About ACFIM
Welcome our New Identity
We are very excited to announce that our new Alliance for Finance Monitoring brand- ACFIM New Logo is finally here. The core idea of our new identity is the power of alliances to foster inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability in political financing for sustainable democracy in Africa.
Introducing ACFIM Official Logo
FAQs
- Why has ACFIM rebranded?
- Why expand to the entire continent?
- What is ACFIM’s new vision, mission and values?
- What ACFIM brand elements are changing?
- What does the new ACFIM logo mean?
- What’s next for ACFIM?
Why has ACFIM rebranded?
You would not dress an 8-year-old child in the clothes of an infant, now, would you? Right, they won’t fit. Similarly, ACFIM was wearing the same ‘clothes’ since it came to be in 2016 and meanwhile it outgrew them.
Despite ACFIM’s transition outside of Uganda and the overall immense transformation the organisation was going through, the branding never evolved. As a result, the old look didn’t match what ACFIM had become over recent years.
And that is why ACFIM has rebranded. The brand introduced today has been months in the making of an identity designed to better connect and communicate with our audience and represent the work we do.
But to grasp why a full rebranding was necessary, let’s go back to ACFIM’s humble beginnings.
ACFIM started out in 2016 in Uganda as a non-profit organization focused on solving one problem: commercialized politics. The subject of commercialized politics has now become a prominent subject of concern in the region with more awareness and voices realizing the need to do away with a vice killing democracy on the continent.
Since then, ACFIM has monitored two general elections and over 20 local government elections in Uganda. ACFIM has also led the Campaign finance legislation agenda that reached the floor of Uganda’s parliament.
ACFIM’s new brand identity brings an exciting change that better reflects the organization’s passion for promoting and strengthening political integrity for sustainable democracy in Africa.
The rebrand represents a significant step in our growth and transition into a pan-African organization that fosters inclusiveness, transparency and accountability in political financing in Africa. The new brand includes new values, a revamp of the company’s website and a new logo. The new brand assets bring a clearer visual identity with elements which utilize simple, yet eye-catching graphics.
While we have grown exponentially and will continue to grow, a few things remain unchanged: our unwavering commitment to put an end to commercialized politics in Africa.
Why expand to the entire continent?
Short answer: in today’s Africa, one of the greatest challenges to democracy is commercialised politics, a challenge not only unique to Uganda.
Africa is considered the poorest continent and yet is home to some of the most expensive elections in the world. How come? Well, a lot of dirty money and proceeds from corruption find their way into campaign finance which most times goes un-regulated. Look at Madagascar for example. The country’s 2018 elections were considered to be one of the most expensive in the world even when hundreds or even thousands of Malagasies live in extreme poverty at 75%.
Meanwhile, the demand by stakeholders for ACFIM to monitor political finance in other countries across the continent also kept rising. This was because many electoral observation missions in Africa focused on obvious observation election angles ignoring a critical and often neglected area, campaign finance. We also observed that there is still a noticeable gap in campaign finance legislation across the continent hence, ACFIM found it not only necessary but vital to widen its scope to the rest of the continent.
How will ACFIM do this with only offices in Uganda?
Has ACFIM left Uganda entirely?
What makes ACFIM unique?
What is ACFIM’s new vision, mission and values?
ACFIM’s Vision 2040:
Mission:
To promote and strengthen political integrity by fostering inclusiveness, transparency and accountability in political financing for sustainable democracy in Africa. We do this through knowledge generation, civic engagement and formulating policy solutions.
ACFIM'S Golden Values:
- Ubuntu
- Integrity
- Transparency & Accountability
- Excellence
- Non-discrimination
What ACFIM brand elements are changing?
- The Logo
- The colours and patterns
- The fonts
- The layout and illustration styles
In other words, every brand element is changing, which makes this a complete rebrand.
What Does the new ACFIM logo mean?
The Logo
ACFIM’s new logo builds on obvious elements from the ‘old’ logo. If you look closely at the ‘old’ ACFIM logo, you notice the bold typography. And yes, boldness is a crucial ingredient for success. So, we took the inspiration of ‘boldness’ from the old logo and alternated the previous “Monitoring money in Politics” tagline with the full ACFIM acronym, “Alliance for Finance Monitoring”.
Old Logo
New Logo
It was therefore important that ACFIM’s new brand translated the element of Alliance. To do this ACFIM incorporated a visual motif sandwiching figure heads representing members and partners in between colourful lines reminiscent of locked arms—a visual symbol of Alliance.
Still inspired by the old brand idea of boldness, ACFIM created a brighter, bolder, and colourful design to communicate this better. Our new logo now perfectly visually reflects everything the logo did not.
New Colors
The updated branding is infused with energy, colour, and boldness that communicates this passion and zest we have to achieve our vision of promoting political integrity in Africa.
With a mission to achieve sustainable democracy and electoral integrity in Africa, ACFIM ditched her old maroon and dominant purple branding (usually associated with patriarchy and monarchism) and embraced a palette of Nile blue, Debian red, and, well, everything (10 colours to be exact).
Font
Illustrations and layout
To position the brand, ACFIM’s identity uses custom illustrations and dynamic patterns to express and help visualize her work.
This new brand also fits into the modern age and will connect better with Africa’s younger demographic. The typography, and imagery also brings a livelier energy to ACFIM’s website and associated online products.
What’s next for ACFIM’s new brand?
The visual identity introduced today is a foundation that better communicates who ACFIM is and what it does.
We have rebranded some of the assets like our homepage, but some of our previous publications and products still rely on the old branding. Moving forward, we will rebrand all our existing products. And of course, we will build any new products and publications using the new brand identity.
Future prospects?
- Hosts the African Election Observers Network (AfEONET)
- Is also a member of the Global Democracy Coalition (GDC)
- Member of Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors (GNDEM)
- Member of Eastern and Horn of Africa Election Observers Network (E-HORN)
- Member of East African Civil Society Forum (EACSOF)
If you want to follow our new journey, you can find us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter! Also explore our new website and learn more about the work ACFIM does. Please do not hesitate get in touch with us at acfim@acfim.org.
