This same donor was recently in the office and asked casually if Ruby would ever write him back. Needless to say, we were enchanted with Jack and Ruby’s correspondence, so this week, Ruby writes back!

I came to Twitter last year with a fairly singled minded mission – to learn the ropes and become a relatively competent official tweeter for my non-profit organization.

Six months later, and I realize that the recipe for success is far simpler than I first realized. And more importantly, I learned that Twitter can do your organization more harm than good, and one surprisingly common mistake can end up damaging your relationship with your donors, volunteers and potential supporters.

I talk about many things on Twitter, personal, professional and political – and of course, as a fundraiser, one of my favourite things to tweet about is the great work of non-profit organizations.

Last week, after a particularly enthusiastic rash of non-profit related tweets, something started nagging at me.  Of all the organizations I mentioned, complimented, and retweeted,  it seemed that I heard back from very few, if any. So, I decided to investigate.

When I went back through my tweets from the past week, I had a disturbing realization: of the ten organizations I tweeted about or at, I heard back from only two.

To be fair, we all have off weeks – so I dug a bit deeper. And sadly, that number was pretty consistent – I’m only hearing back from about 20% of the organizations I tweet about.

Obviously, this is a huge missed opportunity – but more importantly, it’s a significant threat.  I’m an active supporter of about one-third of the organizations that were steadfastly ignoring me, and the warm fuzzies that I usually feel when I think of them started rapidly cooling.

So, the recipe for success is pretty simple – respond to me when I tweet about you. A simple thanks will do – sadly, any reply at all will make you stand out at this point.

And the recipe for disaster? Just follow in the footsteps of the 80% of non-profits: ignore your supporters, and simply keep using your Twitter account like a 140 character public announcement system for all that great work you’re doing.

Has your experience been similar, or do your hear back from more than 20% of the non-profits you tweet about? Who do you think is doing a particularly good job of building relationships with their supporters on Twitter? I’d love to hear from you – leave a comment below, or tweet at me. I promise you’ll hear back! J

@EmmaLewzey is a proud small shop fundraiser and CFRE. She’s working towards a socially just world at The Redwood, a safe haven for women + kids fleeing violence, and learned everything she knows about Twitter by following the superstar relationship builders @agentsofgood: @agentjenlove and @johnlepp.

Tom’s e-news landed in my inbox this week and once I read this I knew either I had to steal it or ask for his permission to post it (don’t worry – he said I could!) So I hope you enjoy this post as much as I did. – john

“Dear donors: We’re happy to say, we have switched to a digital annual report.”

Happy? R U really so sure?

In February 2011, The Chronicle of Philanthropy published a story that tracked the nascent rise of the digital annual report.

The Salvation Army (USA) had found that “about half” its printed annual reports went wasted: found no audience; were literally never opened. So “it decided to scrap the hard-copy version, moving to an all-digital one….”

You can almost hear the conclusion at headquarters: “Print isn’t working. Let’s go with digital instead.” And a digital version certainly has advantages.

-It’s conveniently available at the click of a mouse, 24 hours a day.
- It can offer lively entertainment. In this one, videos, professionally shot and edited, take the viewer on a journey into the actual neighborhoods where the Salvation Army does its difficult work.
- And even the messages from the director and board chair (customarily, the “Death Valley equivalent” in printed annual reports) are compelling when spoken on-screen, under dramatic lighting, with a musical soundtrack and Hollywood production values. Imagine your executive director acting in The Da Vinci Code; that’s what it looks and sounds like.

I wonder, though. Is this merely a “half empty/half full” conundrum?

If half the annual reports were never opened, then half WERE opened, after all.

And, unlike online video, you never know where a physical copy of your annual report might end up.

Let me tell you a real-life story. A couple of years ago, an attorney phoned this community foundation I know. He had very good news: the foundation would soon receive a multi-million-dollar gift from a man who had died without heirs.

Of course, the foundation was delighted. But puzzled, too: they’d never heard of their benefactor.

“How did he even know us?” the gift officer asked. The attorney replied, “Well, I happened to have your annual report on the coffee table in my reception area. He came in for an appointment and got to reading.”

So I have two questions for The Salvation Army (USA). One: Was it really print that failed? Two: Is it really an either/or situation?

