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Renaming a nonprofit is different.

And working with Hiker isn’t your typical journey.

Our mission is to center yours.

Many non-profits seeking a new name experience similar barriers.

It's hard to stay simple.

You may be coming from a legacy name whose meaning is no longer relevant. Or an acronym that doesn't seem to mean anything to anyone.

The toolbox seems restricted.

"We're resource-strained. We can't take risks, even though they might pay off. It's hard to launch new ideas without naysayers bringing us down."

Many people sit at the decision table.

"I have the board. Donors. Our service population. The team. And literally everyone has a POV. How can we move forward?"

Good process is the only path to good outcomes.

When you embark on a renaming journey as a non-profit, everything is on the line. The process must be inclusive, thoughtful, predictable, and accountable. It's not about flashy ideas, actually. It's about accountabilty and process.

Hiker is an agency that's worked with some of the largest brands in the world on strategy and creative execution. Along the way, we've built a robust, proprietary, equitable approach to renaming and rebranding non-profit organizations. It's work we've done every year for almost a decade. Our process is inclusive, with organic components that ensure all voices contribute. If you’re new to all this, or just wanting to explore what’s possible, start a conversation with us or check out our free nonprofit brand camp.

Partners we’ve supported:

Want to work together? Here’s what you get from Hiker:

Strategy

Team and Process Facilitation

Empathy and curiosity empower your vision throughout this complex process.

One-on-One Discovery and Findings

One-on-one Discovery interviews build trust and ensure equitable team input. A Findings presentation includes anonymized quotes to drive alignment.

Custom Creative Brief

A custom creative brief outlines critical must-haves and is editable and revised until you know it reflects your specific needs accurately.

Competitor Study

Finding competitors’ brand identities in your sector—as well as key examples in sector-adjacent fields—enables us to differentiate you and the potential routes to a winning brand strategy.

Connect with us to learn more about working together.

Naming

Naming Spectrum

Our proprietary naming spectrum helps your team consider how names function differently. The spectrum remains a reference point throughout the process.

Expert Cross-Sector Naming Team

Our renaming teams including copywriters, linguists, strategists, and artists, assembled to ensure a diversity of voices and lived experience. We pitch and review hundreds of potential names internally.

Equitable Defense

We present our top ten names with deep analysis, use cases, and a pronounced equality (we likely love them all for different reasons). The result is a passionate defense of ten expert, process-driven, equitable options.

Custom Decision Rubric

The custom rubric we create for you introduces a wide range of additional decision factors unique to you that help stakeholders think deeply about what a new name can and must accomplish beyond their own gut reaction.

Board Presentation

Your process includes a range of artifacts—Findings, Ranked Choice, Names Presentation—that leads to an impactful, coherent, story-driven Board Presentation that we create for you.

Brand Design

Logo Preference Survey

After a name has been selected, identity design begins with a logo preferences survey to help unearth key considerations around color, visual complexity, and logo form.

Multipath Logo Design

Your visual brand team includes multiple designers and strategists to ensure a range of lived experiences and design approaches informing the visual design process.

Brand Guide

With your Brand Guide, future creative projects can be undertaken with anyone: Hiker, your internal teams, or external partners.

Client: New Profit

Project: White Paper: Deconstructing the Bird Cage. How Social Entrepreneurs are Catalyzing Systems Change

Client: Year Up

Project: Website Design

Additional Creative Services

Hiker is an Emmy, Telly, and Webby award-winning creative agency with many project types in our toolkit. Extension assets, key messaging, video introductions to your new brand, and website design and development can all be a part of the scope of work with the Hiker team.

Schedule a free consultation with our rebrand team today. Let’s talk about where you are and where you want to be. Engagements begin at $25K.

Client: New Profit
Project: The Well, Event Branding

Client: Verizon
Project: Conversations with Mom

Client: New Teacher Center
Project: Rebrand and Website Design

Client: Pen America
Project: Lorem ipsum

Client: FJC
Project: Rebrand and Website Design

Client: American Forests
Project: Our Roots Run Deep Campaign