As Prostate Cancer drops 'Charity' from its name in favour of 'UK', is charity really such a dirty word?
The Prostate Cancer Charity this week rebranded itself as Prostate Cancer UK, with its marketing director explaining that it had dropped 'charity' from its name because the word "can carry connotations for consumers that it is an organisation where talented amateurs work" rather than professionals.
David Burrows, a partner at the direct marketing agency TDA, which counts a number of charity clients on its books, asks whether the word charity has become taboo.
What do Alzheimer’s research, asthma, blind veterans, bipolar depression, cancer research, cluster headache, dance, diabetes, girl guides, parenting, parkinson’s disease, surrogacy and young Muslims all have in common? The answer is that organisations that represent these causes have all added ‘UK’ to their names. (My favourite name is the Organisation for the Understanding of Cluster Headache – which is now OUCH UK.)
Since the formation of the mega-charity Cancer Research UK the public have begun to understand that seeing ‘UK’ on the end of a name means that it is a UK non-profit organisation. It perhaps also makes the trustees and senior managers of these organisations feel that they are an important, national force – even if their claim to cover the whole of the UK may not always be as strong as they would like.
So little wonder that the Prostate Cancer Charity has become Prostate Cancer UK. It is an obvious change to have made and follows a well-established trend. You could quibble and say ‘not exactly rocket science’, or ‘not very creative’ but I think you would be wrong. Charities need names that are simple and obvious and easily found via a Google search – particularly by people who are stressed because they or a loved one has just been diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening medical condition.
I think there are two interesting things about this change. The first is that by adding UK to their name this charity is more explicitly positioning itself in competition to Cancer Research UK. It is as if they are saying, “If you want to support general research, support them, but if you care about prostate cancer support us”. Whilst this competition always existed it is somehow more explicit now that the names of the charity are so similar. The difference between ‘Cancer Research UK’ and ‘Prostate Cancer UK’ appearing in a single will could be hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The other interesting aspect of this change is the fact that their Director of Marketing felt that the word ‘charity’ had significant drawbacks and conveyed amateurism. It is strange how cancer used to be a taboo word (remember the ‘big C’?) and now we proudly talk about cancer but are ashamed to mention charity. I don’t dispute that charity does have some negative baggage, however I think most people understand that Cancer Research UK and MacMillan are charities and I doubt that they also think that their scientists and nurses are second rate. Prostate Cancer UK may have dropped charity from their name but I hope they don’t ban the ‘c’ word form communications. If people know you are a charity they also will know that the good work will stop if they stop giving.
Rather than navel gaze about the word charity I think that Prostate Cancer UK needs to demonstrate that it is agile, effective, efficient and transparent, and obsessed by showing supporters how their giving makes a real difference. There is a charity in the USA who have been brilliant at doing this, and it looks to me like Prostate Cancer UK’s website design has been heavily influenced by the American charity’s website design.
What is the name of this modern, dynamic American non-profit organisation? Charity: water. I rest my case, m’lud.