September 16, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
This month’s decision by America’s Second Harvest to change its name to Feeding America strikes some fund raisers as risky business. The charity represents 200 food banks, many of which are already facing a tough fund-raising time because of the bad economy.
Other charities that have changed their names have faced trouble.
Gifts to Handgun Control, the advocacy organization, dropped after it changed its name to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in 2001.
“Seven years later, we still use the old name on the outer envelope of our mailings because responses drop when we don’t,” said Mary Ester, the Brady Campaign’s director of development.
Feeding America dropped the Second Harvest label because it “was a barrier to our mission,” said Wendy MacGregor, the organization’s chief marketing officer. Not only was the name too long, she says, but it was not recognized by many Americans and did not clearly convey what the organization does.
But the charity’s name may not change that — particularly when many of the charity’s member food bank still use Second Harvest in their names and do not plan to drop it.
The charity may also run into trouble when people look for it online. Type “Feeding America” into a search box on Google and you’ll be sent to an online recipe and a cookbook. After that, the search turns up Feeding America’s Hungry Children, a completely different organization, followed by a food drive conducted by CBS.
What’s been your experience with the effect of name changes on charities’ ability to raise money?
