Is Marketing and Branding Important for Your Nonprofit?
Download MP3Welcome to the Grant Writing and Funding podcast, the world's top ranked podcast since 2017 on grant writing and, you guessed it, funding. I'm your host, Holly Rustick. And here at GWF, we have a movement for grant writers to secure $1,000,000,000 in grants for amazing causes in the world and 25 to $30,000,000 in their grant writing businesses. We are well on our way there with hundreds of millions of dollars of grants already secured and millions of dollars secured in client contracts through our two signature programs, the freelance grant writer academy and the grant professional mentorship, where hundreds of students at any given time are working on replacing their full time income on flexible hours, writing grants from home for causes and missions they are passionate about. To learn more about our movement, be sure to check out our newsletter, write grants, get paid, and go to grantwritingandfunding.com to check out our free grant class and resources.
Holly Rustick:Now let's get into our podcast episode so you can learn how to win grants and advance impact in the world. Hello. Hello. Hello. It's Holly Rustic here with Grant Writing and Funding, and we have an amazing episode for you all today.
Holly Rustick:We're gonna be talking to Marie B. Bryan, and she is the founder and president of Home Agency, and it is a full service creative agency. And you're like, what does that have to do with grant writing, Holly? It's because she leans into working with nonprofits. And guess what?
Holly Rustick:Marketing and branding and all of that, you've got to be really good at telling story and capturing hearts and imagination. So welcome to the podcast, Marie. Yeah, so nice to see you. And we were both chatting before we recorded and she's based in Michigan where I'm originally from, so
Marivi Bryant:it was a lot of Hawaii.
Holly Rustick:Yeah, so, so good. Okay, so for those out there who are like, I don't even know what a full service creative agency is, like that definition maybe is kind of boutique y or feel new, like, can you explain exactly
Marivi Bryant:what you do? Absolutely. So we're a full service marketing agency. So think of all the things that you can imagine from marketing, whether it's design or copy or strategy, brand positioning, social media, traditional media, all the things. So anything that's gonna help your company or your brand advance forward, we can help with that.
Marivi Bryant:And particularly, we work with a lot of different nonprofits in that area of storytelling, like you were talking about.
Holly Rustick:Yeah, and it's funny because a lot of nonprofits might not connect marketing and nonprofits because it's like awareness campaigns or like they use different language sometimes to describe that, or they feel like we don't really need that, or that's like a luxury. Can you kind of break down that stereotype or stigma potentially?
Marivi Bryant:It's funny you say luxury because that's what I was gonna say. I think oftentimes people think that marketing is just a luxury item or it's not needed, or they think that marketing means spending a lot of money on television commercials and things of that nature. The reality, especially as it relates to nonprofit is the marketing that you do, it allows for the storytelling to move your mission forward. Because what are funders looking for or grantors looking for? They want to make sure that your organization is fulfilling its mission and that it's showcasing the work that they're doing.
Marivi Bryant:And it can be as simple as just keeping your website up to date and having a good, good social media presence. That's it. At the beginning, right? Focus on having some of those organic traits taken care of, so that when funders are looking at who you are and they're trying to understand your mission, they can see that you're buttoned up at least on your website and your social media. Because that's the first thing they're going to do to validate that you are doing what you say that you're doing.
Holly Rustick:And it's interesting too, because back in the day, that wasn't as important necessarily. And I remember even doing a lot of reviews in the early 2000s ish, like 2005 to 2010. And it's a lot of like, oh my gosh, the websites, recently. Was like, there's flashy and different fonts and sizes and it's dark and it's light and it's all over the place. And it's so hard to read and busy and there's been, you know what I mean?
Holly Rustick:Like there's been a lot of progression and modernization of websites. And to your point, like it is important and funders and donors are looking at those types of things. And guess what? Impressions matter, right? And first impressions matter, they do.
Holly Rustick:And to see if you're seeing something that looks completely unprofessional, hasn't been updated in years or decades or whatever, It's going to be like, are they even still around? Are they even doing work? Can you kind of talk about, like, because we're talking about, like, the importance, of course, of having that polished kind of buttoned up look, but also, like, what if you don't and you're just trying to throw it together and say, We got something out there. What is risk of that?
Marivi Bryant:So, I mean, it's such a catch-twenty two because donors are wanting you to look good and have a good site and have a good presence and have good social media and good branding, but nonprofits don't have the funding to make that happen. So it seems like they're stuck on this hamster wheel of how do we make ourselves look good if we don't have the funds to do it? And what also I have heard a lot from the nonprofits that we work with is that when they go out and maybe they go to foundations and asking for different grants, they're always telling them, it's like, are you guys ready? Are you guys ready to be positioned? Are the stories correct?
