Taglines are the quickest and most effective means in your advertising and marketing technique to inform folks about your nonprofit’s mission. In a single quick phrase, you’ll be able to inform your viewers who your group is and why they need to care.
Take into consideration Nike’s “Simply Do It” or Little Caesar’s “Sizzling ‘n’ Prepared” – these taglines give the manufacturers extra vitality and character. A terrific tagline can work the identical magic in your nonprofit.
Although they’re an extremely great tool, taglines are neglected within the nonprofit world. On this information, you’ll study taglines and the right way to write one in your mission-driven group. Right here’s what we’ll cowl:
Learn on and also you’ll be able to create a transparent, concise, and catchy tagline in your nonprofit very quickly.
What’s a nonprofit tagline?
A tagline is a brief, memorable phrase that succinctly captures a model’s message. As soon as it turns into well-known, a tagline additionally acts as a solution to simply establish the model it represents. Particularly for a nonprofit group, a tagline ought to talk its mission and objective.
5 Sorts of Taglines
There are 5 kinds of taglines which might be generally seen within the nonprofit advertising and marketing sphere:
- Crucial: Crucial taglines command the viewers to do one thing. They often start with a verb and contain an motion related to the model’s message. Coca Cola’s “Open Happiness” is an instance of an crucial tagline. Subtly assertive, any such tagline may give your model a high quality of urgency.
- Descriptive: That is essentially the most simple kind of tagline. Descriptive taglines concisely describe the model’s promise or operate. Take into consideration Walmart, which is understood for low costs. Its tagline is “Save Cash. Reside Higher.” This phrase clearly but merely explains Walmart’s major operate.
- Provocative: Regardless of what the time period suggests, provocative taglines don’t must be stunning, per se. Quite, these taglines ask a query or supply an announcement that provokes thought. Dove’s tagline “You’re extra stunning than you assume” is a major instance of a provocative tagline.
- Superlative: Named for the best diploma of comparability, superlative taglines place a model as one of the best in its business. Budweiser is named “The King of Beers,” BMW is named “The Final Driving Machine,” and Gillette is named “The Finest a Man Can Get.” Every of those manufacturers is establishing itself because the superior product inside its product class.
- Interrogative: Interrogative taglines ask the viewers a query. Probably the most well-known taglines ever is an interrogative tagline — the California Milk Processor Board’s “Acquired Milk?”
A fast observe: Taglines should not the identical as slogans. A tagline is one phrase for the overarching thought of a corporation. Slogans, alternatively, accompany particular advertising and marketing campaigns. A company may have a number of slogans for a lot of completely different campaigns, however it should solely ever have one tagline at a time.
Do nonprofits have taglines?
The quick reply to the query of if nonprofits have taglines is sure, they do have taglines. Nevertheless, seven out of 10 nonprofits rated their tagline as poor or didn’t have one in any respect. Meaning they’re not practically as considerable as they need to be.
For those who fall inside that seven out of 10 designations, it’s worthwhile to reevaluate your nonprofit’s tagline technique. Listed below are three advantages to having an efficient tagline in your mission-driven group:
- Differentiation: Customers see between 4,000 and 10,000 ads day by day. Having a standout tagline can assist your nonprofit break via the noise and make a reference to a brand new potential supporter.
- Branding: Manufacturers sometimes include a reputation, brand, colours, fonts, and—you guessed it—a tagline. A powerful nonprofit tagline will give your group additional assist by way of model recognition.
- Consistency: Since taglines seize the center of your nonprofit’s mission, they will function a guiding aspect in your future campaigns. You’ll be able to at all times revisit your tagline when making advertising and marketing plans to make certain you’re in keeping with your nonprofit’s core mission and model identification.
With the mixed benefits of differentiation, high-quality branding, and consistency, your nonprofit advertising and marketing will turn into way more recognizable. Not solely will this make you stand out from the group, however it may additionally provide you with a leg up within the digital advertising and marketing house.
For instance, you’ll be able to maximize packages just like the Google Advert Grant with a formidable nonprofit tagline. In case your nonprofit’s tagline conveys a specific sentiment or mission, the Google Advertisements funded by the Advert Grants can replicate the identical message. This consistency then reinforces your group’s model and mission to potential donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries.
Excited about studying extra concerning the Google Advert Grant program? Try this video:
Now that the advantages of a stellar nonprofit tagline, let’s break down the factors essential to attain one.
What makes a great tagline?
Arising with a phrase that represents the whole thing of your nonprofit in eight quick phrases (or much less!) isn’t any straightforward process. Fortunately, we’ve compiled an inventory of traits that can make your tagline stand out from the remainder. We’ve additionally obtained the steps you’ll be able to take while you begin the method of drafting your personal.