One of the first seriously wrong conclusions about donor communications I ever heard was this: “We tried direct mail,” said the executive director of a small nonprofit. “And it didn’t work for us.” I accepted her assessment. Back then, I didn’t know any better. But as I armored up with training over the years, I learned to be more analytical:
- Was her direct mail piece any good to begin with? No, probably not.
- Was her mailing list well selected to begin with? No, probably not.
- Were the results, therefore, lousy? Yes, predictably so. Direct mail fundraising is a gladiatorial arena where only the well-trained survive.

Lesson learned: If you know nothing about direct mail, do not expect to succeed in that particular hard-to-get-right, easy-to-get-wrong medium.

Lesson extended: If your annual report isn’t getting read, don’t necessarily blame the reader or the medium. Look in the mirror first: Are you doing this well?

Even smart organizations (and the Salvation Army USA is a very smart organization when it hires donor communications vendors for things like direct mail) get clumsy when it comes time to do a printed annual report.

Takeaway >>>>
Boring and risk-free simply do NOT work in marketing. Ever. There are neuroscience reasons why that is, but I won’t get into those today.

Just keep this in mind: fundraising is a type of marketing. Fundraising must obey the very same psychological principles of persuasion that marketing must obey. Brains are brains. Being a donor may grant you an honorary halo, but it does not change your neural network.

What boring is is safe. Choosing to be safe is the professional equivalent of throwing in the towel. Safe donor communications will NOT raise as much money. But then no one above you is likely to know that’s the case. So if you do choose to be safe, this is one of those spanking great times when the ignorance of your boss and board (re: how donor communications really work) will help you. They also like — oh, come on: they love — safe, too.

Even though it doesn’t work. Guaranteed.

Thanks Tom – I would strongly urge that you RUN – don’t walk to Tom’s site right now and sign up for his informative, insightful and always entertaining e-newsletters right now. Like, right now. Why are you still reading this?

John and Jen are two incredible fundraising and marketing professionals who I have the honour of working with at Second Harvest. They have kicked our direct mail program and website development into hyperdrive, and I really can’t recommend them enough. Plus, they are awesome and opinionated people. Here is their website: http://www.agentsofgood.org/ and here is their terrific blog: http://blog.agentsofgood.org/

1. Nothing beats a good story. Nothing.
2. At the end of the day, it is our relationships that define us.
3. Sorry Marshall, the medium is not the message. Your channel of communication needs to be appropriate, but content is king.
4. Agents are everywhere, but not everyone can be an Agent.
5. People are moved to act because of stories and feelings, not facts and statistics.
6. People want to believe their support matters.
7. People are disgusted when they are betrayed or mislead by a charity. And they are suspicious forever.
8. We are truly and deeply inspired by the number of passionate people who want to be part of something special and unique. We all want to be part of a tribe that speaks to us.
9. Like all Agents projects, this list isn’t about us, it’s about you.
10. The three most important words in fundraising? You. You. And you.

And here you are reading my blog about it.

You’re going to hear my venting. But if you can hang on through the rage, you’ll also hopefully think about how you talk to your donors/communities of supporters.

Phone rings.

Me: “hello?”

Pause. Clicking. Some kind of murmuring.

Me: “hello!?”

Murmur louder. Then YELLING: “MRS. LOVE?!?!?!?!”

Me: “Hi. You’re loud. But I can hear you now.”

Caller: “Sorry. The machine doesn’t always tell us when we have someone on the line.”

Me: “Uh. OK.”

Caller: “Anyway Mrs. Love, I’m calling to thank you for being a loyal customer and ask you if you have any questions about our service.”

Pause.

Should I? Should I tell this woman how “the machine” makes me feel unimportant, and that if she wants Mrs. Love she should call my mother, or my paternal grandmother (who just died). I’m Ms. Love and proud of it. The only thing that’s worse is when people call and ask for Mrs. (my husband’s name). Should I tell her that her manner is unpleasant, and that I can hear hundreds of other people just like her yammering in the background. I decide not to.

Me: “I don’t really have any questions.”

Caller: “Well, I also should let you know that we have great promotions to sign up for other services with us.”

Me: “Like what?”

Caller: “Like internet, cable TV, digital cable, home phone and wireless.”

Me: “Uh. I already have all those things with you.”

Pause.

Caller: “Oh, well then you aren’t eligible for anything. Thank you for being a loyal customer.”

Hangs up.

Seriously?

I have ALL your services. I thought that’s why I got the loyal customer call.

But no. I got the loyal customer call because one person, from one division of this massive company, had the bright idea to call all the customers and ask them to sign up for other services from the same mega company.