Marivi Bryant:Is your branding looking sharp? And wanna make sure that you are up to date so that they can see what you're doing with your mission. And they can see that you are moving your programs forward and fulfilling that mission. But the second piece is when it comes to digital, if you have the ability to manage social media, and it's really not that difficult to get behind the scenes on Instagram and see the engagement that you have, because what you're able to do is you can show your funders the progress that you're making. You can show engagement.
Marivi Bryant:You can have actually real data to say that you are moving your programs forward and you are doing ABC, and you're telling the stories about your mission. You can do that even with a website. You can look easily on Google Analytics and just at least take a look and see who's visiting you and where are they going? Are they going directly to the specific program? Or are they going to the careers page or the About Us?
Marivi Bryant:Or are they going to your board page to see who your board of directors is? So there are so many ways that you can showcase who you are and create that validation for your donors.
Holly Rustick:You know, it is important. Your donors are going there, your funders are going there. People are going to volunteers. How are you capturing that? Do you have ways?
Holly Rustick:Is it easy? And the other thing too is it doesn't have to be, like you said, super expensive. It doesn't have to be overly complicated either. It can be like, what is the main capture you're trying to explain what you do, your mission? And also maybe one of your drives is to get more volunteers or to get more donors.
Holly Rustick:So make sure you have a donate button.
Marivi Bryant:Honest, if you have the ability, course your mission and what you focus on, if you have any testimonials or stories of what you have done with the funds that you receive and to move your mission. If you can have a list of your board of directors listed, that usually creates a list of great validation, right? They kind of check and be like, Oh, look at this person from ABC Bank or this other organization. So ensuring that there's a clear way to donate. Do not hesitate on having your giant donate button at the top.
Marivi Bryant:And if your mission is also potentially volunteering, then maybe you can have that call to action at the very top to ensure that people have the ability to donate, to give back to you, to volunteer, and to learn about your mission and learn about what you're doing.
Holly Rustick:Yeah, simple, right? Very simple. And I love that so much because it does create validation when you have something that's clean, polished, simple, and people know what to do on your website instead of just And like,
Marivi Bryant:they're I know that it's overwhelming to think, how can I get my website up to date? Or how can I manage my social? But the reality is there's so many different tools to If you can't afford to hire somebody to build you a super customized website, there are so many available tools for even just entry level websites, even a one pager sometimes that, again, like
Holly Rustick:Canada, they have
Marivi Bryant:Yes. Make sure, I mean, you can even just have a one scrolling page that talks about your mission, that talks about Potentially shows your board of directors, has your call to actions to donate. And if you have the ability to link to an Instagram page, and I know that not everybody's on Instagram, but the reality is that what do people do today to validate you? They Google you and they go to find your website or see if you're on Instagram, right? And Instagram is something that you can control and you can create your own content and you can utilize the stories and you can utilize the mission of your organization, of your nonprofit to showcase great stories.
Marivi Bryant:Whether it's caring for children or a shelter or food bank, that right there is great content that you can utilize to put on your socials.
Holly Rustick:Yeah, I love that. And one of the things that we develop inside our program, the Freelance Grant Writer Academy, is we actually have folks create a master grant template, which is a very robust template about mission, values, organization, budget, your objectives, like everything. What a lot of people inside our program, what they've also been doing, especially in 2025 with all the ups and downs of grants, they've actually been providing another service, which would link to yours very well. So what they do is you can repurpose this document because we capture so much. That repurposing it into newsletters, into social copy, so you have the copy to develop these graphics because we do all this research with all these statistics and all these stories.
Holly Rustick:And it's basically like social media post for a year when you can repurpose it. And then also just like getting your copy for your website. But the thing is a lot of people, of course, we're not designers. We ain't design, but we have the copy. We're writers, right?
Holly Rustick:So how would you work with somebody, say, from my program that has a master grant template developed for a nonprofit and they're creating the copy, but then they can work with you to create the design? Like, how do you feel like that would work?
Marivi Bryant:Gosh. I mean, so one of the things we do sometimes with clients is that we can set them up on a tool like Canva, where we set up all of their brand guidelines, all of their templates, and they have the ability to create their own content from there. So it takes a few hours of our team, a designer or an agency or somebody that knows what they're doing, not me, on Canva. You can put all of the different fonts, the colors, just your core brand attributes, and you then have the ability to create different templates and it really works well. And you don't have to be as tech savvy.
