December 15, 2024

The Importance of Brand Guidelines

Let’s say you end up working with a creative agency (like us!) on your next fundraising campaign. Having your logo files is great! But how do we make sure that your campaign deliverables look and feel like your organization across all materials? After all, we can guess what colors are in your color palette based on whether you share a color version of your logo. We can guess what font is being used in your logotype. But without brand guidelines, we’re just guessing

What do brand guidelines do?

Great question! Brand guidelines give us the rules to follow to create collateral that looks, sounds, and feels like your brand. Using brand guidelines ensure that any materials representing your organization are consistent, cohesive, and immediately recognizable as you. Brand consistency leads to trust, which leads to increased brand awareness, reputation, and support. 

Why do we need brand guidelines?

Brand guidelines set expectations for design and textual standards across the board, whether you’re onboarding a new employee or outsourcing work to a writer, designer, or web development partner — ensuring that whatever work you receive is in alignment with your brand. 

Think of it this way: if you were shopping at the grocery store and saw a Pepsi can but the can was red and the font was Comic Sans, would you trust that it legitimately is a Pepsi product or a knockoff? Probably a knockoff! Brand consistency helps people immediately identify something as yours — or equally important, not yours.

What belongs in a brand guideline?

It depends! Large organizations may have pages and pages of brand guidelines, while small organizations may stick to the basics. When we create brand guidelines, we include:

Brand Message

Your brand message is the soul, voice, and heart of your brand. Through a clear and consistent brand message, people understand what you do, why they should support you, and how they can make a difference with you. It serves as the foundation for all of your communications. 

Brand Pillars

If your messaging were a house, your pillars are the foundational supports holding it up. Each one is important on its own, but together, they create the full picture of your brand. When crafting language to talk about your nonprofit on your website, in social media posts, one-pagers, fundraising collateral, etc., you can use your brand pillars as bold statements on their own or expand upon them to create new copy.

Tagline

Logo Design

Your logo is the face of your brand for a reason! But if it becomes compromised — stretched, distorted, the colors are altered — then it raises a flag about whether the piece is actually from your organization. That’s why rules surrounding your logo and how to use it must be included in brand guidelines, such as size restrictions, minimum clear space, and incorrect usage. 

Typography

Your logo likely includes letterforms, known as your logotype. Knowing what font is used to create those letterforms is important because you can then use that same font across your materials. In some cases, you may need an alternative font for accessibility purposes, which should also be listed in your brand guidelines. You should also know the typefaces, families, weights, and recommended typographical emphasis for different headings and body copy.   

Color Palette

Your color palette is the collection of colors that comprise your brand. Most commonly, there are your primary colors, which appear in your logo, and your secondary colors, which can be used as accents. Your color palette should include  RGB, CMYK, web, and Pantone codes so your materials are cohesive across web and print. 

Imagery

There’s a reason why they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes, it helps to have visual reference points to understand the look and feel of a brand — which is why we often include photos and graphics in our brand guidelines. There may be color overlay, tone shifts to either warmer or cooler depending on your color palette, or visual effects such as high contrast and highlighting. 

Style Guide

For larger organizations such as higher education institutions, a style guide may be included as part of the brand guidelines. These outline when words need to be capitalized, what acronyms and abbreviations are allowable, and proper phrasing of a building, program, or department, among others.


Brand guidelines are a key component of your marketing and communications toolbox. They make it easier to keep your brand consistent and immediately recognizable, while also allowing you to delegate work as needed more seamlessly. Have brand guidelines? Yay! Don’t have brand guidelines but want them? Also yay! We’re here to support you however we can! 

Explore More