12 Best Nonprofit Graphic Design Tools to Amplify Your Cause
Your nonprofit probably relies on a variety of tools and software each day. From fundraising software to web development platforms, these tools keep your organization up and running. But what about tools that improve your nonprofit’s graphic design offerings?
Graphic design is a pain point for many nonprofits. Design software can be expensive and complicated, leaving many nonprofit professionals frustrated and without quality graphics. However, there are plenty of tools out there that don’t require a degree in graphic design to use.
Plus, turning to professional nonprofit graphic designers can simplify the process even further. They’ll do all the heavy lifting, so your nonprofit marketing team can focus on its strategies rather than learning how to use different design tools.
To get you started on your marketing transformation, we’ll explore the basics of nonprofit graphic design and some of the best tools and services to consider. Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Why invest in nonprofit graphic design tools or services?
- Our Recommended Nonprofit Graphic Design Service
- Top Nonprofit Graphic Design Tools
- Still not sure about using nonprofit graphic design tools?
If your head is already spinning with questions about numbers and pricing, don’t worry just yet. Most graphic design tools and services offer free or reduced prices for nonprofits, ensuring your team can find a tool that fits within its budget.
If you’d like to skip learning about these tools altogether, consider turning to the professional designers at Kwala. As our recommended graphic design company, they understand the ins and outs of nonprofit graphic design and can bring your design visions to life.
Otherwise, let’s get started with a bit about why nonprofit graphic design matters.
Why invest in nonprofit graphic design tools or services?
Nonprofit marketing keeps your organization alive. Marketing shares your message with the people who want to support your mission, bringing in new donors. Oftentimes, this marketing relies on attractive visual elements to promote your organization, matching gift opportunities, and fundraisers.
In addition to catching supporters’ eyes with your marketing materials, graphics provide important benefits to your organization. Designing logos, social media posts, or flyers that look clean and professional can:
- Market your nonprofit as a trustworthy organization.
- Create cohesive, memorable branding.
- Capture prospective supporters’ attention.
- Make your content more skimmable for a fast-paced audience.
- Create fresh and engaging social media posts.
Compelling graphic design does more than wrap your message in a pretty package. Effective graphic design organizes your content in the most efficient way possible, sending your supporters crystal clear messaging. Employ quality graphics in your messaging strategy to engage your audience and effectively communicate with them.
To create these designs, you can’t rely on just any graphic design tools. You’ll need ones that provide the exact features you need, whether you want to create artistic designs, edit original photographs, or create powerful videos.
Oftentimes, nonprofits are better off relying on expert designers who can deliver professional-grade designs. Then, there’s no learning curve required for your team. All you’ll need to do is communicate what you’d like your designer to create, and they’ll bring your vision to life.
Our Recommended Nonprofit Graphic Design Service
If your team doesn’t have the time to create its own designs, consider turning to nonprofit graphic design professionals. As our recommended service provider, Kwala can be a powerful resource for your nonprofit. After years working in the nonprofit sector, their team is devoted to pushing worthwhile causes forward with their professional-grade designs.
This service produces high-quality graphic design content with mission-driven organizations in mind. Between digital and print marketing materials, your team can get custom graphics that communicate your cause and stand out to supporters. Some of their core services include:
- Fundraising flyers and brochures
- Product designs for t-shirts, hats, and more
- Digital ad and social media graphics
- Website graphics
- Letterheads
Whether you’re sending donor thank-you letters or promoting an upcoming fundraiser, your nonprofit can get custom designs for anything you need by working with Kwala’s talented team of graphic designers.
Why Kwala Stands Out
Kwala’s our top recommendation for several reasons! Here’s what you can expect by relying on them for your nonprofit graphic design needs:
- Nonprofit-focused skills. Kwala works exclusively with mission-driven organizations. They understand the sector and what stands out to supporters in both digital and print materials. That means you won’t have to spend time helping them understand your mission and the best way to communicate it through design.
