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#RepresentationMatters
Finding compelling, inclusive stock photography for your nonprofit’s visual storytelling can be tough—our free guide makes it easier.
Download this free guide with nearly 50 curated links to free and paid stock photo collections featuring real people—Black and brown individuals, older adults, people with disabilities, and those who are transgender, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming—just like the people in your community.
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Coming Soon:
Build your Nonprofit’s Brand with Canva
Canva is the perfect tool to support your nonprofit’s brand-building efforts, but how do you begin? What steps should your organization take to lay the foundation for a strong brand presence?
As of September 2024, we are updating this guide to better reflect the most current interface in Canva, including the newest features and functions.
Tools I Love
Over 25 years experience as a professional communicator and marketer have helped me to clarify my preferred tools* to support my work with nonprofit organizations. I’m excited to share a few of them with you!
*Please note that products/services marked with an asterisk may include affiliate or referral links, which means I may earn a commission or service credit if you use the link to establish a paid account or to register for a service trial. I only recommend and share tools that I use and love. Please consult this Disclaimer for more on my use of affiliate and referral links.
Canva
My favorite tool for nonprofit content creation is, of course, Canva!
Canva makes it easy for nonprofits to produce brand assets for visual storytelling that have a consistent look and feel.
I also love that Pro accounts are available for FREE to eligible nonprofit and charitable organizations!
LOVE!
Adobe Creative Cloud
I believe in using the best tool for the job, so, in addition to Canva, I maintain a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud for some of my more complex design projects. With applications for vector and raster design, video editing, and print design, I love that Adobe offers a solution (or two!) for every creative problem I encounter! Adobe Creative Cloud offers discounted pricing to eligible nonprofit organizations through TechSoup.
LOVE!
Affinity
If your nonprofit needs design applications, and you’d prefer something without a recurring subscription, Affinity may be a good fit for you! I love that Affinity offers a full suite of design applications that can replace the Adobe Creative Cloud options you already know and love: Affinity Designer is similar to Adobe Illustrator (suited for vector design), Affinity Photo works a lot like Adobe Photoshop (designed for photo editing), and Affinity Publisher is comparable to Adobe InDesign (ideal for print/PDF design). After joining forces with Canva earlier this year, Affinity announced that its software will soon be free to Canva users. Join the waitlist on Canva’s website to be the first to know when it’s available to nonprofits at no charge!
LOVE!
Bloomerang*
I’ve worked with more than a few donor management systems through the course of my consulting work, and Bloomerang has always been one of my faves! I love their integrations with tools my clients already use and love, as well as their pricing model that offers access to nonprofits of every size. Bloomerang leads the market in donor management systems, developing some amazing resources that you can find on their website.
LOVE!
ClickUp*
There are SO many project and task management tools that it’s easy to get so caught up in looking…that you don’t choose anything (yes, analysis paralysis). I like ClickUp because it was created for project and task management; I’m not trying to fit a square peg into a round hole when I use it because it’s not a database application like Airtable or a knowledge management system like Notion. I also appreciate the integrations it offers, saving me time by making data and information available in the places I need to see it.
LOVE!
CoSchedule*
CoSchedule is an all-in-one marketing calendar that offers project and task management within the context of your marketing projects. With drop-and-drag features that allow for quick rescheduling of blog posts, email newsletters, and social posts, CoSchedule is a great way to manage your nonprofit’s marketing and communications campaigns. CoSchedule also offers a 30% discount to eligible nonprofit organizations.
LOVE!
Google Workspace*
Though the name has changed a few times over the years, Google’s cloud-based productivity suite just keeps getting better. With virtual meeting, document, presentation tools, and more, you’ll find everything you need to elevate your nonprofit’s workflow. Recent updates to Google Workspace have even added a basic approval system to the cloud storage module, Google Drive, so if it’s been some time since your organization has reviewed Google Workspace, it might be worth it to have a second look. Through Google for Nonprofits, Google Workspace offers free and deeply discounted plans to eligible nonprofit organizations.
