One of the things we talked about previously is condensing your message as a nonprofit organization down to the very basics.

Here are some examples to illustrate how organizations have distilled their core values to a single word or phrase:

The Red Cross (www.redcross.org) provides disaster relief.

Good News Jail & Prison Ministry (www.goodnewsjail.org) provides chaplains worldwide.

The American Bible Society uses its www.ForMinistry.com website to equip the church online for ministry.

These organizations have worked diligently on their single core value in order to capture mind share of their potential donors. Therefore, if a disaster hits, we all know the Red Cross will be there to help because the Red Cross has done an excellent job of securing that mind share in all of us. The Red Cross has done this mostly by doing good work, not marketing alone. Remember, effective branding equals content plus marketing.

As you can see, having an effective brand strategy, this ensures that positioning statements in your marketing are in harmony with the content found on your site, will help your organization build mind share and cut through the Internet clutter that promises only to get more massive.

Your goal should be to capture mind share and make your nonprofit a household name. How are you going to do this? What steps would you take to ensure a positive result?

Imagine for a moment that you are running your organization for public office, say President of the United States.

How would you determine your message?

What would your message look like?

How would you go about achieving mind share from among the electorate?

What would be your talking points or platform?

How concerned would you be about maintaining a consistent message, i.e. positioning?

What about the consistency of your personal brand? Would you keep throwing mud on the wall, hoping that some of it sticks? Or would you be focused, clear, to the point?

What kinds of conversations would you initiate with people?

If you are not sure of your answers, take the time to ask your donors and friends their opinion. It's a cost effective method of doing hands on research. It's vital to paring down an effective message.