Organization Name Options
How do you choose an organization name?
You don’t want to rush this step; spend a few days pondering what name you want to represent your organization. Ask yourself the following questions to narrow your options.
DOES THE NAME MAKE SENSE FOR THE organization?
Most likely, you want to choose a name that when people see it for the first time, they can get an idea of what type of organization you are and what services you offer.
IS THE NAME EASY TO REMEMBER?
Successful names for organizations are usually shorter since it’s easier to remember.
You will also want to consider avoiding jargon that’s not widely known; hyphens and multiple syllables might confuse people when searching.
Some organizations choose rhyming words to help make the name stick in people’s minds.
IS THE NAME EASY FOR PEOPLE TO SPELL?
Some companies purposely select names that are misspelled or that the audience can’t spell easily.
This is a risky approach that some use to try and stand out, but you must ultimately consider if users will struggle to find your business when searching online.
You’ll want to choose a name that is spelled like it sounds, or else you might find yourself wasting time reciting how to spell it correctly.
WILL THE NAME BE TOO LIMITING?
You might want to avoid getting too specific with your organization name if you plan on expanding your products and services over time.
IS YOUR NAME MEANINGFUL TO YOUR AUDIENCE?
Your organization name should be something that appeals to the general public. Done correctly, your audience should feel a connection to the brand.
DOES IT LOOK APPEALING?
Consider how your organization name will look visually. If it will include multiple words, consider how it will look on paper, online, and how the name will generally fit within your new brand.
Names to consider
AchieveEd
Support for student achievement is at the center of our efforts. Achieve Ed is a fun combination of Achieve Education and Achieved, which celebrates that success has been reached.
AchieveEd.org
Thrivera
We have a clear long-term goal of fostering a thriving community. Based on that idea, we created Thrivera. The name looks forward and sees a new era of success coming for members of our community.
Thrivera.org
Edvantage
Every student deserves the advantage of a good education. EdVantage works to facilitate student success and create opportunities.
Ed-Vantage.org — EdVantage.org is registered but not in use.
EdAlly
Coordinating the effort of many community organizations is key to our mission. In essence, we create allies and alliances. We are an EdAlly. And, all community members are an ally to education.
EdAlly.org, Ed-Ally.org — EducationAlliance.org is available, but it’s not as snappy as the shorter forms.
Honorable mention
A few other concepts survived the early rounds and still felt strong as we were making final choices.
We liked the concept of light. Education lights the path for humanity. Lume Alliance — LumeAlliance.org.
Aspiration and the dream of achievement were on our minds. Aspiral — Aspiral.org
The idea of collective success inspired many of our ideas. The words circle and ring came up often. The perfect name did not emerge, but we all liked something about Aspiring (aspire and ring). Aspiring.net is available. Aspiring.org is taken by a blog.
A note about constraints
Since education is the primary lever that the organization uses for facilitating change, all names must include “Education” or a variant like “Ed” or “Educate.”
Collective success is essential to the mission of the organization. Thus, names should allude to the partnerships that share resources to accomplish goals.
Creative Brief: Educational Attainment Alliance
Participants
Jacqueline Lonning, United Way Collective Impact Coordinator; Catherine Veninga, Study Coordinator at WW Community Council; Christy Lieuallen, United Way Executive Director; Monica Boyle, United Way Development; and David.
September 9 and 10, 2020
Overview
What would you like us to do for you? What is the purpose and scope of the project (heighten credibility, expand services, sell 2000 widgets, etc.)?
Big Picture
The Educational Attainment Alliance acts as a catalyst for change, our goal is to eliminate barriers to student success, build better alignment across the educational continuum, and foster everyone's talents in our region.
Details
The Educational Attainment Alliance emerged as the product of a Community Council report from 2016. The general goal was to create an Educational Attainment Alliance that can drive investments in education and create a culture that values educational attainment.
The report revealed that education is central to our community's well-being. So, we wish to drive investment in education and create a culture that values educational attainment. Educational attainment is linked to a thriving economy and improved personal well-being, both good things for a community.
It's essential to remember that our focus is on attainment as a path to personal well-being, not just eventual income. We shun the “learn to earn” mentality. True attainment is more about personal success. While financial well-being is important, we recognize that there are many other indicators of quality of life. Investing in human beings and their unique talents will bring returns for the individual as well as business productivity. Thus, we have a joyful and vital community with more living-wage jobs. In short, we wish to encourage investment in human beings. We would also like to emphasize equity and investment in groups who may have historically received little investment.
Many similar initiatives are focused on children, but our initiative seeks to offer educational attainment to the entire population. We seek to increase the skills and experiences of individuals throughout their lives.
How will we do it? We can't boil the ocean, but we can take one step at a time.
There are seven benchmarks:
Kindergarten readiness
Early grade literacy
Middle-grade math — Middle grade years are our initial focus area.
High school graduation
Post-secondary enrollment
Post-secondary completion
Employment
Our current education system works for some learners, and not for others. Our end goal is to transform the system so it works equally well for all. Changing a system takes time; we look for smart intervention points that will help us move, one piece at a time, towards a paradigm shift.
