Taglines, those pithy one-liners that follow the name of an organization, can let people know within two seconds what your organization does and how it helps them.

Yet too many companies don’t have a tagline because they can’t think of something clever.

If that’s you, Nancy Schwartz’s 2010 Tagline Contest for Nonprofits will inspire you. Nancy is a nonprofit marketing expert, and she’s sponsoring the third annual Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Award (a.k.a. The Taggies).

“A strong tagline does double-duty—working to extend your organization’s name and mission, while delivering a focused, memorable and repeatable message to your base. It’s one of your most basic, and effective, marketing tools, but a GettingAttention.org survey showed that 72% of nonprofit organizations don’t have a tagline or rate theirs as performing poorly.”

You can see a complete list of 2008 and 2009 tagline winners here.

These are some of my favorites:

Montana Historical Society:
Big Sky.  Big Land.  Big History.

Texas Nonprofits:
Building community deep in the hearts of Texans

The United Negro College Fund:
A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste ®

PA Breast Cancer Coalition:
Finding a curenow…so our daughters won’t have to

Nothing But Nets:
Send a net.  Save a life.

Homeboy Industries:
Nothing Stops A Bullet Like A Job

NYC Theatre Spaces:
Where Actors Find Their Space

If you want to enter this year’s competition, turn it into a fun contest for your organization. Ask your employees, volunteers and others to submit ideas for the your tagline, and then award a prize for the best one. Once you’ve chosen it, enter it in the 2010 Taggies contest.

Do you have a clever tagline? If so, share it here.