July 8, 2009 | Read Time: 3 minutes
On a recent day in Richmond, Va., employees of the charity known until this month as Christian Children’s Fund dressed identically for work, in T-shirts with the organization’s old name and logo.
The 70-year old group lowered the flag outside its office to honor its old name and celebrate its new one, ChildFund International. Staff members participated in a contest to choose the name of the figure of a child that appears in the group’s new logo.
Those were just a few of the most recent efforts by ChildFund International to educate employees, donors, board members, and people served by the organization about its new identity and to encourage their participation in the process of helping the organization promote itself in new ways.
The name change is part of a larger shift in strategy. Anne Goddard, the charity’s president, said the group will make more efforts to tailor its programs to children of different ages and will place a greater emphasis on the relationship between poverty and children’s well being.
ChildFund International’s leaders also say the new name will make it easier for the charity to work in countries that are not predominantly Christian, such as Afghanistan. They anticipate, too, that the renaming will help clarify the group’s relationship with the ChildFund Alliance, a global network of a dozen charities from which the U.S. group receives a third of its money.
The charity is among the top-ranking organizations in raising private money. It was No. 97 on the Chronicle’s most-recent Philanthropy 400, the list of the charities that collect the most in donations, taking in more than $190-million.
Seeking Advice
Serious discussions about renaming the organization began in 2007, she said. The charity conducted focus groups with donors, reached out to people who received help from the charity overseas, and discussed the idea with board and staff members.
In April, when trustees voted to change the organization’s name, ChildFund International sent a letter to supporters explaining the decision and welcoming questions.
“This is not something you do quickly,” said Ms. Goddard. “Not only do your supporters identify you with a certain name, your staff identifies you with a certain name, and the communities we work in do. There was a lot of discussion; it was a slow process.”
Challenges for Fund Raisers
For the charity’s fund raisers, the renaming brings both challenges and opportunities.
On the one hand, ChildFund International will lose some donors who believed they were supporting a religious organization, Ms. Goddard said.
While the charity phased out its religious programs in the 1970s, some of the organization’s donors gave in part because they wanted to support a group with a religious mission, Ms. Goddard said. She estimated that between 0.3 and 0.5 percent of donors will stop giving and switch their support to an evangelical group.
“For those supporters, they should give to someone else, since we weren’t last week or this week providing what they thought they were getting,” she said.
But other donors who described their giving in religious terms have said they will continue to support the charity, according to Ms. Goddard.
The charity’s new name meanwhile presents it with a chance to pursue grants from corporations and foundations, which had not supported the group in the past.
The organization has hired a fund raiser to focus on corporate giving, and also anticipates receiving its first grant from a major foundation shortly.
While the name change did spark a great deal of discussion among board and staff members, none have left the charity because of the decision, Ms. Goddard said.
Over the next few months, ChildFund International plans to hold events in cities across the United States to introduce people to its new name.