Marivi Bryant:And I say that with a straight face as someone who's not super techy, but I think you have the ability to get in and use the tool. So that would
Holly Rustick:be great. Yep. They create a lot of templates. And then my OBM, the online business manager, she's not a design person, but because she has the templates, she can then work with that. Then sometimes we're like, we want something fresh, let's go ahead and get some more newer templates or for a different brand.
Holly Rustick:So if you're looking at a nonprofit and they give a different program and you want to brand it a little differently or whatnot, so you could have almost like brand decks or like I
Marivi Bryant:think the challenge is that I think it becomes very overwhelming for organizations, not just nonprofits, but in general, thinking about what is it that I'm supposed to do from a marketing perspective. And oftentimes it's good to just take a step back and think about what are some of the goals that you have and try to create a roadmap for yourself that it's kind of like, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? You go to just a little piece at a time with all the things that you need to do and remind yourself that connection between funding and storytelling is crucial. And if you don't have the resources, and if you don't have the ability to get yourself as polished as you can, then at least focus on the storytelling. Just do not stop talking about what your programs are doing, what your mission is doing, examples, testimonials, all of that is super, super valuable, at least as a step one.
Marivi Bryant:And then you can move on to the next, which is trying to get your website updated as much as you can with the right information and working on your socials because it's organic and you own it. It doesn't really cost you much to run an Instagram account, for example.
Holly Rustick:And thank you to Grant EZ Management Software for sponsoring today's podcast episode. We love GEMS, GrantEZ Management Software, because GEMS is a software tool that organizes all of your grants. It also gives you an opportunity to invite your nonprofit clients into the software, and you can put every single grant you've submitted. You can also put every single note with funding sources that you've connected to. At a click of a button, you can see everything that's pending, everything that's been secured, everything that's been denied, and your clients can see that as well.
Holly Rustick:We love that GEMS actually says, hey, bring GEMS into your meeting with your nonprofit clients so you can show them exactly where you're at with all of the grant writing strategy as you are working with them. And there's even a time tracker inside of GEMS so you can track your time with all of your clients. Never miss a deadline again. Never miss a document again. Go ahead and join GEMS Grant Easy Management Software.
Holly Rustick:Sign up for a free demo today, and you can get a $50 off coupon code when you mention g w f, Holly, h o l l y. Go to grantwritingandfunding.com/gemsgems. So if you were looking, like, say Instagram. So nonprofits though, what are your thoughts? Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and there's TikTok of course, but I feel like nonprofits, they have a, it's an interesting mix, right?
Holly Rustick:So what are your thoughts on that?
Marivi Bryant:So the different audiences, right? So when it comes to Instagram and it gives you the opportunity to have more visual content, so you got to kind of lean in into what your organization is. So if you are a theater company or a performing arts nonprofit, or something like that, it's very visual. So you're going to have a lot of fun content that you can share. So having an Instagram account is a must, right?
Marivi Bryant:Because you can have different videos, and that's something that people can engage with. And you're basically using your images to tell the story of what you do. At the same time, LinkedIn is key because it is the professional network. So your donors and funders are going to be there. And in LinkedIn, they're going to want to see the case studies.
Marivi Bryant:They're going to want to see that, you know, the exact work that you were doing. Visuals, of course, but you can also take advantage and do a little more stats, you know, in a little more storytelling on LinkedIn. Facebook works as well. There's still an audience on Facebook, but we don't want to overwhelm you, right? So if you can't do all of them, at least if you focus on Instagram and LinkedIn, you're covering a couple different audiences.
Marivi Bryant:Getting into tech, that's another story.
Holly Rustick:Yeah, okay. This might be a little bit down that tech hole, but repurposing, should you do organic to the platform as far as link? Because LinkedIn has some similarities to Instagram as far as posting content, but there are some differences. So would you recommend organic to the platform posting or just repurposing the same content?
Marivi Bryant:No, I mean, I think that it requires different content for different platforms. Think you can focus on something more fun and more visual on your Instagram. Again, let the images and the videos of your programs tell the story for you with minimal copy. But then on LinkedIn, again, you have the ability to get a little more detail. You can use some stats if you can, you can use numbers and you can tell the story, you can have quotes and testimonials and things like that.
Marivi Bryant:Also having some images. Yeah.
Holly Rustick:Yeah. I And love love
Marivi Bryant:I you could do helps you reach both audiences, I think.