- Unlimited designs and revisions. Kwala’s customer service is unparalleled. Their team is devoted to producing nonprofit graphic designs that you’re happy with. Each month, you can request as many designs as you want. If you’re unhappy with the results, they’ll keep redesigning until you’re satisfied.
- Dedicated graphic designer. When you partner with Kwala, you’ll be paired with a dedicated designer who will be responsible for handling all your nonprofit graphic design needs. Over time, they’ll get to know your mission on a deeper level, and you’ll be able to build synergy with them as you communicate on a regular basis.
Creating your own graphics can be difficult. Challenges like being short on time, understaffed, or lacking expertise make creating your own designs seem impossible. With services like Kwala’s, you can shift your attention back to accomplishing your mission-based goals.
Top Nonprofit Graphic Design Tools
Your team might have time to undertake its own design projects, or maybe you’re curious about some of the nonprofit graphic design tools that professionals use. In any case, we’ve curated a list of some of the most popular platforms you can use to create graphics for your organization.
Canva
Canva is a graphic design tool complete with templates, ready-to-use graphics, and a stock photo library. With Canva’s extensive range of templates, you can create social media posts, flyers, brochures, and more with just a few clicks. These templates are fully customizable, so you can tweak and edit them to fit your nonprofit’s branding.
Canva offers a free version of its software that includes access to most of the basic editing tools as well as some graphics and photos. However, Canva offers a nonprofit program in which nonprofits are eligible to receive access to a free Canva Pro account.
Whether you want to create a design from scratch or drag and drop your content into a template, Canva is a versatile and beginner-friendly option for nonprofits.
VistaCreate
VistaCreate, formerly known as Crello, is a graphic design tool with templates, stock photos, and graphics. While VistaCreate is very similar to Canva, it focuses more on providing templates for social media content.
With VistaCreate, social media design templates are front and center, making it quicker and easier to create these posts. For nonprofits with a heavy focus on social media, this tool makes designing content for campaigns and projects a breeze. Easy access to a variety of social media post templates keeps your pages fresh and engaging for your supporters.
You’ll be able to:
- Access their library of more than 70 million photos, videos, and vectors
- Collaborate with up to 10 members on your projects
- Remove image backgrounds, create your own stickers, and resize designs
VistaCreate offers both free and paid plans. With the premium plan, your organization gains access to unlimited downloads and all of VistaCreate’s templates and photos. Fortunately, nonprofits are eligible for free VistaCreate Pro plans.
Colourcode
Colourcode is a free color palette generator. With Colourcode, you can build your own color schemes or use preset themes like the monochromatic palette.
Whether you are getting started by creating a new brand, rebranding an existing organization, or designing a color scheme for a new project, choosing a color palette is essential.
This nonprofit graphic design tool positions the colors next to each other so you can visualize how they look together. Getting a good idea of how the colors mesh ensures that you don’t end up printing a color scheme you don’t like on hundreds of shirts.
DesignMantic
DesignMantic is primarily a logo maker but has templates for other nonprofit needs like t-shirts, flyers, and websites.
To get started, simply select the service you need, your organization’s name, and the industry you belong to. DesignMantic will generate logo designs based on this information, but you are free to modify the design until you’re satisfied.
To customize your logo, this nonprofit graphic design tool allows you to:
- Add your tagline
- Adjust the colors to match your brand
- Include additional shapes or text
- Change the position of the text and logo shape
DesignMantic allows you to create as many logos as you like at no charge. Typically, the service requires payment for any logos you decide to use. However, nonprofits can apply to receive a free logo.
Pexels
Pexels is a service that offers royalty-free stock photos and videos. Anything featured on the site is entirely free to use, and you can edit the photos and videos as much as you like.
When you take the time to choose photos that accurately communicate your cause, these images will enrich your nonprofit’s marketing materials and social media presence. To take it one step further, recoloring photos or cropping out anything you don’t love is a great way to adapt stock photos to fit your nonprofit’s branding.