LOVE!
Grammarly
Even a third-grade spelling bee champ like me could occasionally use a little help with our writing. Grammarly does the job perfectly! I love the clarity suggestions because sometimes the fingers move faster than the mind, and I LOVE that Grammarly works in Canva so my designs show me at my best.
LOVE!
Little Green Light*
When your organization is looking for a donor management system with an online donation processor, consider Little Green Light (LGL). I love how customizable LGL is — the system is extendable through custom fields and offers custom reporting. You’ll also find volunteer and membership management modules, offering your organization a full suite of organizational management tools.
LOVE!
MailerLite*
Email marketing is an integral part of your work as a nonprofit communicator; whether you’re talking about regular communications with all your stakeholder groups to program-based communications to clients or participants, MailerLite has got you covered! With integrations available through automation apps like Zapier and a Canva integration so you can share designs straight from the app to MailerLite, this email marketing service provider will fit right into your nonprofit’s workflow. I also love that they have educational resources to help you learn the system! Like some of the other tools listed here, MailerLite offers a 30% discount to eligible nonprofit organizations.
LOVE!
Nonprofit Hub
With webinars, podcast episodes, downloadable guides, and more — on everything from board relations to online fundraising — the Nonprofit Hub is a nonprofit membership organization for nonprofit organizations, nonprofit professionals, and nonprofit vendors and service providers that functions as an amazing resource for nonprofits.
LOVE!
Notion
If your favorite database tool had a baby with your favorite note-taking app, you might name it Notion. Notion is ultimately a knowledge/information management tool people creatively use for task and project management. While I love Notion for organizing information as it was originally developed, I find tools like ClickUp better for task and project management.
LOVE!
nten
nten is a nonprofit membership organization that helps “missions and movements” make better use of technology. In addition to providing professional development, online communities, and reference materials, nten coordinates one of the most engaging and educational annual conferences for nonprofits, called NTC.
LOVE!
Publer*
Planning and scheduling your organization’s social content is an important way to support the campaigns and events coordinated by your nonprofit. I use Publer to organize and schedule my social content. With workspaces that allow you to save settings for each platform your organization uses, Publer takes care of the messy part of organizing the digital aspects of your campaigns and events, so you can focus on the storytelling that will increase your organization’s impact. There’s also a convenient Canva integration, so if you’re creating your organization’s social content in Canva, you can send it to Publer with the touch of a button!
LOVE!
qGiv
qGiv is, hands down, my favorite online fundraising platform. I love that it offers solutions for nearly every fundraising scenario your nonprofit encounters — event registration/admission, peer-to-peer fundraising, and even auctions. Best of all, they offer eligible small nonprofits a free plan to get started with fundraising online.
LOVE!
Scribe*
With Scribe, you can create visual step-by-step guides to document any process you need to share with others. I use Scribe to prepare the images used in some of my blog posts, but I can envision a nonprofit using this tool to create online program and staff training materials. Scribe offers a 50% discount to eligible nonprofit organizations; once your account is established, you can email them to have the discount applied to your account.
LOVE!
Slack
I love using Slack to stay connected with clients and contractors. I can easily share links and documents without having to resort to email. My conversations there are easily organized so I can go back to anything I’ve missed, and with integrations like Giphy, my chats are also tons of fun! Slack offers free or deeply discounted pricing to eligible nonprofit organizations.
LOVE!
TechSoup
TechSoup is a great marketplace where eligible nonprofit and charitable organizations can access discounted software and hardware from brands like Adobe, Microsoft, Dell, and Lenovo. Through a global network of community organizers, TechSoup also offers educational events for nonprofits on things like grant writing, data compliance, and nonprofit governance.
LOVE!
Zapier
Zapier is an amazing integration software that you can use to connect applications, creating a system that allows you to add more context to your organization’s data through zaps, automations that easily connect applications your organization uses. Using an email marketing system? See your subscribers’ open and click activity right on their donor records. Check Zapier’s website to see if you can create zaps for the applications your organization uses.
