Charity Finance Group (CFG), the UK's leading membership organisation for charity finance professionals, is delighted to announce a refresh of its brand identity.
This exciting evolution reflects CFG's commitment to supporting a diverse, vibrant and growing community in a changing world.
Key highlights of the brand refresh include a:
- bolder logo and strapline – The new logo, with its complete circle and central initials, signifies CFG’s collective strength. The new strapline – ‘Leading the way for charity finance’ – captures CFG's mission to be the leading voice and go-to body for charity finance, empowering all charitable organisations to grow their impact through excellent financial leadership.
- strong visual identity – new imagery draws on familiar data and finance imagery whilst spotlighting CFG's diverse community, emphasising that people are at the heart of all we do.
- new colour palette – with a brighter pink and the addition of new colours, including energetic blue and creative green, the new colour palette reflects the vibrancy of its membership and conveys CFG's commitment to innovation and growth.
- brand guidelines document – this 41-page guidance document sets out CFG's brand, mission and how to use our new brand assets.
Design agency Steers McGillan Eves worked with CFG to capture the charity's core values and community strength, translating these into a bolder, more inclusive visual identity.
In June, attendees of CFG’s Annual Conference were treated to a sneak preview of the new visual identity and logo across banners, screens and other visual materials. Rollout of the new branding will continue throughout 2024, with the creation of new digital assets and eventually a new website.
Caron Bradshaw, CEO, CFG commented: “It was fantastic to see the refreshed branding at our annual conference and the response was overwhelmingly positive. After some very challenging years, it projects a renewed energy and confidence for CFG. This refresh also marks a starting point for several ambitious projects that are now under way.”
Future projects include an overhaul of CFG’s finance system in 2024, and the digitisation of The Finance Journey development tool in 2025.
Caron added: “People are at the heart of everything we do and by ensuring we’re getting the basics right we will be able to deliver more of the services and products our communities, especially our members, love. It will also help us to reach many more people, inspiring financial leadership right across the UK.”
Talking about the background to the project, Emma Abbott, Communications Manager, CFG, said:
“Many charities have had to think much harder in the past few years about what they offer to their communities and how they connect and communicate with them. This was the right time for us to ask our members, supporters and other stakeholders about their perceptions of CFG and what they valued most about us.
“The message that came through loud and clear during the consultation phase was that our community really values CFG taking a bold lead on the charity finance issues that matter to them. They want us to continue being an effective voice on their behalf.
“This was our starting point for the brand refresh and we’re delighted to be launching CFG’s brand guidelines along with our new-look logo and visuals.”
Mark Armstrong, Marketing Manager, CFG, commented:
“It was a great process to be involved with and gave us the perfect opportunity to connect with a wide group of members and beyond to truly gather their opinions on CFG and how it has changed over the years. Our design agency Steers McGillan Eve were great partners in this, helping to deliver a brand evolution that feels personal and unique – and takes us into 2025 and beyond."
Editor’s notes
Further background to the project
Last summer, we predicted a strong surplus for 2024/25 so we felt it was the right time to do this work. We shortlisted three design agencies in 2023 and selected Steers McGillan Eves (SME).
They clearly understood our vision and mission, and shared our ambitions for CFG. They also kindly offered to match-fund our budget which meant we could benefit from a really thorough analysis of our existing brand.
This added value will be set out in our 2023/24 annual report and accounts. We set a budget of £10,000 and the project came in on budget, despite the impact of inflation during that period.
Thanks to SME's generous support we were able to do a comprehensive refresh that included a three-month long consultation with CFG’s stakeholders, to really get under the skin of our brand. The project ran for nine months in total.
SME devoted a significant amount of resources to this project and we're grateful to them. Having worked with us in the past, they could appreciate how we wanted to draw together the disparate elements of our brand into a cohesive identity.
In times of enormous change, it's really important that wider stakeholders, for example, policy-makers and MPs, who engage with us can easily understand who and what we stand for.
This brand refresh was always going to be an evolution not a revolution. From the start, we knew we wanted to go forward with our widely recognised name and trademark pink colour.
Our refreshed brand cements that we're here to support every person in every organisation, regardless of the stage that they're at on their charity finance journey.
About CFG
CFG is the charity and membership organisation that supports other charitable organisations to make the biggest difference possible. We do this by helping them to make their money and resources go further, by putting financial leadership at the heart of their decision-making.
Since 1987, when CFG was founded, we have evolved to welcome all finance professionals working for charitable and social change organisations. We also welcome non-finance professionals who recognise that we deliver greater impact when we are financially confident, trustworthy and dynamic.
Today, CFG’s community manages more than one third of the UK’s entire charity sector income. We are a diverse and inclusive community of people who are passionate about delivering impact through financial leadership. Together, we lead the way for charity finance.
Contacts
Emma Abbott, Communications Manager, CFG: emma.abbott@cfg.org.uk
Clare Mills, Deputy CEO, CFG: clare.mills@cfg.org.ukFurther
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