Where is the intervention point where we can make the most change? For now, we are focused on Middle School.
There are national models, but we want to be locally relevant. We want data-driven LOCAL solutions. What are our equity issues, weaknesses, and strengths?
A high-level steering committee of around 25 individuals from across the region will provide direction for the initiative. We will convene working groups to research and strategize around areas selected by the Steering Committee. For example, the Steering Committee selected the middle school years as an initial intervention point. We are convening a working group who will consider the question: “How should we conceptualize and foster family and community engagement in middle school?” The working groups will report to the Steering Committee.
Walla Walla is thick with non-profit organizations. We hope to focus all organizations' actions on the same goal, remove overlap, and improve outcomes through a coordinated effort. We must align the programs and systems to leverage resources for the good of the entire community.
What follows is a description of the first Working Group project. This may not be relevant to branding.
Beyond community organizations, we have much to learn from parents. "We are desperate for the insight that parents have into their children," says one school administrator. "We host parent engagement nights, and nobody comes. We need engagement beyond the bake sale."
Family engagement is weak, and studies show that more family engagement drives student success. It appears that parents do not feel connected to their children's education. What's more, there seems to be an antagonistic relationship between parents and their student's teachers and administrators.
Some strategies seem to work. We can work with parents, and educators to give parents more power over what teachers are doing. We can work with parents to co-create an educational experience that meets a student's (and a parent's) needs and is FUN for students and families.
We must work toward creating a SHARED VALUE around education. Parents don't have to DO much more. They need to VALUE more. And, it's hard to value education more when you don't know what's going on.
We will work to create a positive attachment and association to school, so kids and parents like school. School should be something each student looks forward to. Parents should feel connected and partake in their child's education. Right now, school is an enforcement activity for many parents who loath checking grades online and bringing the problems to the dinner table. School participation would be brighter if there were fun events to connect to like an art or talent show. A field trip (think WW Foundry) or career day can connect students and parents to community businesses increase enthusiasm for about school for all involved. Parents and kids (and the larger community) can increase their positive attachment to school.
Let's shift power dynamics, so parents and students have more control. Let's innovate and communicate better.
There are places where connection and enthusiasm works. Students and parents are enthusiastic about sports, orchestra, and band.
All community members can be more adaptable and flexible. Education is always changing and our community must be driving those changes toward success for everyone. We will need to be more creative. There are many opportunities. Some of our attempts will fail, and others will succeed marvelously. If we work together, we can all take credit for the success of our community.
Projects include
Develop Organization Name — Three options
Design Logo — Four options
Creative Considerations
What limitations or constraints do you have (budget, schedule, size, paper, etc.)? What elements or colors or other personal preferences must be represented in this project? Where will additional materials that we do not create come from? (writing/photography/illustration etc.) What are examples of projects of this type you have seen that you think are effective? Can you please share some samples?
The United Way fully funds the EAA and is the backbone of this collective initiative. A clear way to link to the United Way is to this logo is important.
We would like the finished logo to coordinate with the colors of the United Way, as seen on page 33 of the branding guidelines. It would be nice to feature one or two UW colors and add some unique coordinating colors. We can work with the United Way fonts or another publically available font. Let's choose a free or other widely available font.
Logos in this field are often juvenile. We'd like to be a bit more adult. Let's avoid images of hands, nautilus, jumping people, and other corny stuff.
About naming: Let's avoid economic and monetary names. The result of our program is much more than economic development. Also, let's avoid the common “promise” and “guarantee” names.
Writing comes from Jacqueline. The United Way does not consistently work with a specific illustrator or photographer.
Success stories include:
graduatetacoma.org (But the brand is poor)
bettertogethercentraloregon.org (we don't like the hungry caterpillar brand)
Note:
Watch out for jargon. Our essential service is “collective-impact,” but those words are jargon-heavy. This field is too full of jargon. A third-grader should understand what we do.
Product Description
What are the services your organization provides? What is the product or service that you want to promote? What are its features? How much does it cost? What is it made of and how is it used? What makes it different, unusual, or unique?
We facilitate community-driven solutions.
Our tactics are collaborative. We support the community as they work to solve community problems. It's important to emphasize that we don't bring solutions; we facilitate solutions.
We offer research and link networks together.
We are a collective impact project. We facilitate collaboration between existing resources, align goals, and focus on solutions. We have many partners with similar problems with limited resources. We help them leverage resources and move toward success. Our work is responsive instead of prescriptive. We are responsive in the sense that we do not approach problems with a prescribed solution. Instead, we follow the community's lead to develop locally relevant solutions. But we're not "responsive" in a crisis-management sense.
We shift the focus of systems.
The best systems are organized around youth and families, not organized around institutions. A youth and family-centered system is our ultimate goal.
This chart would benefit from the addition of a communication loop between all the entities.
We improve communication.
Our day-to-day work connects all the entities and encourages them to talk with each other while working together for students.
WE ALIGN EXISTING RESOURCES AND HELP REMOVE BARRIERS.
