August 2022 - Getting Attention

Our Top 8 Tips and Tricks for Designing Nonprofit Logos

August 29, 2022/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Marketing /by Jessica King

Whether it’s a portrait of a mythical siren in a green circle or a red-and-white Play button, logos are all around us. Many for-profit companies use logos to identify their products and services, but nonprofit organizations have just as much to gain from effective logo design!

In this guide, we’ll walk through all you need to know to start designing nonprofit logos, including:

What Makes a Good Nonprofit Logo?
8 Tips for Designing Nonprofit Logos
Tools to Get Started With Designing Nonprofit Logos

Every nonprofit can benefit from a well-designed logo, whether your organization is just starting out or has been around for some time and wants to take its branding to the next level. Using the tips and tricks in this guide will put you well on your way to creating the best one.

What Makes a Good Nonprofit Logo?

The most important aspect of a logo is that it reflects what you want your nonprofit’s brand to look like. Branding is what makes your nonprofit stand out in your supporters’ minds. After all, 93% of nonprofits believe donor engagement is positively impacted by a strong brand identity—and your logo is the center of that brand.

Kwala recommends nonprofit logo design tips such as:

Emulating your organization’s mission. First and foremost, your logo should illustrate your nonprofit’s mission. Ideally, your mission will be immediately obvious to anyone who sees your logo. Consider which images, symbols, or words best represent your organization’s purpose.
Choosing the right colors. Colors have the power to convey emotions, which can urge viewers to learn more about your nonprofit. For example, a red logo might convey a sense of urgency and prompt viewers to quickly get involved.
Using readable fonts. Different fonts convey varying moods, so be sure to choose one that accurately reflects your nonprofit’s tone. If you have the time, consider creating your own font to make your logo even more unique.
Keeping it simple and timeless. Identify the basic elements that are most essential to visualizing your nonprofit’s mission. Keeping the design simple not only helps your logo stand out to viewers but also ensures it remains relevant and effective years from now.

Your logo influences how your supporters perceive your nonprofit, so you’ll want to make it memorable, impactful, and unique.

8 Tips for Designing Nonprofit Logos

An effective marketing strategy uses your brand’s logo to give the audience an idea of who you are and what you stand for with a single glance. Plus, when you add a logo to each of your marketing materials, it helps your mission to stick in potential supporters’ minds.

To design the logo that accomplishes this, you’ll need to put a good amount of time and effort into the process. Get started with these eight helpful tips:

1. Start with your mission statement.

Your nonprofit’s mission statement is the core of all the work you do. So, naturally, you’ll want to express it through your logo design. Supporters should be able to tell, generally, what your nonprofit does with a quick glance.

You can market your nonprofit’s mission through your logo design by following these three steps:

Carefully read over your nonprofit’s mission and vision statements.
Write down whatever words, symbols, and images come to mind when you think of your mission.
Consider what logo colors could be associated with the ideas you’ve brainstormed.

One example of a nonprofit with a mission-centered logo is Feeding America, whose mission is to ensure equitable access to food for everyone in the United States:

The grain stalk “growing” from the two I’s in the logo is a common symbol related to food security. The colors they chose also work well with their mission—green is associated with peace and life, and orange is associated with friendliness and affordability.

2. Brainstorm on paper before moving to digital design platforms.

When you create your nonprofit’s logo, you have a lot of options in terms of what digital design tools to use. But your most valuable tools might just be a pencil and paper.

In many cases, it’s easier to navigate the features of a digital design tool when you already have a visual reference for what you want the finished product to look like. Plus, if you’re working with a professional graphic designer, you may be able to get your ideas across to them more effectively with a sketch than if you just wrote down or told them your vision for your nonprofit’s logo.

3. Keep it simple, but make sure it stands out.

Good graphic design is all about balance, especially when it comes to creating logos. On one side of the spectrum, you need to make your logo stand out from other similar organizations so that supporters recognize your nonprofit. But on the other side, simpler designs are more memorable and tend to stand the test of time.

The Girl Scouts logo design is a good example of this balance:

They use a basic color palette of white, black, and their trademark green in their logo, which is made up of their name and just one shape. But that shape is a trefoil, which is distinctive to the Girl Scouts because it represents the three points of the Girl Scout Promise. The organization makes its logo even more memorable (and delicious!) by selling shortbread Girl Scout Cookies in the trefoil shape.

4. Make sure all text is readable.

To make your logo stand out, you might want to write your organization’s name in a unique font, have the words read in a direction other than horizontal, or use standout colors for text. Those ideas are all well and good—as long as you can still read the words easily.

If your logo uses a custom typeface or has vertical or diagonal text, it’s often best to make the words the main focus of the design. Bold text colors are also generally more readable than pastels or light neon shades. But whatever color you choose, make sure it contrasts with the background (light-colored text on a dark background or dark text on a light background tends to work well).

For example, the Trevor Project’s logo does a great job of giving text a unique look but ensuring it’s readable.

Whether it’s against a light or dark background, the logo’s orange text is striking and contrasts well. And even with the vertical direction and hidden star, the text is fairly easy to read.

5. Design with your audience in mind.

A good logo design will resonate with your nonprofit’s audience. Besides being able to identify your nonprofit by its logo, your supporters should relate to the logo in some way.

To create a logo your supporters connect with and understand, you’ll want to do some research on these audience-related topics:

Demographics, such as age, gender, location, and family status.
Psychographics, which refers to your audience’s interests, values, beliefs, and motivations.
Direct feedback, because after you make inferences about your audience from their demographic and psychographic characteristics, you can test your logo design on some supporters and adjust it based on their reactions.