6 Attributes of a Robust Tagline
Let’s begin with the attributes of a powerful tagline:
- Clear: A tagline ought to make sense and be straightforward to know. Consider using a navigation app for instructions—you need your tagline to easily and certainly present folks what your nonprofit is about the identical means that GPS tells you the right way to get someplace.
- Concise: The shorter a tagline is, the higher. One thing that’s fast and easy is way more memorable than a novel of a phrase. Intention for not more than eight phrases.
- Related: Ensure that your tagline portrays your nonprofit’s mission. It’d make sense to you, somebody who’s near the nonprofit, however give it some thought out of your viewers’s perspective. Will somebody who has by no means heard of your model get the gist of your nonprofit’s objective from studying its tagline? If not, you must head again to the drafting board.
- Branded: You in all probability have already got a reputation and brand in your nonprofit. Ensure that your tagline feels at dwelling within the type of your present branding. Additionally, going again to the thought of differentiation, your tagline must be identifiable as yours particularly.
- Constant: Your tagline shouldn’t change regularly. A giant element of a tagline’s success is that it builds recognizability over time. Put your tagline on all of your model supplies and ensure it seems the identical each time, together with in its punctuation and capitalization.
- Catchy: Lastly, a powerful tagline must be catchy. Extra folks might be occupied with your nonprofit when you have a tagline that catches their eye and sticks of their head.
Get artistic, and write one thing memorable whereas additionally precisely representing your mission.
5 Steps to Coming Up With Your Very Personal Tagline
Your nonprofit must know what it’s aiming for earlier than diving in, however be open to the place the brainstorming course of takes you. Listed below are our 5 steps for writing a tagline:
- Start with the tip in thoughts. Earlier than diving into precise tagline writing, ask your self some key questions on your nonprofit, reminiscent of: What’s our core mission and objective that we wish to talk? And The place do we wish our nonprofit to be in 5 years?
- Contemplate feelings. Totally different phrases conjure up completely different emotions, moods, and connotations. The phrases you select in your tagline aren’t any exception. Select phrases that align with the feelings and concepts you need your group to challenge.
- Give you many, many choices. Within the brainstorming section, no thought is a foul thought! Even when among the taglines you give you would by no means make the ultimate reduce, it’s an amazing train to determine what you want and don’t like, then transfer ahead.
- Don’t overthink your remaining determination. A tagline might be dangerous, and a tagline might be good—however you’d be hard-pressed to discover a tagline that’s faultless. It’s a subjective course of, so work exhausting and when you arrive at a phrase you’re pleased with, keep it up!
- Analysis examples. This isn’t to say mannequin your tagline utterly after another person’s, however moderately that you must use examples as inspiration. Even for-profit sources like Adobe’s checklist of 30 well-known taglines can assist you achieve artistic traction.
Take into account that a tagline is one a part of your nonprofit’s total advertising and marketing plan. To your tagline to be related it must make sense throughout the context of your group and its overarching viewers and targets.
Prime Nonprofit Taglines
Up to now, we’ve given you some examples of memorable taglines within the for-profit house. Now we’ll give you some nonprofit taglines—ones which might be extra just like your group.
Here’s a checklist of 12 robust nonprofit taglines organized by the dimensions or vertical of the nonprofit:
International Nonprofits
These examples come from organizations whose mission extends to the whole world. Try their taglines for clear illustrations of the right way to condense such a big idea into eight phrases or much less.
This tagline is easy, significant, and memorable. The repetition sticks in folks’s heads, and the welcoming nature of the writing displays what this group is about. Based on its web site, the mission of the United Methodist Church is “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” With its tagline, the church is speaking that it’s open to all folks becoming a member of its mission.
- “For each baby.” – UNICEF
An excellent higher instance of simplicity, UNICEF’s tagline clocks in at three phrases and expresses what UNICEF is about at its core: working towards the “survival, safety, and growth” of kids all internationally, in keeping with its web site.
Nonprofits of this measurement want worldwide recognition, they usually make the most of taglines to assist obtain it.
U.S. Nonprofits
Though these examples come from nonprofits barely smaller than these of the previous examples, their taglines really feel equally as robust. Learn on to see how nationwide nonprofits deal with taglines:
The United Negro Faculty Fund “envisions a nation the place all Individuals have equal entry to a school schooling that prepares them for wealthy mental lives” and works to extend the whole variety of Black school graduates within the U.S., in keeping with its web site. This tagline provokes thought related to the group’s mission, calling on their viewers to ponder how priceless folks’s minds are—and subsequently, think about what they will do to encourage academic progress.
Each phrase on this tagline holds huge weight within the message it’s conveying. Widespread Trigger is a nonprofit that exists to make sure the USA’ democracy pretty serves all its constituents, and it does so by preventing for pro-democracy laws just like the latest Freedom to Vote Act. Their tagline succinctly expresses that sentiment— and it has a severe tone that matches the group itself, too.
