YMCA Tops List of 100 Most-Valuable Brands in the Nonprofit World

The YMCA of the USA has the strongest brand among charities, according to a new report by the marketing firms Cone and Intangible Business.

The Salvation Army placed second on the list of the 100 most-valued nonprofit groups, followed by the United Way of America, the American Red Cross, and Goodwill Industries International.

Building and maintaining a strong brand is particularly important for nonprofit organizations, said Chris Clarke, a senior vice president at Habitat for Humanity International, which ranked No. 7 on the list.

“An organization like ours doesn’t have a product that consumers can evaluate,” he said. “For us, our product is the houses that we build and the reputation of the organization.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, charities that work in the United States to meet basic needs dominated the list, which was calculated in part based on a phone survey of 1,000 people.

The size of nonprofit groups’ budgets, their potential for future growth, how many volunteers they have, and the amount of news-media coverage they receive were among other factors that determined charities’ rank.

Alison DaSilva, executive vice president of Cone, said organizations that provide social services would probably become even better known as a result of the recession.

“More people are going to touch their services or know someone who has been helped by them,” she said. “I would imagine this strong sector is going to get even stronger.”

Reaching People

Charities that performed well on the list often found ways to reach people directly — through store fronts, for example, or fee-for-service programs, said Ms. DaSilva. Many were also working with companies, governments, and others that could help broaden their message, as well as experimenting with new online tools to draw attention to their work.

While the size of a charity’s budget was one factor in determining its overall “power-brand rank,” not all wealthy organizations performed at the top of the list. Many international charities, for example, received significant sums from private and government donors but “haven’t necessarily cracked the code in how to build a more relevant brand for a broader constituency,” according to Ms. DaSilva.

The Arc of the United States earned its No. 9 overall ranking more on the strength of its revenue, fifth highest of the 100 charities in the survey, than on brand recognition, a category in which it ranked No. 96.

“That really says to us pretty loudly and clearly that the Arc’s brand is a tremendous asset, and we have lots of room to build on the value of that asset,” said Peter V. Berns, the organization’s executive director.

By contrast, some charities that were widely recognized among people in the phone survey — Special Olympics and the Humane Society, for example, did not receive as much money as some other groups.

“That really represents a great opportunity for these nonprofit organizations to say, Let’s capitalize on our brand and ask how we can be innovative and turn that into dollars,” said Ms. DaSilva.

Established Organizations

Older charities that have had decades and decades to build their reputations and establish trust among donors also typically performed better on the list.

But Ms. DaSilva said there have been some newer charities that have broken into the top ranks.

Among them, she says: Susan G. Komen for the Cure. A rebranding effort two years ago resulted in a new name for the nonprofit organization, which had been called the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. “We wanted to make it absolutely clear that our efforts are directed to finding and delivering cures for breast cancer,” said Andrea Rader, the charity’s director of marketing and communications.

But building a strong brand means more than a new name or a logo, she said.

Komen, for example, tightened the focus of its research program so that most of its money is directed at research that has the best chance of delivering effective treatments or screenings within the next decade.

Said Ms. Rader: “Everybody is involved in maintaining the brand every day.”