What they didn’t spend 30 seconds doing was to segment this list. Figure out who has one service and offer them a second. Figure out who has two services and offer them a third.

And, in the worst case, you call someone who is a loyal customer, give them bad service and then have nothing to offer.

#FAIL.

And you know what hurts most? It’s my birthday. And they know that. Because when I do call them I have to give my birthday (including year…those assholes) so they can “confirm me”.

Here’s how, if the Agents of Good ran the world, the call would go.

Phone rings.

Me: “Hello”.

Caller: “Hey, Jen! I’m calling from ABC Company and I’m just calling to say thank you. You are a loyal customer of ours, and we are reaching out to say thanks. Do you have any questions about your service, anything I can help with at all? No? Well, that’s awesome. Oh, hey. I see it’s your birthday! WOOT! Happy Birthday. Have an awesome day.”

I came home to this in my mailbox.

Wrapped in that old-school brown paper, hand-taped. A stamp from “Wolfsburg, Deutschland” on the top left. It looks like a real stamp, so I touch my finger to the snow and try to smudge the ink the way Steve Thomas taught me. No smudge. So it’s a fake/real stamp. And I notice the “Addressed Admail” Canada Post indicia. So, being a direct marketing nerd I know it’s “junk mail”. But I also know that it’s going to be damn fine “junk mail” because someone is going to lots of effort to make this look and feel like real mail, just to me, right from VW HQ in Germany. I rip it open, and inside is a box saying “Welcome to the family”.

I open it up and out drops a letter from “Markus Schafer, Engineer”. He introduces himself and gets to “I was lucky enough to work on the design of this superb vehicle…” and a bit of dull language about cutting edge technology and German expertise. Not exactly my stein of Pilsener but I get who he is and the context.  And then, the genius. “It’s no surprise that after such a great deal of effort I have become extremely attached to your Golf. I am sure you can understand. With that in mind, I would be extremely grateful if you could take good care of it. Spend time with it. Show it some affection. That is why I have sent you this chamois cloth. It is perfect for lavishing some extra special attention on your car.” And the cloth says “Now it’s your turn to give it some love.”

And, of course, the offer. Membership in VW Plus program to get exclusive benefits and privileges…

W.O.W.

You, my dear readers, have likely read me rage on about premiums. Charity premiums are almost always loathsome. But this is an example of a premium done perfectly. Gets me into the package. Reminds me why I love VW. Actually useful.

This morning, I thought I loved my VW most for the heated seats. This afternoon, it’s their slammin’ direct marketing.

What do you have on your wall?

I saw this tweet last week:
@ActionAidUK: This inspirational piece of art in our office has gone mini-viral on Twitter today! Here’s a link if you missed it http://twitpic.com/3pwfon

This is likely one of the most brilliant things I have seen.

Maybe I’m wrong in assuming different. Maybe in your office, you have row after row of “Donor of the week” headshots (and please tell me if you do). But I’m going out on a limb here and say none of you have anything like this.

This “wall” is the sort of thinking and gushing love for a donor that gives me goosebumps.

I emailed Louise Odquier, Digital Content Producer at ActionAid UK for some more information and she and Richard Turner, Director of Fundraising forwarded me their thoughts.

Where did the idea for the donor mindmap come from?

We did some posters of UK supporters for our overseas offices a few years ago and they proved very popular.

It’s part of series of ideas – we have also renamed some of our meeting rooms after our supporters.

How was it created (not technically – but where did the info come from)?

The information came from Sarah herself and speaking to her about her story. We then collected photos and memories we could use to illustrate it.

Why did you decide to do this and take over a whole wall in the office?

We soon realised that a person’s world is more than it first may seem and we wanted to represent this, including all the ways they get involved in other charities!

This idea isn’t for everyone (even though it should be) but imagine how different our sector would be if every single charity and nfp had a wall – like this one in their offices – where you had to walk by it every time you moved around the office? would you ever forget who we are talking to every day? Would you change the way you view your donors? As a number, a walking wallet? Would you love them and understand them even more? Would the hard work you do every day mean more?

Here are a few more looks – thanks to http://www.actionaid.org.uk for sharing this very important work.

EDIT: via @kimberleycanada comes this comment and video from ActionAid as well – I couldnt agree with Kimberley more…
“For my charity friends. Are you paying attention to what Action Aid UK is doing? It is fabulously donor centred and inspiring for all of us. Congratulations to all of you who may have contributed to this fresh way of thinking about donor relationships.”

