2024 Year In Review

• We worked with 17 amazing organizations working for the public good this year, supporting major rebrands, brand refreshes, and campaigns.

• We published 19 new Hype Insights — more than ever before.

• Over 150 folks at more than 100 nonprofits and foundations have used the Nonprofit Brand Score Tool to assess their brands. We’ll be sharing many of these insights about the state of branding in the social impact space this year–keep an eye on our newsletter or follow us on LinkedIn.

• Our rebrands for the Ford Foundation and The New York Community Trust both won Transform Awards.

• We had some things to say about the Harris Campaign’s quick branding transition and about the Harris/Walz brand.

• Our work was featured in Print Magazine, BrandNew, and our insights were published in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

• NYCLU: A powerful verbal identity and website design for one of the nation’s foremost defenders of civil liberties.

• Camp Treetops & North Country School: A cohesive campaign brand celebrating a century of nurturing children's growth through nature and community, inspiring support for the next generation.

• Climate Lead: A complete brand transformation redefining climate giving with bold confidence, inspiring immediate and far-reaching action to empower donors navigating climate philanthropy.

• The New York Community Trust: A relatable brand identity refresh marking 100 years of improving the lives of New Yorkers and reaffirming an enduring commitment to building healthy, vibrant, and equitable communities across Greater New York.

• We continued brand activation support for the Ford Foundation, designed a new, accessibility-first website for Creative Forces, the National Endowment for the Arts’ Military Healing Arts Network, and launched JustClemency for FWD.us, a campaign to ask President Biden to reduce the federal prison population before he leaves office. We're looking forward to sharing more throughout the year about major rebranding projects we're currently working on.

These are some of the key Insights we shared this year:

• Branding is an act of courage. In a world filled with distrust for institutions, the key benefit of undergoing a branding process is to build organizational courage—courage to firmly stand by the values, ideas, and work of our institutions.
• Investing in branding requires solid case-making. We provided advice on how to raise internal awareness about the ROI and opportunity cost of branding, and we provided practical guidance on how much organizations should be prepared to invest in branding, depending on their complexity. We also wrote about helpful ways to frame the role of your brand and got some insights from a 7-year-old about why brands are important.
• Organizations need ways to evaluate their brands. We started looking broadly at the state of branding in the social impact space and at how to assess and build shared language around organizations’ brands.
• Philanthropy is becoming more transparent. We surfaced a major trend we’re seeing in the field, especially as the world of philanthropy is increasingly under attack. In order to build trust, philanthropies need to clearly explain what they care about, how they work, how decisions are made, and how they spend their money. Transparency reduces the distance between foundations and the people they aim to serve.
• Branding can be a concentrated dose of narrative change. Branding is a powerful tool that can change how organizations think of themselves. For organizations that take systemic approaches to tackling social issues, branding can also be an opportunity to redefine the way audiences think about the larger issues you’re working on.
• Branding is cyclical. Like a garden, brands need constant tending and watering. We explored many aspects of this cycle this year, including: how to diagnose whether you have a website problem or a branding problem, how to overcome the fear of making your rebrand public, the importance of preparing your team to support the new brand when it launches, making sure your team has the tools they need to activate your new brand. We’ll continue exploring the cycle in the year ahead.

We know we’re days away from a new political reality, which will have profound, even existential effects on many in the nonprofit space. We will be sharing insights on how branding and communications will play a part in navigating these challenges with courage and resolve.

We’ll also continue sharing helpful insights about the unique role branding plays in the social impact space and the value of investing in your brand. We’ll share tips on how to seed the ground with your team when a rebrand is coming. We’ll dive deeper into how to roll-out and sustain brands over the long term. We’ll explore the role of in-house design leads. We’ll share more insights about the state of branding in the social impact space, backed by the data we’re gathering from our Nonprofit Brand Score.

And, of course, we’ll continue working side by side with the great institutions that advance progressive ideas, support underrepresented communities, and defend our democracy. If their brands are as clear, resonant, distinctive, and influential as they can be, we will all be better for it.

Buckle up, folks, 2025 promises to be another wild ride.