Design brings your message and mission to life. And with Canva for Nonprofits, creating visuals that captivate your audience is much easier. Canva creates a templated approach to tackle marketing and communications as a group effort or a dedicated team member leading the charge.

Whether you’re a regular Canva user or haven’t tried it yet, these eight simple design ideas will help you share your visual story and attract more donors to your cause.

The Power of Visual Designs for Your Nonprofit

Modern marketing is often visual, as platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube set new expectations for viewing a brand’s content.

At one point, a nonprofit’s marketing materials called for an eye-catching logo, branded email signature, and a few design elements used across event signage. Today, marketers need to think about visuals that align with each new fundraising campaign and produce fresh visuals for every post and donor communication they share.

Social media platforms understand this, building engagement algorithms that favor original visuals and video content posted at least several times a week. Each platform additionally asks users to adapt graphic design to different specifications and sizes to fit optimally in their feeds.

Taking a page from social media platforms, nonprofit organizations can get more creative about the visual storytelling by incorporating this element into campaign pages and associating promotions across various channels as design tools become more accessible.

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What Is Canva for Nonprofits?

The Canva for Nonprofits program gives social impact organizations free access to premium features and design tools through its interactive platform. Canva’s platform delivers thousands of templates, design tutorials, and premade designs to make your own. However, you must complete an application to qualify.

Registered nonprofit users can then team up on designs and turn their creations into any size visuals they need across fundraising campaigns, social media channels, and various communication channels.

Setting Up Your Brand Kit in Canva

The biggest benefit of using Canva is that you can easily carry out your unique nonprofit branding across designs using its brand kit feature. It keeps your teammates thinking about your core brand values and visual elements as they put a unique spin on existing templates.

You can use the Canva brand kit to store your preferred:

• Main and supporting logos for various campaigns or initiatives
• Color palettes with specific hex codes
• Fonts that match your campaigns and website

8 Simple Designs to Create With Canva Pro for Nonprofits

1. Post Frequently With Social Media Post Templates

Social media platforms help you engage your audience, specifically through stories outside of the more formal posts that live on your feed. Planning story posts can also enhance interactions around your prescheduled content calendar.

However, developing new ideas for social posts that look consistent across platforms can be challenging. Social media graphic templates can help. Create them once, then modify versions for each platform you use with Canva’s Magic Resize tool.

Social Media Post Template Examples:

• Share polls to get your audience thinking
• Announce new campaigns and events
• Offer real-time updates on the progress of your fundraising goals

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2. Engage New Donors With a Website Landing Page

Canva now supports web design for quick landing pages outside your existing domains. So with no development knowledge, you can turn a template design into a web landing page using Canva.

It works the same way as creating other templates with simple navigation and access to design elements. You can also link to your donation page or other campaign pages from the landing page designs you create.

Website Landing Page Template Examples:

• Host a splash page to share new projects
• Share a simple newsletter sign-up page
• Build a dedicated page to showcase your recurring donation community

3. Educate Supporters With Video and Animation

Canva’s nonprofit account gives you access to video tools to help you create content that educates people about your organization.

Consider making a founding story video for your nonprofit that appeals to a donor’s emotions. Talk about your organization’s roots, showcase your growth, and help people envision the impact of their support. You can even create videos with your footage or Canva’s library of GIFs and other motion-design elements.

With the animation tools available, you don’t need a B-roll to make something engaging.

Video and Animation Template Examples:

• Develop a fun video message to donors that thanks them, acknowledges them, or keeps them up to date with what you’re doing with their contributions
• Create a teaser video to promote a new campaign you’re launching

4. Stand Apart With Visual Fundraising Campaign Pages

Your fundraising campaigns are essential to convert donors, and visuals create the first impression that welcomes them to your giving experience. Stand out by taking the time to include a compelling campaign header, graphic elements, and logo.

Design can help guide donors to the most impactful step in supporting your mission. So remember, each campaign can (and should) have on-brand visuals and take on its own visual identity unique to that campaign.

Campaign Visual Template Examples:

• Represent your campaign’s goal and those it supports with unique visuals
• Build templates for annual campaigns such as Giving Tuesday fundraisers
• Design powerful hero image templates to use for the top of each campaign page, which Classy recommends sizing to 1280×720 px

5. Build Relationships With Fresh Event Branding

Events are a time to present donors and potential supporters with an unforgettable experience. That has a lot to do with the visual experience they associate with the process, from the point of registration through the live event itself. So unite your online and in-person experiences with consistent branding.

Event Branding Template Examples:

• Design a QR code flyer on napkins, business cards, and posters that links back to your donation page
• Create a distinguished visual identity for your event to use on your registration page and all associated emails

6. Empower Peer-to-Peer Fundraisers

Create the branding you want to showcase on your peer-to-peer campaign page and bring that into each fundraising page to set individuals up for success as they raise money for your cause. Consistent branding and a professional look will help build trust and credibility as new donors learn about your organization.

You want to create visuals your donors want to share on their personal social media and company communication platforms.

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Template Examples:

• Design custom images that match your campaign page headers for supporters to share with their communities
• Develop a fundraiser toolkit with social-sharing images you’ve created to match the look and feel of the campaign

7. Showcase Your Work With Infographics

You can tell your supporters about the results you’re achieving with their gifts or show them. Visuals can be a great way to demonstrate your work in numbers and graphs. So create an infographic that you can replicate your impact in an exciting way across any platform you’d like to share with your community.

Infographic Template Examples:

• Turn your annual report into a fun infographic
• Showcase impact with results from specific campaigns
• Develop a year in review to send to donors

8. Keep in Touch With Email Templates

When you think about how many emails come through your donors’ inboxes each day, you can see the importance of making yours memorable. Visuals can connect to a reader and enhance your email communications to drive donors to take action.

Design email templates to keep people excited about your mission and continue the experience after a donation, switching things up for various use cases throughout the year.

Email Template Examples:

• Create a special welcome visual to send to new donors
• Level up your thank you letters to major donors and corporate sponsors
• Build excitement around your weekly newsletter

Bring Your Ideas to Life With Free Canva for Nonprofits

We hope your creativity is flowing with all the possibilities at your fingertips with Canva. You already have an incredible founding story and mission. Now, you can bring that to life to attract even more supporters to raise more. And with consistent branding to reflect your nonprofit’s personality, you’re sure to pull them in.

Get ready to create something amazing.