Scribbles:

Wendy Mesley: “Trust is not being given to institutions but to individuals.”

Sean Triner (@seantriner) on “witnessing”. This is brilliant. Sean insists that all fundraising letters must tell stories. And now he’s taken that one step further to insist that there is an element of witness – so that the letter signer can say “I saw this for myself”.

Alan Clayton (@claytonburnett): “What we say doesn’t matter. What matters is what your donors hear.”

Alan Clayton (@claytonburnett): “Why do some fundraisers fear asking for money when donors love to give.”

Alan Clayton (@claytonburnett): Lamposting: where charities pass around the creative and let everyone piss on it.

Alan Clayton (@claytonburnett): People give to make a bad feelings go away. They also give to get more “good” feelings.

Jon Duschinsky (@jonduschinksy): 4x? – we may need to ask “why” four times in order to get to a real, inspiring answer. Example: “Why do you need this money?”

1. Because we need to raise $x for our budget. WHY?
2. Because we need more money to run this program. WHY?
3. Because this program is funded entirely by donations. WHY?
4. Because vulnerable families need our help.

Donna Raetsen-Kemp (@donna_raetsen) quoting David Ogilvie: “You’ll never bore anyone into paying attention.”

Photos:

@frasergreen reports back about what donors have told him they think about a lot of charities.

John and Tara Lepp chilling on the eve of Congress

@danpallotta speaks to the delegates about his book, Uncharitable.

Tweets:

RT @johnlepp: #afpcongress emotion is in every gift that is made -Alan Clayton

@snotforprofit “Social Media for Fundraising (is a bit of a boondoggle)” my presentation from #AFPCongress: http://ow.ly/3kdYb

RT @LeahEustace: As soon as you start talking about more than 1 person in your story, response starts to drop (rsch fact) #afpcongress

RT @johnlepp: Demonstrate impact: 90% stories, 10% stats-@thattomahern #afpcongress

There were many, many, many amazing tweets and tidbits of information… if you have the time – go through the stream and have a read.

There was video:

STTV actually recorded a number of interesting interviews and clips – see them all right here at STTV.

- Jen Love’s last tweet as she headed out the door…
Well #afpcongress its been a slice. Mama Love headed home to the 2 reasons I’m devoting my life to NFPs: Mason, 5 and Sadie, 3

As she said – “it is a reminder of both why I work in our sector, and why I need to stay connected with the Congress energy.”

The one theme I heard over and over confirmed what I feel in my heart of hearts. Great fundraising is about emotional storytelling and the needs of your donor. Forget branding, fancy titles, big words and egos, disregard quick fixes and hot trends, ignore naysayers and fear, bypass all of it.

Tell the stories about your cause that your donor needs to hear. The good ones because they helped, the sad ones because the need continues, the angry ones because of the injustice, the scared ones – because of the world we sometimes live in. Tell them all with great emotion and care – because that’s what makes us human.

My brain personally is still full of so many memories and moments, revelations and epiphanies, I would need about 10 more posts to share them all.

One of my last tweets as I said goodbye to old colleagues and new connections was: Using twitter for you or your charity is like being a part of a constant conference. Full or learning and new people. #afpcongress

Jen and I would love to know – what were your Congress highlights? Share your blog posts, slides, images and stories all here.

Everyone says they want to be but are afraid to do so when they get the chance.

As someone who is creative, I see opportunities to be innovative all the time but have had clients who swear they want it – and then at the last minute chicken out.

As I type this is see a few posts on twitter about innovation. This from @pamelagrow: Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. Steve Jobs

This from @donna_raetsen: Think differently & spark creativity http://ow.ly/3azIB

I remember sitting down with Jen and Mark and telling them – we will not use the word “innovative” in any of our marketing or mission statements. I had learned through the years that “innovation” had become a scary and bad word. Our clients largely want us to help them do just a bit better than last year.

Everyone wants it but is afraid to be it when the time comes.

Even Jeff Brooks admits in a comment on a recent post: Fundraisers aren’t artists; we don’t get points for originality. The best among us are constantly balancing tried-and-true old techniques with new and original ideas. Tried-and-true usually works — until it wears out. New and original usually doesn’t work — except when we get a winner. (Of course, that winner eventually gets copied and adapted and spreads until it’s old hat.)

