By Carmen McDonald, Executive Director

This op-ed was originally published in the Spring 2026 edition of Management, Information, and Excellence (MIE)’s Journal. It was published as part of a special feature on leading through change. 

When I started at Survivor Justice Center 13 years ago, the executive director at the time had been toying with the idea of a rebrand for years. Although we were founded as Model Cities in 1971, we had been operating as the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice for over three decades. But the name no longer accurately represented our services, nor did it make us stand out from the slew of other legal aid nonprofits.

Yet as the organization grew, the name stayed the same. Even when we changed our mission statement to focus on survivors, we could not commit to a name change. It never felt like the right time. And when we finally started planning, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Our plans came to a screeching halt.

When I took over as executive director in 2023, it felt like it was up to me to get the rebrand across the finish line. Luckily, I’m someone who likes to get things done.

I would be the first person to tell you that it was not an easy process. I often felt like the middle of the hourglass, stuck between board and staff, disseminating information and opinions—and there were lots of opinions.

There were some staff, board members, and alumni who were outspoken against the change. I even got wind from someone at the court at one point who was worried that our new name could be misconstrued as bias.

As the (new) Executive Director, it was my job to help people understand the vision. I focused on bridge-building; I spent hours explaining the history behind the rebrand and the amount of research that went into developing our new name and logo. I was not flying by the seat of my pants. I was supported by our Director of Development, the president of our Board of Directors, and others who felt strongly that this change was needed.

I learned so much from this process that I didn’t read about or discover until I was in the thick of it. Here are some of the things I wish someone had told me before starting our rebrand:

1. Don’t let the process linger — jump in! We waited over a decade to truly begin the rebrand process and, despite the initial hesitancy, at the end of it, everyone was ecstatic that we had a fresh name and logo. As an organization, we look back on the process and wish we had started sooner!

There is a lot of focus on being prepared and ready to take on a rebrand, which I completely agree with. But at some point, there is no more preparation to do and you cannot let a fear of failure or regret stop you from starting the project.

2. Choose your consultant carefully. It is important that the team helping you with your rebrand, especially any consultants or outside support you bring in, truly understands what your organization does. At one point, a consultant bizarrely suggested we change our name to Blue Sky. The name lives on in infamy around our office, a perfect example of what can go wrong when you don’t research your consultant.

We met with several consultants and, when we felt like they were not the right match, we met with more. We spoke to other similar organizations who had gone through rebrands to see who they had worked with. It was imperative that whoever helped guide our rebrand truly understood the mission and scope of our work.

3. Designate a key decision maker (hint: as Executive Director, it will probably be you). There must be someone leading the process who is willing to make a decision and stick with it, for better or worse. When we started looking at logo examples, it felt like constant back-and-forth on several issues like deciding whether we should include the color purple. To me, it was imperative that our logo include purple in it, as it is significant to survivors of domestic violence. After many conversations and logo mock-ups, I stood my ground and told everyone that our logo needed to have purple in it.

There will be some grumbling and groaning, but if you don’t have a key decision maker, conversations will just linger on for all eternity. You will never feel as if you have a solid conclusion. Sometimes, it will take you making a final decision to keep the project moving.

4. Keep staff engaged. When you are overwhelmed with so many opinions, it may seem counterintuitive to include your staff; for me, it meant I had about 40 more people whose thoughts I had to consider. But they know your clients and the work you do inside and out. Ultimately, they will be the ones who showcase the agency throughout the community.

You do staff a major disservice when you wait until the process is finished to discuss the changes with them. Don’t wait until the end to get their thoughts when everything is completed. Invite them to be part of the process.

5. Know the why. No one decides to go through a rebrand for fun. We do it because we want to accurately represent ourselves to our clients and community. With every decision, it is important to remember why you are doing this. We spent a lot of time thinking about how these changes could impact our clients, staff, and donors and whether we would isolate ourselves from the broader legal aid community. We did survey after survey, with staff, community members, and other stakeholders, so we knew their impressions of us and our services.

When you know the why, it becomes easier to make decisions, and you become more confident in the decisions you make. When you encounter pushback, you are able to showcase your thought process behind it and why it all matters in the first place.

A rebrand is a huge undertaking and the amount of change your organization will go through cannot be understated. It is more than just a new name and logo (as I naively thought before beginning); it is new colors, fonts, maybe even a revised mission statement. You have to dedicate hours to reestablishing yourself and ensuring your old brand connects to your new brand. Even now, two years after we launched our new name, I sometimes still introduce myself as “Executive Director of Survivor Justice Center, formerly known as LACLJ.”

But it was necessary and it has been an amazingly positive experience. None of our biggest fears came true. When we ran our annual employee survey, most staff indicated that the rebrand had either minimal or no effect on their day-to-day work. Which was our goal—to not interrupt critical service delivery.

Our rebrand allows us to better position ourselves in grant applications, media features, and our community. We now have a name that accurately represents our mission and clients. It says who we serve and what we do: we help survivors secure justice.

After a two-year rebrand process, I am proud of my team and every decision we made. I am especially proud to be able to call myself the Executive Director of Survivor Justice Center.