – being lead by ego rather than altruism. Imagine if they consolidated their back office costs and joined forces to do more good.