My old mentor Steve Thomas was always telling me – don’t be too clever. Clever doesn’t work…

Do we want to be innovative or not?

Innovation:
- gets us fired
- fails miserably
- keeps you awake at night

But, innovation:
- gets us hired
- changes ‘the game’
- succeeds amazingly
- gets copied endlessly

Innovation takes courage and guts. It takes trust, time and plenty of headaches.

We don’t strive to torture our clients by pushing the innovation envelope at them constantly, but we do challenge them to think differently about how they communicate and fundraise to their donors. And in return, they challenge us and push us to be innovative in how we do what we do.

The people who are innovative will win. It’s that simple. Be innovative in small ways everyday and for heaven’s sake, don’t be afraid of it.

If I’m asked to design a direct mail piece, I often know the rough total cost and how long it will take me because I’ve been doing it for a long time. But I also know the design is reactionary. We develop the creative brief and offer, Jen and I discuss the tone of the copy and i go over her first draft, then I design the pack based on audience, tone, ask, etc.

Also, a lot of the time, there is no budget or time to sit around pontificating about things. Read, react, design. That doesn’t mean I don’t think about things – I do. Is the type big enough and clear enough, does it suit the subject matter or audience, does it say something clearly, do we need a visual, one colour or four, is the logo big enough, will there be room for all of that copy, what are we saying, what do we want the donor to do, does this have impact, will the donor open the envelope, etc.

You may be only paying $1000 for the design of direct mail pack, but you are getting well almost 15 years of doing, testing, looking, asking… experience.

Logos on the other hand – are totally different.

It’s the challenge of creating something that is memorable, communicates an idea or USP, visually defines and sums up what a charity does or who they do it for, gets across the theme of an event… you get the idea.

It’s the challenge of finding the right sort of font that is appropriate to the charity and it’s donors, or the right type of visual that distills everything your charity stands for.

It’s not easy and it’s a lot of work. It takes time, talent, patience and concentration.

Can you get a logo for $25? Of course you can. Just take a look right here.

But I can’t do it for you. Most other professional designers can’t either.

My first step is brainstorming all of the sorts of words or visuals that might be associated with your charity or event. I can easily spend a few hours – as all of these words help define the sorts of visuals that might work. I look at the name of your organization. What does it say, what do we want it to mean. Who is your audience? Who are your donors? What do we want the name to say to them.

I scribble any shapes or visuals that come to mind as I continue to write all the things i can think of that have to do with your charity and cause.

I also start to make a list of all of the visual clichés that are associated with your cause – you all have them. (By the way, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using a visual cliché – so long – as a old creative director once told me – you use it differently).

I start to think about type and fonts.

I typeset the name of your organization over and over, in typefaces that may be suitable. Some fonts have a lot of personality – or the good ones do. All the while remembering, what does it say? What do we want it to mean? I would love each of my clients to have custom fonts that they could use for their logo and marketing – but at the very least, when using an off-the-shelf font, I find ways to make it unique by tweaking some of the characters.

Next comes the visual brainstorm. I go back to my list of words and start to use them to discover ways I can visually express them. Again I may make another list of words or just quick thumbnail drawings of ideas. This is the real time of discovery. And often there is no end. I just keep pumping out idea after idea, all very quick, not stopping to censor myself or my ideas. If I see something I like, I may try to approach it from different angles – “How can I express time? What are the visual clichés to express time? How many different ways can I show or communicate a clock?” Over and over. There is no perfect idea here.

Once I’ve completed this process, it’s time to start putting some of these elements together. Most designers use a program called Adobe Illustrator to design logos. Illustrator is a vector based program (as opposed to a raster based program like Adobe Photoshop) which allows us to control the number of colours and most importantly, makes what we design scalable. As I start to marry visuals and typefaces, the logo starts to come together – but it is also another period of discovery as you try to make the type fit into and with the visual. Maybe the type is the visual. Maybe the visual is the name of the charity. Maybe you need both. Again, I just want to keep circulating the ideas. This is not the time for tweaking and art directing – making sure everything is perfect. And as I work, I find new ideas forming and as I put one concept together, I move onto another. This process can be endless. There is no ONE solution. And it usually ends when your time is up and actually have to present some concepts to the client.

I select 2-4 ideas that I feel work the best and present them to you, the client, as “black only” files.

Why? Because I want you to focus on the concept I am presenting. I don’t want to talk about how you don’t like blue I’ve chosen.

