Crime charity rebrands to become more competitive

Governance | Kirsty Weakley | 30 Mar 2012

A charity that aims to reduce crime through supporting people at risk of offending, today launches new branding, which it hopes will raise its profile to make it more competitive.

Sova (Supporting Others Through Voluntary Action) has not changed its name. However, director of PR, communications and marketing, Darshana Dholakia said: “Like many organisations, the changes in funding structures have made us look more closely at our position in the market, who we are and how we talk to people about what we do.”

According to accounts filed with the Charity Commission, the amount that the charity has received from central government has been reduced each year since 2009. In 2009 it got a grant of £520,038 from central government and by 2011 this had fallen to £353,000. But it has seen its income from delivering local authority contracts increase in the last year and wants to continue this trend.

The total cost of the rebrand, including the new website and supporting materials, was £67,500. It was paid for with a grant from the Transition Fund, which was awarded by the Big Fund on behalf of the Office for Civil Society.

Dholakia added: “We’re an organisation with a rich heritage, but have operated very much below the radar. We needed to change that and wanted to use everything at our disposal available to raise our profile and make ourselves more competitive.”

The new brand was developed by communications agency Neo and has taken more than a year to complete. Managing director Nick Christoforou said that the main aim was to “humanise their brand, to showcase that they are about helping people”.

Dholakia said: “We took a strategic approach to the rebrand and have taken a dated brand and completely changed it. The updated visual language is a better reflection of our people centred work and better equips us to tell the Sova story.”

The new website features case studies, volunteering opportunities and information about current projects and should be live later today.

Click on the images below to see some examples of the new brand in action.

Images

Directory: Charity Commission

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