Holly Rustick:Right. And then knowing like which one to lean into first and which, like you said, if you're more performing arts, like definitely LinkedIn or definitely Instagram. But if you're like, maybe something that has a little bit more stats, infographics, that sort of thing, you're thinking maybe LinkedIn, right? So just at least start with. Because I know the other thing is capacity.
Holly Rustick:As you mentioned, like, there are nonprofits they have, and even freelance grant writers who are starting your business, like you have limited capacity and limited amount of time. So what are the the musts if you're, like, just starting out? I know you kinda mentioned, like, get your get your stories together first as far as, like Yes.
Marivi Bryant:Yes. Mhmm. You you have to be able to find a way you need to tell your stories. And when you have limited resources and limited funding, you have to use the resources that are available to you that are technically free, right? So your social channels are technically free, It's all based on engagement.
Marivi Bryant:So you have to be able to at least use those channels to tell your story. If you can't afford anything else, if you can't have a website because it's just not in the cards for you at the moment and you don't have the ability because you have to focus on fulfilling your programs. At least have your socials in order so that you have the ability to tell the story. Tell people what you're doing, and tell it often, and tell it in multiple different ways. If you have one specific program, I'm sure that you can come up with eight different ways to tell the story on why that backpack giveaway was successful or whatever the case of the program is.
Holly Rustick:And I know one way a lot of nonprofits and even freelancers, when I first started my business, this is what I did was I went to the university and I got some interns and that was really helpful and they have a different younger eye as well. Just, they're like more hungry in different ways, like to be more creative and curious. And it's really fun. Like, did you see a lot of nonprofits also like utilizing interns to help, even if they need somebody like professional quality, like your business, but then when they have those templates, the capacity of just, like, ongoing maintenance or, you know, content creation.
Marivi Bryant:What I would recommend honestly is utilize your board. So utilize your board to create at least a strategic roadmap, depending on who your board is and just put them to work. I myself serve on a couple of different boards and I am not afraid to work hard for them, right? I wanna go out there. I wanna use my resources and the talents that I have to help them move forward.
Marivi Bryant:So utilize your board, get a strategic roadmap from them, demand that, ask for the help, and ask them to use their resources to help you. And once you have that strategic roadmap, then sure, you can try to find a way to get an intern, or get somebody else to help you to do the execution. And often we find that the hardest part is just having that roadmap, is having that direction and understanding what you need to do first, because it can become super overwhelming to think of all of the issues that you have in one place and trying to solve them by yourself.
Holly Rustick:Right, right, and having goals, right? Like when you have that strategic, I'm so glad you brought that up because when you have that strategy, then you're like, okay, like our goal then in developing this website is to maybe get x number of donors, like through that donate button. Right? And then you're analyzing that like, did the back end emails actually work? Is there a tech thing?
Holly Rustick:You know what mean? Like, all the things. Like, so or, like, even for our our social media, like, is it to increase engagement? Is it to increase shared posts? Like, all of the things that actually have a plan with how and then you can analyze what's happening
Marivi Bryant:instead Yes. Of And like you can use those. You those stats. I mean, can use what you have on the back end of any of the social media that you use, whether it's LinkedIn or Instagram, and you can create reports that you can share back to your board or back to your donors with the impact that you're making and the engagement that you have. So it takes work, but just the best thing I can say is do not hesitate to continue to tell the story.
Marivi Bryant:You have to tell the stories. And I know it's hard sometimes, it's hard to get the testimonials, and it's hard to figure out the programs, but that really is going to be the key to your success, and to continue and to potentially get more funding, so you can move the mission forward and continue to do good in the world.
Holly Rustick:Yeah, and I know even for the Scramwriters out there, I'm like, share it, if you want a grant, share it on your social media. Be out there talking about it. People want to see that. They want to see your success and wins. Don't be ashamed.
Holly Rustick:Go out there and talk about it because that's also very interesting and it'll get to people's attention, right? And you can talk about your expertise in a different way. So definitely there's a lot of room for that. Tell us about your organization. Like, I know you told us the name of it, but like, what how do you work with organizations?
Holly Rustick:If somebody out there is like, oh, I sound that sounds interesting. What like, I wanna thinking about hiring. Like, tell us all the things.
Marivi Bryant:Yeah, of course. So thank you. So a home agency, we're a fully remote, fully virtual agency and we serve clients nationwide and our team is nationwide. I am based here in Traverse City, Michigan, but again, we have teams all the country. And we work with a lot of different nonprofits on just helping them move their marketing and helping them get all of their ducks in a row so that they have that credibility when they go out into the marketplace.