The United Negro Faculty Fund and Widespread Trigger are wonderful fashions for provocative and descriptive taglines, respectively. Take into consideration which sort would finest suit your nonprofit.
Native Nonprofits
Now we’ll have a look at nonprofits that whereas small in measurement, have taglines that really feel bigger than life.
Simply because this nonprofit operates in a smaller space doesn’t imply its tagline is any much less impactful. The Montana Historic Society describes itself as a “guardian of Montana’s historical past,” a historical past that this tagline appealingly illustrates as an expansive one stuffed with sky and land.
Second Helpings Atlanta is a domestically based mostly nonprofit that fights each meals insecurity and meals waste within the metro Atlanta space by delivering leftover meals from eating places and grocery shops to meals banks and people in want. This tagline is on the longer facet, but it stays memorable and clearly depicts what SHA volunteers do: drive leftover meals from someplace that doesn’t want it to somebody who does.
Healthcare Nonprofits
As a result of health-related missions might be delicate and require swift assist, these organizations should use their tagline to construct belief and kind an emotional connection. Let’s assessment how these prime healthcare nonprofits use their tagline’s language to encourage compassion and credibility:
St. Jude is “main the best way the world understands, treats, and defends childhood most cancers and different life-threatening illnesses” via advancing cures and prevention. The group has been round since 1962 and goals that no baby ought to cross earlier than the daybreak of life.
St. Jude’s descriptive tagline will get proper to the center of its objective. The easy phrase discusses how the group makes use of its funding and why folks ought to care.
The American Most cancers Society is a number one cancer-fighting group devoted to ending most cancers for everybody. They search to enhance the lives of individuals with most cancers and their households via analysis, advocacy, and affected person assist.
This tagline provokes a way of hope that aligns with the American Most cancers Society’s constructive tone. Earlier campaigns reminiscent of “the official sponsor of birthdays” have contributed to the group’s upbeat dedication to beat the illness for good.
Environmental Nonprofits
Nonprofits devoted to defending the setting want taglines that can encourage hope and drive others to hitch in defending that hope. Moreover, many environmental nonprofits cowl a number of completely different initiatives, so their tagline can’t field them in. Let’s assessment how the World Wildlife Fund and Sierra Membership structured their taglines:
For 60 years, WWF has helped each folks and animals thrive in practically 100 completely different nations. The group collaborates with communities to develop and ship lasting options to wildlife issues. WWF’s work extends into local weather, meals, freshwater, forest, ocean, and different wildlife-related initiatives to attain a thriving planet.
WWF’s tagline captures these bold targets by staying descriptive but being all-encompassing. As a result of the WWF has a number of targets, utilizing “planet” moderately than “group” or “wildlife” exhibits that every answer is interconnected and can finally profit the entire planet.
- “Discover, take pleasure in, and defend the planet” – Sierra Membership
The Sierra Membership is a grassroots group positioned in the USA that exists to defend everybody’s proper to a wholesome world. Their work promotes the accountable use of the earth’s ecosystems and sources along with educating others about defending the setting.
The group’s descriptive tagline goes past simply suggesting that we must always defend the planet only for safety’s sake. Quite, it means that the planet is value defending as a result of it’s the place we discover and revel in life.
Human Rights Nonprofits
By nature, human rights Nonprofits carry heavy emotional undertones. To strike the fitting chord with their taglines, they have to encourage motion with out digging too deeply into destructive feelings. Each Amnesty Worldwide and CARE do a stellar job at this:
Amnesty Worldwide is a world motion that campaigns in opposition to human rights abuse. The group’s initiatives embrace subjects reminiscent of baby rights, local weather change, police brutality, worldwide justice, and lots of extra campaigns created to attain justice.
This provocative tagline implies that Amnesty Worldwide needs to show sympathetic emotions into motion. The group’s strong analysis advocacy, lobbying, and campaigns had been created and funded to make change occur.
- “Defending dignity. Preventing poverty.” – CARE
CARE works globally to save lots of lives, defeat poverty, and obtain social justice. Particularly, the group focuses on aiding ladies and women in want and advocating for equal rights alternatives. Their work spans local weather, meals and water, well being, schooling and work, and equality-related targets to supply a greater lifetime of dignity and safety.
CARE’s inclusion of dignity inside its tagline speaks to its hope of restoring the integrity of others. Its transformative packages act as a pathway to an enriching life.
Wrapping up
A powerful, well-written tagline can elevate your nonprofit’s model and advertising and marketing efforts. We hope this text has been useful to you in studying what a tagline is, why they’re necessary, the right way to create an amazing one, and what examples are on the market.
Getting Consideration may also assist take your advertising and marketing technique to the following degree, particularly in getting your model new tagline to the highest of Google’s search outcomes. Get a free session at present!
Listed below are three additional academic sources to assist increase your nonprofit advertising and marketing technique:
