Discover your brand personality.

A 10-question quiz for 12 brand characters that funders can’t ignore

Portrait of Kevin Brown, Co-founder & CEO of Mighty Ally

KEVIN L. BROWN

Donors yawn at boring brands. So it’s not enough to have clear comms. You must also be compelling.

Because there are more than 10 million nonprofits in the world all vying for the same fundraising attention.

The best way to make your brand stand out? A bold brand personality.

The good news: it’s not too difficult to determine a brand character and embody that personality in every element of your communications — from visuals to writing.

Here’s a quiz to get you started.

Find your brand character.

Brands are built like humans. We both have an inner core: ambition, beliefs, and values. And we each have a personality, which affects how we present ourselves to the world.

When combined with other elements of positioning strategy — like uniques — your brand personality helps you resonate with funders and partners.

There are 12 brand characters for nonprofits to choose — from those that convey comfort to others that create excitement.

First created by Carl Jung, these 12 archetypes were adopted by brand builders over the years. Here you’ll see the four quadrants of related characters. Plus the character name and a short description, followed by a sample nonprofit that we feel matches that character.

Which one are you? Take this 10-question quiz to find out.

For each question, write down the number of your top answer and runner-up answer. For example, “I pick #7, then #4.”

QUESTION #1

What is the greatest strength of your brand?

1. Creativity & imagination
2. Responsibility & leadership
3. Compassion & generosity
4. Realism & lack of pretense
5. Joy & fun
6. Passion & appreciation
7. Competence & courage
8. Finding win–win outcomes
9. Outrageousness & being radical
10. Autonomy & ambition
11. Wisdom & intelligence
12. Faith & optimism

QUESTION #2

What is your organization’s core desire?

1. Create something of enduring value
2. Control & create prosperity
3. Protect people from harm
4. Connect with others
5. Live in the moment
6. Attain intimacy
7. Exert mastery to improve the world
8. Make dreams come true
9. Start a revolution
10. Have an authentic/fulfilling life
11. Understand & discover the truth
12. Be happy & experience paradise

QUESTION #3

Which resembles your strategy for success?

1. Develop artistic control & skill
2. Use authority to influence change
3. Do things for others
4. Blend in
5. Play, make jokes, be funny
6. Build relationships
7. Become strong & competent
8. Develop vision & live it
9. Disrupt, destroy, or shock
10. Journey & experience new things
11. Seek information & understand
12. Do things right

QUESTION #4

You help beneficiaries & customers:

1. Craft something new
2. Exert control
3. Care for others
4. Be OK just as they are
5. Have a good time
6. Find & give love
7. Act courageously
8. Affect transformation
9. Break the rules
10. Maintain independence
11. Understand their world
12. Retain or renew faith

QUESTION #5

What would be the worst thing for your brand?

1. Having a mediocre vision
2. Being overthrown, chaos
3. Feeling selfishness, ingratitude
4. Standing out, being rejected
5. Being boring, boredom
6. Being unwanted, unloved
7. Wimping out, weakness
8. Unanticipated bad consequences
9. Being powerless, trivialized
10. Getting trapped, conforming
11. Being duped, ignorance
12. Punishment for something wrong

QUESTION #6

Which descriptions match your leaders?

1. Artist, innovator, dreamer
2. Boss, aristocrat, politician
3. Caretaker, altruist, saint
4. Guy/gal next door, every person
5. Jester, entertainer, clown
6. Partner, matchmaker, enthusiast
7. Champion, crusader, victor
8. Catalyst, shaman, healer
9. Outlaw, revolutionary, iconoclast
10. Seeker, adventurer, pilgrim
11. Expert, scholar, advisor
12. Purist, utopian, idealist

QUESTION #7

If your org was a person, it would be:

1. Steve Jobs or Frida Kahlo
2. Barack Obama or Catherine the Great
3. Mother Teresa or Desmond Tutu
4. Tom Hanks or Ellen DeGeneres
5. Trevor Noah or Whoopi Goldberg
6. Cleopatra or John Lennon
7. Batman or Serena Williams
8. Steven Spielberg or J.K. Rowling
9. Che Guevara or Malala Yousafzai
10. Indiana Jones or Amelia Earhart
11. Bill Gates or Maya Angelou
12. Forrest Gump or Doris Day

QUESTION #8

Which symbol best represents your brand?

