The ripple effect of anti-racist brand work

Anti-racist brand work can create change far beyond the brand itself. When organisations invest in anti-racist brand strategy, the impact can ripple into leadership, communications, fundraising, decision-making and organisational culture. In this article, Collette, our founder, explores what those ripple effects can look like, how to recognise them and how organisations can build the confidence, accountability and capability to sustain them.

One of the things I’ve come to appreciate most about anti-racist brand work is that the impact is rarely confined to the thing we were originally asked to work on.

A project might start with a brand strategy, a review of the brand, a new positioning or work around inclusive language and imagery. And yes, these things matter. However, when we do this anti-racist brand work with our clients at Brand by Me, we see something else happen alongside them. The conversations change. People start asking different questions. Teams become more confident about challenging things they might previously have let pass. Leaders begin to think differently about their own role and responsibility.

The impact starts to spread.

I was thinking about this a lot after our latest DISMANTLE masterclass, where we were talking about the reality of doing anti-racism work in organisations right now. 
We heard from Carol Flint, Head of Communications and Campaigns at The Ramblers, about how to navigate the reality, risks and responsibility of anti-racism work. And one thing she said really stood out.

“It was an interesting experience to reflect back [because after doing this work with Brand by Me] our organisation is so different…I actually had to think back quite hard to what was it like because it's not like that now at all”

You can read our full Ramblers case study here.

This work changes organisations. It changed Ramblers. 

It’s easy to focus on the immediate challenge in front of you: the difficult conversation, the pushback, the uncertainty about what to say or do. But when an organisation is able to move beyond these immediate challenges and stick with the work beyond the initial discomfort, they see results. And this is what we heard from Ramblers during our last masterclass.

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The work has to move beyond the person who started it

One of the biggest risks with anti-racism work is that it becomes the responsibility of a particular person or team.

It might be the DEI lead. It might be someone in communications. It might be the person who pushed for the work in the first place. Often, that person ends up carrying far more than their job description suggests: answering difficult questions, challenging decisions, keeping the issue on the agenda and trying to make sure the organisation doesn't quietly move on.

And that person becomes a bottleneck, at risk of burning out. 

What we want to see instead is responsibility spreading. That might mean making more space for reflection in team meetings, giving people the confidence to ask better questions, identifying people who can champion the work, or changing how fundraising, communications, programmes or partnerships are approached.

These things can look small from the outside. Collectively, they tell you something has shifted.

Anti-racism must become part of how the organisation works, rather than being seen as a project.

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It starts with brand strategy

Brand strategy is often treated as simply a communications exercise. What do we stand for? How do we position ourselves? What do we want people to think about us?

But the impact of the brand goes way beyond this. Your brand shapes and reflects the choices your organisation makes.

Whose experiences have shaped the strategy? Who is visible? Who is seen as an expert? Who is being excluded? What assumptions sit underneath your positioning? What responsibility does the organisation carry? And what happens when your values come up against the way things have always been done?

Those are brand questions, but they're not only brand questions.

That's why anti-racist brand strategy can be such a useful starting point for equity work. It gives an organisation a reason to examine some of the things it might otherwise take for granted. Once you start asking those questions properly, it's difficult to keep them contained within a brand document. They start showing up elsewhere.

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People become bolder and challenge themselves

Across our work, we've seen this happen in different ways. Teams make more space for reflection and learning. Communications teams start to challenge the language, imagery and stories they tell. People become more confident about questioning assumptions. Fundraising teams start interrogating the language and expectations built into funding systems. Leaders think more explicitly about who has the power to act.

Sometimes the change is in something that doesn't initially look like an anti-racism issue at all.

One participant in our recent masterclass talked about looking at the language used by funders and asking where there might be opportunities to challenge assumptions that disadvantage Black organisations and other grassroots organisations. That's a different question from simply asking whether your own funding application uses inclusive language.

It's asking: what are we reproducing through the systems we're working within, and where do we have the power to change them?

That's the kind of thinking we want anti-racist brand work to encourage.

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Accountability becomes everyone's business

Another part of the ripple effect is what happens to accountability.

At the beginning of a project, it's common to ask: who is responsible for this?

As the work becomes embedded, I think the better question is: how does this become part of everyone's responsibility?

That doesn't mean everyone suddenly becomes an anti-racism expert. It means people understand what their role is. It might become part of someone's objectives, something a leadership team regularly checks in on, or something built into team reflection and decision-making.

And importantly, it means the work continues after the consultant has left.

That's something I care about enormously in our work at Brand by Me. I don't want organisations to become dependent on us to keep doing the work for them. I want them to develop the confidence and capability to keep moving themselves.

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People lean into discomfort

None of this means the organisation suddenly becomes perfect.

In fact, sometimes the ripple effect means you become more aware of the things that aren't working. People start asking questions you weren't asking before. Someone challenges a decision. You realise that a process you've been using for years has consequences you hadn't considered.

That's not necessarily evidence that the work isn't working.

The important thing is what you do next. Can people have the conversation? Can leadership take responsibility? Can you change something when you realise it isn't working? Can you keep learning rather than becoming defensive?

That's much more useful than the impossible expectations of perfectionism.

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Look for the ripples

If you're doing anti-racist brand work, don't just measure the outputs. Look at what's changing around them.

Are people asking different questions? Are more people involved? Are people more confident about challenging racism? Are leaders taking more responsibility? Are you seeing changes in communications, fundraising, programmes or partnerships? Are people actually using what you've created? Is the work still happening six months or three years later?

That's where the real impact starts to show up.

Because an anti-racist brand isn't created by finding the perfect words. It's created when the things your organisation says about itself start to influence what it actually does.

And that’s exactly what happens when you work with Brand by Me.

If you're at the point where you know your organisation needs to move beyond statements and one-off training, get in touch with us to talk about what that could look like for your organisation. 

And if you're looking for a practical way to start building your understanding and confidence, join our DISMANTLE masterclass series.

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