Naming Your NonProfit

Does your nonprofit name reflect your mission?

Your organization’s name can describe what you do, your values and your audience. While a great name won’t guarantee a steady stream of funds, it helps distinguish your organization in this increasingly competitive world. Conversely, a poor name confuses your organization with another or limits the opportunity to appeal to interested donors.

To assess your organizational name, rate it on a 10-point scale for these questions:

  • Does the name represent what your organization does?
  • Does the name distinguish your organization from your competition?
  • Is the name easy to spell and pronounce?
  • Is the name short? (If you refer to it by its initials, it’s probably too long)
  • Does the name inspire confidence?
  • Does the name elicit a positive emotional response?
  • Does the name appeal to your audiences?
  • Will the name allow your organization to expand services?

If the rating was low, it’s time to reconsider your organization’s name. Here are some types to contemplate.

Descriptive Names

Descriptive Names tell what the organization does, like Children’s Aid Society. Descriptive names are the most common type of name, and are often combined with a location, such as The Boys Choir of Harlem, Louisville Zoo Foundation, and the 92nd Street Y. While serving as a point of distinction among other groups, a geographic-based name may limit potential expansion outside the named area.

Celebrity / Founders Name

Names of founders are often used to provide immediate visibility and credibility to the charity, such as The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, and Lance Armstrong’s Foundation (renamed Livestrong). A person’s name allows the organization to tell a compelling story and to galvanize people around a magnetic personality. The limitation is that the goodwill built up around one individual may be difficult to shift to the organization after their departure.

Naming Techniques: Meaning, Generic, or Unique

Some names imply a meaning relating to the organization’s mission. The name Red Cross derives from inverting colors on Switzerland’s flag to symbolize the organization’s neutral status. Their immense brand recognition results from a long successful history, simple name, and well-recognized icon, indelibly linked to the concept of disaster relief.

Using a generic word has advantages and disadvantages. The name Crossroads conjures a powerful visual metaphor, yet it is used by many organizations, causing problems distinguishing among them.

Combining two words can generate a unique name. KickStart builds moral character in youth through martial arts, suggesting its mission in an emotionally upbeat moniker. CarePath describes its mission of guiding seniors to appropriate care. MercyCorps, dedicated to the spread of open markets and the global fight against poverty, fuses common words for a powerful name, but unfortunately suggests a different mission, something to note when using this approach.

To achieve a distinctive name, you can concoct a word. Unusual names create uniqueness and help memory. George Eastman’s camera companies created Kodak with hard Ks to start and finish the name, making it sound modern. Recently, using various Latin roots became common in naming. The auto brand Acura suggests accuracy and Lexus implies excellence. The pharmaceutical industry uses this technique commonly, such as Prozac, Claritin and Zertec. This type of name is quite expensive to develop and requires a huge marketing investment to promote successfully.

While not widely used, names mimicking sounds can work if there’s enough connection between word and sound. Search engine Yahoo! successfully uses the sound of a joyous discovery; however, a nonprofit called KaBOOM! belies its mission of providing safe haven for kids by employing the sound of an explosion as its name.

Sometimes foreign words provide good names, particularly when they are short and sound good. Kiva, the micro-lending site, is Swahili for “unity” or “agreement,” which works even if you don’t know the meaning – perhaps because two of the four letters subtly mimic the word “give.”

Abbreviations

In the nonprofit sector, abbreviations happen because a name is too long to say in conversation. Large organizations such as IBM or UJA may be recognized by their initials, without knowing what the abbreviation actually means.

Some abbreviations are shortened even further, even down to one letter. The YMCA recently rebranded as simply the Y. The YMHA was renamed Jewish Community Center a few decades ago, now the JCC, although members say they’re going to the J.

Carefully crafted acronyms, like K.I.D.S. (Kids in Distressed Situations) or M.A.D.D. (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers), help to reinforce the name, in the first case by specifying community served, and in the second, conveying strong emotion felt by victims of drunk driving.

CARE, the leading humanitarian organization and originator of the CARE package, benefits from a fantastic acronym describing its mission, so well-known that the longhand name of the “Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere” is no longer referenced, even on its website.

The chance to create a new organizational name creates an opportunity for visibility, utility, and a bit of showmanship. So make it a good one.