www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/us/12Y.html?no_interstitial
Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) One of the nation's most iconic nonprofit organizations, founded 166 years ago in England as the Young Men's Christian Association, is undergoing a major rebranding, adopting as its name the nickname everyone has used for generations. "It's a way of being warmer, more genuine, more welcoming, when you call yourself what everyone else calls you," said Kate Coleman, the organization's senior vice president and chief marketing officer. Soon a special dictionary will be necessary to help navigate all the abbreviations being adopted as formal names by companies and charities alike: KFC.
National Public Radio sent a note to all its staff members asking everyone to refer to it as NPR. "In many ways, we are just catching up to our audience," said Dana David Rehm, NPR's senior vice president for marketing and communications.
Checco Communications and author of "Branding for Success: A Roadmap for Raising the Visibility and Value of Your Nonprofit Organization." The Y's new name coincides with its efforts to emphasize the impact its programs have on youth, healthy living and communities. Its affiliate in Sioux City, Iowa, for instance, is working to change zoning regulations to promote sidewalks, which it hopes will encourage more people to walk. In low-income housing complexes in Houston, landlords have given the affiliate apartments for an after-school program to reduce vandalism by teenagers. "We're trying to simplify how we tell the story of what we do, and the name represents that," said Neil Nicoll, president and chief executive of the organization, whose membership peaked in 2007 and has remained flat. The challenge, Mr Disend said, is to continue to make consumers and donors aware of the history, tradition and meaning behind the letters. "It's particularly a danger in the nonprofit space, where the story and awareness of the history and mission is critical when trying to raise money," he said. Perhaps aware of that danger, most organizations that adopt abbreviations as names do so only for marketing and branding purposes.
oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has annoyed a number of British publications and political leaders. While the public seems to have no trouble embracing abbreviated names, the news media often remains stubbornly attached to old names.
AARP dropped its full name in 1999 and is frustrated that reporters still identify it as "formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons." "Some names die hard," said Michelle Alvarez, a spokeswoman for AARP, which changed its name in an acknowledgment that more than half of its nearly 40 million members are not retired.
Xe Services, the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, continues to be described with both names by most media outlets. Of course, organizations sometimes enable such bad habits. A version of this article appeared in print on July 12, 2010, on page A10 ofthe New York edition.
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