Services like Pexels cut out the complicated steps of sourcing images, so you don’t have to take photos yourself or license another photographer’s work.
Adobe Express
Previously known as Adobe Spark, Adobe Express is a program that’s similar to Photoshop and Illustrator. Available on both the web and mobile devices, this program offers:
- Thousands of templates for almost any purpose or occasion
- Adobe Stock royalty-free photos
- A full library of Adobe Fonts
- Intuitive tools that let you remove backgrounds, animate text, and more
Whether your organization needs Twitter banners, Instagram Story slides, or fundraising flyers, Adobe Express likely has something to fit your needs.
Because it is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Express operates similarly to other Adobe programs. This tool is a great option if someone on your team has previous experience using Adobe software but prefers a more streamlined, affordable tool.
Adobe offers a free version of this program with access to some of the templates, editing tools, and stock photos included in the full plan. The paid monthly subscription unlocks all of these options as well as other features like social media planning and scheduling. Don’t forget to enroll in Adobe’s nonprofit discount program if you are planning to use the paid option.
Pixlr
Pixlr is a platform that’s similar to Photoshop and has similar offerings to Adobe Express. However, Pixlr operates solely online and does not require a software download. If your nonprofit prefers a lightweight graphic design tool that can live in a browser, Pixlr is perfect.
There are different versions of Pixlr tailored to different needs, with some geared towards design professionals or video editing. Depending on your nonprofit’s graphic design needs, some features you might find useful include:
- Basic editing tools such as cropping and a color picker
- Filters to transform your photos into artistic visuals
- Background removal tools, which are great for creating product images
- Professionally-crafted design templates, which are great for creating Instagram stories, brochures, presentations, and more
Pixlr X is a solid place for nonprofits to start because it is a stress-free, simple way to create designs. This tool offers both free and paid premium options. The paid plan unlocks more features, such as more templates, fonts, overlays, and exclusive video tutorials.
BeFunky
BeFunky is a photo editor that simplifies many popular photo editing tools. For example, you can implement common photo edits such as:
- Cropping
- Resizing
- Batch editing multiple photos at once
- Removing backgrounds
- Retouching
- Generating photo collages
You can edit photos for your social media accounts or website in just a few clicks with BeFunky’s no-fuss editor. The site offers a free version of its software, but it has limited editing capabilities. BeFunky’s paid plan grants access to all of its quick and easy editing tools.
Tectonic
Tectonic is a full-service video production company that helps nonprofits create high-quality videos.
In the world of social media and rapidly-developing technology, video marketing is a powerful force. In fact, marketing experts estimate that 93% of companies acquired new customers because of social media videos. Nonprofits can take notes from this strategy by incorporating video content into their marketing strategies.
While creating videos for your nonprofit might seem time and labor-intensive, finding the right tool for your nonprofit makes the task manageable. Tectonic has worked with mission-driven organizations to produce videos like:
- Virtual fundraising events for community development organizations
- Marketing collateral for international development organizations
- Advocacy campaigns for human rights organizations
- VR experiences for health-related nonprofits
This service helps nonprofits adapt to the current media landscape. Tectonic has experience creating hundreds of videos for nonprofit organizations around the globe. Because their services are tailored to the unique needs and challenges of mission-driven organizations, the videos they produce maximize nonprofit success.
Animaker
Animaker is a platform that makes creating short videos simple. Within its software, you can:
- Create short animated videos
- Make customized GIFs
- Upload and edit videos in 4K video quality
- Leverage more than 100 million stock videos and photos
- Kickstart the design process with thousands of templates
Designed for beginners, this is a great tool if your organization needs to create video explainers or other clips.
Pricing for Animaker changes depending on your needs. While the tool offers a free version, it is limited in terms of editing capabilities and storage. Your nonprofit might find more value in the tools provided in one of the paid plans.