If I’ve done my job right, after I present them to you, you will say – “this is going to be a difficult choice”. And it so it may seem once you first see them, but once we talk them through a bit more, and get a chance to sleep on it – there tends to be a clear winner. One that really stands out to you.

My absolute worse case scenerio are the words “let me show this to my board.” Then I know I am in deep trouble.

At the risk of going into a side rant about boards of directors, there is a reason why some of my colleagues offer discounts to their discounts to NOT involve your board. Simply, if you have a board of 3 people or more, that is 3 or more totally different needs, perspectives, bias’s, ideas, etc that are now going to weight in on these poor little logos – and they will not stand a chance. “Can we…?, Can you…? What if ‘we’…? Why don’t you…?” etc, etc. Bye bye all those hours of time, effort and money – welcome to Compromiseville, second stop, Dullsville… Ok, ok… maybe I’m being a little tough. Bottom line is – you know what they say about opinions – everyone has one and every one will be different.

So, hopefully we’ve declared a clear winner in our concepts! Hoorary!

The next challenge comes with some final art direction and looking at colour combinations.

Usually when developing concepts, I am just trying to get an idea to work. I’m not worrying about the spaces between the type (the kerning), how the ascenders look, is the leading too tight. I just want the idea to come through.

But now – now – is the chance and time to art direct the logo to visual perfection.

Type is a funny thing. In the old days they used to use wood or metal type (some places still do!) and they could control the amount of space between the letters (kerning) or between the lines (leading). The type or fonts we use on our computer are set at a typeface default and a professional will take the type to correct these defaults to make sure each letter dances well with the letters next to it. This kind of teaking can make a massive difference in how the logo looks.

Once the type is cleaned up and looks just the way I want it, I might look at cleaning up any visual I might have used. I try to keep visuals very simple in their shapes and level of detail. Anything can look good when it blown up to fit on your monitor but how does it look when it is printed 0.25″ x 0.25″ in a local newspaper that is using a LPI (lines per inch) of 75? You need to remember that as you work through the logo. That skinny serif or gorgeously detailed illustration is NOT going to cut it and the print guys will want some blood – especially if you try to use it reversed out of a solid tone.

So the type is great, the visual is all cleaned up – it all works. Do a double check and print it off very tiny and very large. Put it up on the wall and look at it from 15 feet away. Turn it upside down and backwards – are there any spaces that don’t look right? Some part of the the type which just stands up like a piece of hair that won’t lay flat? Does it look like a black blob? Make sure it works. And if it does, then we can start to think about and work with – hoorary! – colour.

As I mentioned, I present the final logo as a black only version. If this logo looks amazing in black – then adding colour will be like adding a piece of parsley to a plate. It’s a garnish. Important but not necessary.

I present a black version, a one colour version, a two colour version and a four colour version (a cmyk variation using the spot colours for reference). I also design some reversed out logos using the same spot colours.

I have mentioned this before. For your one colour and two colour versions, please make sure that the designer, or you- if you are the designer, have used a dominant spot colour. Because if I have to work with your gorgeously designed logo and you used PMS 1215 and 7486 – someone is going to pay. Use at least one dominant colour. Always and forever.

I present final logo ideas to the client and upon the approving nod of the head, send all versions that the client will ever need in a electronic file. As a client, you should be asking for your logo saved in a few formats and for both platforms. An Illustrator eps file with all type concerted to outlines – a black version, one colour and two colour variations (and cmyk), as well as any reversed out options. You should be getting all of those versions saved a rgb jpgs and tifs as well. You should know the name of the font that was used and should get a final pdf of the final variations. I include my name, font and pms information on my illustrator files so the next designer will not have to guess if the client does not know.

If you, the client has asked for it, I may even design you a styleguide that shows you all of the ways a designer can use your logo (and also the ways they cannot), but may design up some templates for you to use as reference for business cards, letterhead, envelopes, powerpoint presentations, advertisements, websites and so on.

I am hoping that if I’ve been hired to do this very important job with you, that we can discuss managing and designing the other sorts of brand support materials you will want and need.

I hope this explains why a logo (designed by any professional) will not cost you $25 or less.

Our processes may differ, but most designers are following a similar route to give you a clean, professional, creative and thoughtful logo to represent your organization.

I know what you are thinking – ‘so what does a professional logo cost’?

And my first question back to you is – what is your budget?

I won’t speak for all designers, but please don’t call us if your answer is “$50!”.