Q: There are thousands of nonprofit organizations, and many do similar work or are perceived as the same thing. What would be your advice to quickly communicate the differences?

A: You’ve hit on one of the biggest ideas in branding: emphasize your organization’s uniqueness. To make your organization stand out, you need to highlight what distinguishes it from similar groups. You must show how your organization is uniquely positioned to address a specific need that your community has expressed.

Your uniqueness is whatever your ideal readers really want and are concerned about but cannot easily get elsewhere.

For instance:

• Does your organization deal with a particular aspect of an issue that no one else focuses on?
• Do you use a breakthrough approach or method?
• Do you work with clients who have nowhere else to turn?
• Do you have special expertise that has positioned you as the ‘go-to’ organization in your community for years?
• Do you play an essential role in a collaborative effort or continuum of care?

Your uniqueness must be so clear, and so relevant to your readers’ individual or community lives, that it gets noticed and gets people talking about you. This defining quality of your organization makes you the best choice for your readers to support or work with.

Ask yourself: What is the [“insert your organization’s name here] Difference”?

This might be a good question to bring to a staff or board meeting for group discussion.

Got questions about how YOU can use your writing to make a difference? Send them to my assistant, Leslie Rivera, and I’ll answer them on the blog.