How to Name your Nonprofit Start-up
When starting up a non-profit organization, one thing people often get stuck on is coming up with the name of the organization. I often get paralyzed if I cannot think of the perfect name. Naming your organization should not stop you from starting your organization. I have four tools that you can use when coming up with a name for your non-profit organization.
Broad Vs. Narrow
When coming up with a name for your organization, the name should communicate your organization's mission. For example, if your mission is addressing food insecurity, your name should speak to that issue. When thinking about your name, you also want to think about the programs and services you will provide. Your name can be narrow in that it can be specific to the specific service you will provide. For example, if your service will be to provide food baskets in the city of Treetown, your name could be Treetown Food Basket Services. This name is specific to that one service or program. Or you could think in broader terms. If you want to provide more services and programs, your name might be general. Again, using the example of Treetown, a broader name would be Treetown Community Food Pantry. There are two ways of thinking about your name, in narrow terms or general terms, depending on your mission and the programs/services you want to provide.
Acronyms and Alliteration
Many groups use acronyms to name an organization. An acronym is another tool to use when creating a name that communicates your organization's mission without making the name too long. Or an acronym is often used when people are referring to the name of an organization. I am involved in Justice for Our Neighbors- Michigan, and we use the acronym JFON-MI to refer to our organization. You should think about the name's acronym because you do not want to create a good name with a bad acronym. Alliteration is another tool to use when creating a name. I am a fan of alliteration. Names with alliteration are easy to remember.
Design Thinking
Design Thinking is now being used in the non-profit world. It can also be used as a tool for coming up with a name. The IDEO organization uses Human-Centered Design for non-profit organizations. The three steps in Human-Centered Design are inspiration, ideation, and implementation. You can use these three steps in the naming process. In the inspiration step, you find inspiration from the people. Your first step would be to go to the people in the community and ask for ideas for names or ask what they would want in a name. Ask questions and seek inspiration in the community. The second step is ideation. This is the brainstorming step. At this step, you would brainstorm lots of different types of names, silly names, long names, short names, all kinds of names. You can even play games to help you come up with ideas. The goal is to come up with a lot of names. The third step is to implement the name. This step is to decide on the name through prototypes and trying the name out. Prototype names could be used at soft openings or pop-up service sites. You can also try out different names by making some mockups of promotional materials. This final step aims to try out several names until you land on your offical name.
Online Search
When you finally land on the name of your organization, you should do an online search. You should search your government licensing page for names that are registered in your state. You should also do an online search through search engines and social media pages. If that name already exists, the good news is that you have the tools to think of another name!
If you want help with your nonprofit start-up, contact Spark Group Consulting today for a free 30-minute chat!
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