Morweb
Morweb is a CMS and web design agency all in one. This agency helps nonprofits spread their vision through award-winning digital design. If you are looking for a team that can help your organization build its website and grow its digital presence, look no further than Morweb.
Gain access to Morweb’s nonprofit CMS to develop and manage your website with custom tools and support catered to the nonprofit space, such as:
- Drag-and-drop editing tools that eliminate the need for coding
- A menu manager that allows you to add, edit, and reorganize your navigation menus
- Premium widgets and page layouts that simplify the design process
- Instant mobile-responsive designs, which make sure your site will load quickly and look crisp on any device
If your team needs help creating a custom website, their expert design team will step in. They have a proven track record of creating web designs that strategically present engagement opportunities and drive users to get involved in mission-driven causes.
All in all, Morweb is a combination of expert services and traditional web design tools, making its offerings factor into your nonprofit’s overall branding and digital strategy. Morweb’s professionals help guide customers through their process to create websites that address your project’s goals. Using Morweb’s fully branded, user-friendly websites in tandem with other graphic design projects adds cohesion and value to your nonprofit marketing.
Still not sure about using nonprofit graphic design tools?
Creating graphics isn’t feasible for every nonprofit organization. If your organization is understaffed, short on time, or inexperienced with graphic design, exploring external options is the best choice. However, working with agencies can be frustrating, especially if they don’t understand the unique nonprofit landscape.
Nonprofit graphic design services remove the guesswork and added stress that comes with working with a traditional agency. As we mentioned earlier, we recommend Kwala, a subscription-based service made up of a small team of talented graphic designers. This team is dedicated to helping mission-driven organizations succeed with professional visual elements.
So, what makes Kwala different? There are a few things that set this service apart from other graphic design agencies and tools:
- Designers know and understand nonprofits. Kwala is tailor-made for mission-driven organizations. Designers have extensive knowledge of the quirks and complexities of the nonprofit sector, and they understand your organization’s goals. The graphics they design reflect this knowledge, setting your organization up to receive positive donor reactions.
- Nonprofits can focus on what matters — their mission. This service takes on graphic design responsibilities, so you don’t have to. Since you won’t have to jump through hoops with an agency or design your own graphics, you can get back to fulfilling your mission.
- Your dollar is protected. Kwala prioritizes making the most of your time and money. With flat pricing and a 21-day money-back guarantee, you only have to pay for designs you love without any sneaky fees.
If your nonprofit is struggling with meeting its graphic design needs, consider contacting a graphic design service. These services are the most convenient, stress-free way to get quality, custom graphics.
Quality graphic design is crucial to engaging both current and potential supporters with your nonprofit’s mission. The internet is host to dozens — if not hundreds — of free and affordable nonprofit graphic design tools. However, if making graphics yourself seems overwhelming, using Kwala’s graphic design services for mission-driven organizations cuts out the stress while providing you with custom graphics.
Additional Nonprofit Graphic Design Resources
Your organization’s marketing strategy is a key part of expanding your reach and growing your pool of donors. Getting started with the proper graphic design tools is a solid first step to creating cohesive visual elements for your organization, but there is so much more to learn.
If you’re looking for quality designs and don’t have time to learn how to use different tools, remember you always have the option to turn to professional designers! Those with nonprofit expertise will know what it takes to encapsulate your brand and communicate your cause to supporters through powerful visuals.
In the meantime, check out these resources to discover more about branding strategies and graphic design best practices:
- Take Your Nonprofit Branding Strategy To The Next Level. Want to discover more about how to develop your nonprofit’s branding strategy? This guide explores various branding strategies to help you do the most for your mission.
- 100+ Best Nonprofit Logos To Inspire Your Team. Puzzled over creating a logo for your cause? Learn about the most important considerations for logo design with these examples and tips from the Kwala team.
- How to Choose Stock Photos (That Won’t Hurt Your Brand). With the millions of stock photos that exist on the internet, choosing one for your organization can be overwhelming. These tips teach you how to choose stock photos that accurately represent your mission and branding.
