Charities are often extremely complex organisations. Take Mencap for example, one of the UK’s leading charities for people with learning disabilities.
So just how complex could Mencap be? Well, here goes, they run…
– The Learning Disability Helpline – a telephone helpline, community- based advisers and online information
– Education and learning – Support for school leavers into adulthood
– Support services – including brokerage, family support, specialist care and a carers network
– Housing – helping people with learning disabilities to rent or buy their own homes
– Jobs and training – several schemes to get people into the workplace
– Leisure and sport – everything from adventure challenges, to national sporting events.
Not to mention ICT skills networks, health information, music events, work with young offenders…
So try marketing that lot: ‘Mencap the charity that helps people with learning disabilities by doing this, that and the other, not to mention…’
Mencap solve the complexity of their offering by focusing on their main mission. In a nutshell, they help people with learning disabilities. Whether you are young, old, have a learning disability, are a family member or a professional in social care, the positioning is simple:
We support people with a learning disability to live their lives as they choose.
This translates into a very powerful and authoritative strapline – The voice of learning disability
The same principal of focusing on a core proposition, allowing all services and products to sit underneath it, works equally well for the likes of Macmillan, Barnardos, Shelter, Mind and Unicef. Of course this approach may not work for every organisation, but the general principal of communicating your message as simply as possible is always valid.
So, if you are responsible for marketing a charity and you are staring at a muddled web of diverse services, audiences and propositions; take a step back and distill everything down to the essence of what your organisation is, why it exists and what it believes in. Or better still give Remedy a call and we’ll help you.













