How One Brand Got A Billion Rising

This Valentine’s day, February 14^th 2013, the V-Day “movement” to end violence against women might have actually achieved a new goal it set for itself with its One Billion Rising campaign. In more than 200 countries, men and women took to the streets to speak out and according to V-Day, a billion people participated, including on social media.

How did a 15-year old organization with a a full-time staff of 13 and a budget of about $3.5 million mobilize a billion people around the planet? By doing things that many nonprofits shy away from – but maybe should consider trying.

• Not calling itself anorganization: On its website, V-Day refers to itself as a movement, a catalyst, a community. Its mission uses descriptors like “a vision”, “a demand” and more. But nowhere does it call itself a nonprofit or even an organization. (Though in fact it is a registered 501c3 in the US). Words are powerful, and positioning itself as a movement is smart marketing, because “movement” is invitational and participatory. And the language on the V-day website inspires partnership – and fun. 
• A transparent, flexible framework: Words are powerful but they aren’t enough. They need to be backed up with a structure and culture that in fact, does support movement building. In V-Day’s case they have made it incredibly easy for anyone to use its core program – the play “The Vagina Monologues” by founder Eve Ensler. The premise is that by deliberately sharing its most valuable asset, they can reach their ultimate goal, and that is the greater good.
  It’s completely contrary to a corporate/business model and a challenging one for many nonprofits. But it seems to be viable. In the 15 years since V-Day was founded, it has mobilized more than $100 million to local groups to support their efforts to end violence against women. Dollars and cents aside, V-Day’s work to raise public awareness is extraordinary.
• Un-branding: V-Day is no Nike but it is an incredibly well recognized brand with a fiercely loyal following.  Most companies and nonprofits struggle with maintaining control over their brand so it isn’t diluted – which is important. Rather than being proprietary and rigid about its brand, V-Day has made usage of their brand identity easy and replicable, with enough flexibility to be adapted across countries. For example, for the One Billion Rising campaign, marketing materials of every kind – from Facebook covers to logos – were available to anyone, anywhere to download and use.
  Though it defies logic, it is precisely because they have made it easy to use and replicate that their brand remains strong.

V-Day isn’t a model for every nonprofit. It does not provide direct services and does little legislative or policy advocacy, which makes it possible to build “movement” with allies across the spectrum. But its success heralds the changes taking place in both the for-profit and the non-profit worlds – the movement towards partnership, transparency and flexibility.