Our goal to bring existing programs and services into better alignment and to leverage resources for greater impact.
We recognize that some barriers cannot be overcome even when that goal is met. For instance, no amount of tutoring can compensate for the lack of safe, stable housing. Therefore, we also seek to remove as many barriers as possible so students will flourish.
Competition
What makes your organization special among similar organizations? What’s your value proposition? Who is your present competition? Who would you like to be competing with? What similar products or services are currently available and how good are they?
There is no-one else in our region doing anything like this initiative. We do have many partners around the state who are doing similar work.
We are working to shift a mindset.
Our region has many school districts, some large, some small. We encourage regional thinking and collaboration
Currently, the standard approach is that districts emphasize their institution, services, and students. Instead, we'd like them to learn to think regionally, collectively, and collaboratively. We'd like all our partners to try to think about place and population instead of institutional goals.
Long term goals are more challenging, and they have MORE impact.
Many non-profits apply bandaids and are not focused on long term goals. For example, the homeless need a warming center. However, the homeless need many more services than just a warming center. Bandaid thinking can promote many uncoordinated solutions. Uncoordinated services are still helpful, but not comprehensive.
Partners include:
Local governments
School districts
Higher Ed
Nonprofits / philanthropy
Business community
Parents and students
The Future
We hope to build relationships between institutions that are based on more than personal relationships. Relationships that are based on personal connections can powerful, but are often also short-lived. We'd like to create a culture of collaboration and institutional involvement with area partners. We want to create long term institutional relationships where institutions can depend on each other.
Target Audience & Market Realities
Who is your current primary audience (gender, age, socioeconomics, employment, geographics)? How much do they know about the product? What are their attitudes toward organizations like yours? What motivates them? Who do you want your audience to be?
Our goal is to bring people together for the success of our community.
Our organization is essential to all members of the community, but they don’t know it yet. Very few community members know about the Educational Attainment Alliance. Some know about the EAA from the 2019 United Way campaign. Many partner agencies have some familiarity with our services. Our leadership is busy, and our audience sees that we are starting to create concentric connected circles.
When we introduce the organization, we get a great reception, and people recognize our credibility immediately. They can see the value we bring to the community, and they wish to connect to the initiative. The community appears to want the EAA, and they certainly will benefit from the EAA.
We believe educational attainment is the responsibility of the whole community. The appeal should be broader than the educational institutions.
About Fundraising
United Way’s primary fundraising is through employee campaigns. We create campaigns in workplaces. We have very specific audiences—small and large businesses. We also run specific residential campaigns with three to four fundraising letters a year. What do donors have in common: Many are retired. Some are younger donors who don’t understand UW, but employers encourage it, and it is a payroll deduction.
What about COVID-19?
Our customary fundraising presentations are impossible in the COVID-19 environment. Our presentations are all virtual flipbook materials. Monica can't do what Monica usually does. She can't read a group's attitude and adjust the presentation to fit their needs. Now. more than ever, We must show donors a consistent brand image. All content must be branded powerfully and consistently. We must engage businesses, institutions, partners, and individuals with the brand. Our work will have more impact as more members of the community join our initiative.
One Drawback:
Walla Walla does have a lot of non-profit organizations. Some say there are too many, and the services are overlapping. We hope to provide connections between non-profits for the benefit of the community.
User Benefits
How is the community better off because of the work of your organization? Will the community save time, effort, or money? If so, how much? How important is this product to the community? Are there tradeoffs?
Our constituents are helping-organizations, students, parents, and folks who care about educational attainment. All are welcome to participate. If you care about kids and our community, you are a constituent. Thus, our services apply to a much broader spectrum of people than just school superintendents.
WE WORK TO UNIFY THE REGION AROUND SHARED GOALS.
Good ideas are shared and amplified. We hope to unify the region around the shared goal of increased educational attainment and, in doing so, generate investment in individuals. When we foster and invest in the talents of all people, our entire region benefits. People thrive, and the economy thrives. This means that more people can participate and help in more robust ways, and the community is attractive to young people and employers. A great education system encourages people to raise kids here.
Most Important Point (MIP)
What are the top three (or more) ranked benefits of your organization? If you could choose only one thing the audience remembers from your branding, what would it be?
It is the community's responsibility to increase Educational Attainment by creating opportunities and removing barriers. The community benefits through increased joy and success for all.
Education should be equitable. Only when all people thrive is our region truly successful, vibrant, and attractive.
We are successful when our educational ecosystem recognizes and fosters the talents and strengths of all students. Joy, personal well-being, and fulfillment are all results of educational Attainment. When we highlight the things that make a community member unique, they feel like you have something to offer to the community.
A talented workforce generates employment. Educational Attainment has an immense economic impact.
We meet students on their path and partner with them to find the right training to reach their goals.
MIP: We foster the talents of all students, eliminate barriers to success, and build better alignment across the educational continuum to support attainment. Our collective success leads to a thriving and vibrant community.
Short MIP: We facilitate educational success to foster a thriving community.