1. 🎨
2. 👑
3. 🫱🏽‍🫲🏿
4. ⚖️
5. 🃏
6. 💘
7. ⚡
8. 🪄
9. ✊🏿
10. 🚀
11. 🦉
12. 🦌

QUESTION #9

In speaking & writing, your voice should be:

1. Inspirational, daring, provocative
2. Refined, articulate, commanding
3. Caring, warm, reassuring
4. Friendly, practical, authentic
5. Expressive, fun-loving, playful
6. Affectionate, rich, sensual
7. Motivational, direct, brave
8. Expansive, moving, mystical
9. Rebellious, raw, disruptive
10. Resourceful, exciting, fearless
11. Intelligent, authoritative, guiding
12. Simple, humble, optimistic

QUESTION #10

Which motto belongs on the office wall?

1. If it can be imagined, it can be created
2. Power is everything
3. Love your neighbor as yourself
4. All men & women are created equal
5. If it can’t dance, I’m not part of it
6. Love makes the world go ‘round
7. Where there’s a will, there’s a way
8. It can happen
9. Rules are meant to be broken
10. Don’t fence me in
11. The truth will set you free
12. Life is simple, simplicity is elegant

Now, total your scores.

Count all the times you wrote down #1, count all the times you wrote down #2, and so on. The numbers with your most votes correspond to the 12 brand character options below.

So if #3 got the most votes, you’re a Caregiver brand, etc.

1. CREATOR 🎨

Creativity & imagination
Create a thing of enduring value
Develop artistic control & skill

2. RULER 👑

Responsibility & leadership
Control & create prosperity
Use authority to influence

3. CAREGIVER 🫱🏽‍🫲🏿

Compassion & generosity
Protect people from harm
Do things for others

4. CITIZEN ⚖️

Realism & lack of pretense
Connect with others
Blend in

5. JESTER 🃏

Joy & fun
Live in the moment
Play, make jokes, be funny

6. LOVER 💘

Passion & appreciation
Attain intimacy
Build relationships

7. HERO ⚡

Competence & courage
Use mastery to improve the world
Become strong & competent

8. MAGICIAN 🪄

Finding win-win outcomes
Make dreams come true
Develop vision & live it

9. REBEL ✊🏿

Outrageous & being radical
Start a revolution
Disrupt, destroy, or shock

10. EXPLORER 🚀

Autonomy & ambition
Experience a fulfilling life
Journey & experience things

11. SAGE 🦉

Wisdom & intelligence
Understand & discover truth
Seek information & understand

12. INNOCENT 🦌

Faith & optimism
Be happy & enjoy paradise
Do things right

Then, live your character.

Most nonprofits are a mix of two. So get your team to take this quiz as you combine options. Or use an online tool like this one.

Then embody this character in your brand — from visuals to writing. Like these clients.

In closing.

Psychologist Carl Jung believed that some story characters are instantly familiar to us because they are primal and instinctive — part of a collective unconscious we all share.

The character (or archetype) is a much deeper reflection of the personality of a brand.

So choosing the right character(s) is essential. Brands that communicate with a strong brand personality break through the noise and maximize funding.

We all love stories, and we need them. We instinctively crave stories that can provide the human context for forces that are often vast, ancient, and abstract.

If you have only a few seconds to get your message across, you can do so more effectively if your message taps into the stories we all know already.

Whether you’re selling a soft drink or a presidential candidate, what your brand means to people is every bit as important as its function — if not more so.

Because meaning tells us this one feels right or this one’s for me. The meaning of a brand is its most precious and irreplaceable asset.

Your brand’s personality is its character.

Define it.