Marivi Bryant:So whether it's digital and technology, building websites our bread and butter, but also full services, whether it's managing your social media or design or copy or strategy, all of those things we can support with. But also one of the things that has worked really well for us is that we like to conduct these workshops. Sometimes we do them and at no cost to the organizations, just to give them some guidance. So we'll go in a room, we'll sit with them sixty or ninety minutes, and just do a strategic workshop where we outline all of the needs, and we kind of paint this little roadmap of, these are the things that you can do. Now, they can decide to utilize us to execute some of those, or they can do it themselves, but at least we provide that initial guidance to set them up for success.
Marivi Bryant:And sometimes we split in the middle. Sometimes there are things that we do to help them get there, and other times we prepare the materials and allow them to go in and execute on their own. So, yeah.
Holly Rustick:So it really depends on the needs that they have and their capacity and that sort of Exactly.
Marivi Bryant:What's key about this workshop that we conduct is that it brings up all of the issues and the things that they didn't know they needed even. So oftentimes we'll have a nonprofit that says, I need a brand new website. And we're like, Okay, we'd love to help you. And then when we start digging, we realize that there's other things that are missing. Maybe their missions are not aligned, maybe their pillars are not quite defined, maybe their messaging is just not there yet, their audience is all funky, maybe their look and feel is outdated.
Marivi Bryant:So then we take a step back and we try to clean that up for them and we help them whether it's with branding or message alignment, whatever it might be, before we get to the website, right? We see the website as that handshake, that execution, that's the first thing where people see you. There's so much behind that needs to be done before you go out into the world with your website.
Holly Rustick:Oh, absolutely. One of the best things I did was work with a branding agency for my website when I rebranded and it was the time it took for me to answer all of the questions. They had such an amazing onboarding, which I'm sure you did too, because you're talking about the strategy first. And it was for me to sit there and think through all those things. Like what are the values?
Holly Rustick:How do those show up in the business? And to really get clear and clarity on my programs and everything. And even though I knew it, but it was like another level. And I think that's the best type of creation of branding that you're talking about is doing that strategy. And you have to be clear on all of that.
Holly Rustick:Otherwise, it's not going to be reflected in your website. It's not going be reflected in your branding, right?
Marivi Bryant:Oh, And again, these workshops have worked so well because it is extracting information that they didn't even know they had inside, right? We're asking questions about their mission and their long term objectives and all these different things that helps us uncover the needs so that we can then put together this roadmap that they can follow to meet their goals.
Holly Rustick:Yeah, amazing. And that's so good too. I mean, I imagine even though there's new board members, like, that's almost like a, you know, it's almost like a strategic planning way for them, Oh, for
Marivi Bryant:sure. And we do this all the time. And oftentimes is, some members of the nonprofit themselves, but then we bring in board members. There's been times where we have even brought donors of that organization because they have a perspective and they have a vested interest in the organization and their success. So having their POV as example.
Marivi Bryant:And what do they want to know? They want to know what you're doing. Want to know the stories. They want to know the stats. They want to know where their money is going, right?
Marivi Bryant:And marketing helps them provide that information to the donors. So, we find it very valuable to have to do these workshops in a room with not just the staff, but board members, donors. Bonus points if there's somebody that has benefited from the organization, somebody that's a benefit of the nonprofit, because then we get those POVs and then have a bigger purview of their true needs. And then it helps us set that roadmap for execution for them.
Holly Rustick:Oh, so good. So good. I love that so much. It makes so much sense to me. So where can people find you then if they're listening to this podcast or watching this video today?
Marivi Bryant:Oh, for sure. You can find us on our website, wearehomeagency.com, or you can find me on LinkedIn too, Marie B. Bryant. It. Happy to connect.
Holly Rustick:Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today, Breevy, and we will be seeing you hopefully soon. Yeah. All this great information that you've given to nonprofits and to grant writers out there. So we appreciate it. Any last words before we close out today?
Marivi Bryant:No. Keep doing great work and tell those stories.
Holly Rustick:Awesome. All right, we'll talk to you soon. Thanks so much.
Marivi Bryant:Thank you, Rollie.
Holly Rustick:Bye. I hope you enjoyed today's podcast episode. And if you are still struggling with how to write a grant, it still feels overwhelming. Maybe you're new to it or maybe you're a seasoned grant writer with no processes in place on how to write grants. So every time you onboard a client, it is a lot of work.
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