In 21st century, in the world of social media and internet, where news and information travel very fast and everything what an organisation does is carefully scanned, and where individuals discuss matters related to an organisation with clear link to the organisation’s brand name and where an organisation cannot anymore control communication in the way it once was able to do, reputation and brand are increasingly acknowledged as valuable organisational assets. Branding and reputation management are significant functions of an organisation and all organisations whether they are big or small, for-profit or non-profit, need to find means to develop and manage their reputation and brand as well as to protect them since it is easier to build and foster reputation and brand than to recover them.

Corporate communication can be used for building, developing, and sustaining a corporate brand as well as a corporate reputation. Organisations can use corporate communication and its different tools as means when communicating and creating attractive and specific images with their stakeholders. Through coherent corporate communication organisations can convey their identity cues and deliver brand signals, and that way have an influence on the perspectives of the stakeholders i.e. on the way how the stakeholders see the organisation.

The objective of the thesis is to find out what are the means of corporate communication which can be used for fostering reputation and brand. This thesis is a design research which empirical part consists of a portfolio, a set of three assignments. The topic for this thesis arose at Nyyti ry, which is the workplace of the writer of the thesis.

The thesis provides the introduction of the target organisation, Nyyti ry and its operational environment as well an overview of non-profit organisations. The theoretical part addresses corporate reputation, corporate branding, and corporate communication. All of these concepts are viewed also from a non-profit organisation’s perspective. The role of communication in fostering corporate reputation and brand is also discussed. The portfolio assignments, which are considered as the means of communication development, form the empirical part of the thesis.

The findings indicate that a communication strategy acts as a strategic means of fostering existing reputation and brand of an organisation and that an organisation can influence its reputation by influencing the perceptions of the stakeholders by using the means of communication. It is also indicated that an organisation needs to prepare for and foresee potential crises and compose a crisis communication plan to minimise the potential damage to reputation and brand. The findings also show that corporate brand management needs to concentrate on improving weak and unsatisfactory areas and misconceptions as well as narrowing the possible gaps existing between the organisation’s and its internal and external stakeholders’ perceptions.