Following Obama’s historic election win, it makes sense to review the philanthropic brands that are currently doing well in the market and are poised to develop in 09. With Obama’s “O” trademark, there was a sense of style, simplicity and freshness almost overnight.

Via Bnet.com, in terms of brand narrative, Obama’s chief strategist wanted his candidate’s logo/brand to convey “hope.” More of an umbrella term than a focused issue or cause, this principle should resonate with wealth-inspired philanthropies.

Over the course of 2009, where are the New Medici giving back and how? This category will review and highlight humanitarians: are they doing right by their brand? Who are the innovative humanitarians, and who needs help, so to speak?

We’ll cull through the best (and worst) and see who creates the flawless, the immediate narrative feel, the ubiquitous placement, the logo that adapts to different situations and packages itself most consistently.

We’ll look at various top-tier philanthropies in a series of posts on how to create the best foundation. And we’ll look at how these groups can work together better - like Gates and Buffet have done - to create a shared network of good; and hence, save on the branding/marketing costs.

Last, branding resources abound, GettingAttention.org’s recent non-profit tagline contest features a great starting point for taglines: a 72-page free download. We’ll outline these.

Over the course of a year, we’re looking forward to creating a New Medici’s toolkit for starting a humanitarian foundation.