If you work with a professional graphic designer, be sure to clearly explain the audience you’re trying to reach so the experts can design a logo that meets your nonprofit’s needs.

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The Humane Society of the United States is an example of an organization with a logo design that fits its audience.

The logo is shaped like the country where their supporter base primarily lives and includes a variety of animals that audience members may be interested in helping.

6. Remember that your first idea may not be your best idea.

You don’t have to make the perfect logo on the first try. When your organization creates its first logo, the design will be more effective if you revise it several times based on feedback from inside and outside your nonprofit.

Also, if you’re designing a nonprofit logo with your audience in mind, you’ll probably notice that your audience will change over time. Both for-profit and nonprofit organizations will rebrand and roll out new logos when they feel it’s time to adapt to a new social climate. So, keep in mind that your logo will be most effective if it evolves with your audience’s needs and interests.

The YMCA is one nonprofit that has rebranded several times in its long history.

The two black-and-red, sharp-edged logos that the organization used throughout the 20th century contrast strongly with the version they started using in 2010. The new logo has softer edges and uses a variety of colors to appeal to modern audiences. Plus, it focuses on the letter Y to emphasize inclusion, but it also includes the acronym YMCA because the organization is still known by both names.

7. Create several versions of your logo.

Once you’ve settled on one new logo design, you’ll want to create several versions of it. Each place where you use your logo will have a different amount of available space, so you’ll need a logo that can fit each one. For example, you’ll be able to fit a much larger logo on a t-shirt than you would on a social media graphic.

Designing your logo as a vector will come in handy so you can change its size without affecting image quality. If you need help with this, contact a professional graphic designer. Also, you’ll want a few variations of your logo to fit the aesthetic of each piece of content you create.

To look at an example, the United Way uses several different versions of its nonprofit logo across its marketing materials.

They have a main color logo with the organization’s name and a symbol, one with the same elements in black and white, and a version with only the symbol and no text. Each design is obviously a variation on the same theme, but different versions work in different situations. For instance, the black-and-white logo is the easiest to print, and the symbol-only version fits well in tight spaces.

8. Experiment with your designs in context.

When your logo design is finished, you’ll put it on every piece of marketing content your organization creates, including:

Your website
Email newsletters
Social media posts
Branded merchandise
Signs or billboards
Direct mail
Print and digital flyers

To make sure you like how your logo looks and envision how it will fit into each content type, create a few sample designs. Once you come up with some ideas that work well, add the samples to your organization’s brand guide for reference over time.

charity: water is one nonprofit that uses its logo in creative ways across different marketing materials.

In the example above, they used their logo in place of a title on a flyer that gives an overview of their organization, and they made a physical version of the design to fit into an Instagram photo.

Tools to Get Started With Designing Nonprofit Logos

As mentioned previously, there are a number of graphic design tools available to help you create a logo for your nonprofit. Some of our favorites include:

Canva
DesignMantic
Adobe Express

These tools all work well for beginner graphic designers and can easily be used in-house. But if you want to take your logo design to the next level, your best bet is to partner with nonprofit graphic designers.

Kwala is a graphic design service that connects nonprofits with a team of experienced professionals. These designers then work with nonprofits to create logos as well as a variety of other graphics. Their subscription model gives your organization an unlimited number of designs and revisions each month for a flat rate. If you want to try out Kwala’s services before committing to the monthly rate, you can also request a quote on a one-off project.

Additional Nonprofit Logo Design Resources

A strong logo is central to your nonprofit’s branding and marketing, which fuels your ability to make an impact. Ultimately, your logo should reflect your organization’s mission and resonate with your audience. Use the tips in this guide and the resources available to you—particularly the help of nonprofit graphic design experts like those at Kwala—to help create the best logo for your nonprofit.

For more information on nonprofit logo design, check out these resources:

5 Steps to Create a Great Nonprofit Graphic Design Strategy. Logos are just one part of effective nonprofit graphic design. Learn what else your nonprofit needs to do to take your graphic design strategy to the next level.
100+ Best Nonprofit Logos to Inspire Your Team. It’s often helpful to look at other nonprofits’ logos to get inspiration for your own. To get started, take a look at these examples.
Kwala: Quality Subscription-Based Graphic Design. Are you ready to partner with nonprofit graphic designers to create a new logo for your organization? Fill out Kwala’s onboarding form to connect with experts.

How to Start An Effective Nonprofit Blog

August 24, 2022/in Nonprofit Communications /by Jessica King

So, you’ve decided to join the exciting world of nonprofit blogging. Your website’s blog lets you tell your nonprofit’s story in your own words, update audience members about your events and activities, and even engage with a new audience of potential supporters.

But just like any marketing endeavor, you must approach nonprofit blogging strategically. Your posts should be intentional, engaging, and informative. This helps your organization build a professional reputation and ensure your content meets your online engagement goals.

With that in mind, we’ll explore these five steps to starting an effective nonprofit blog:

Set goals for your blog.
Find your storytelling style and voice.
Create a content strategy.
Craft your graphic design strategy.
Promote your blog.

Of course, the very first step of starting a nonprofit blog is ensuring that your CMS supports blogging capabilities. Popular platforms like Drupal and WordPress have built-in blogging features that make it easy to get your new blog up and running. Once you’ve determined a blog is an actual possibility for your organization, you can launch into the following steps.

1. Set goals for your blog.

After deciding to launch a blog for your nonprofit’s website, you might have some lofty ambitions in mind, such as entering the ranks of the best nonprofit blogs and inspiring thousands of new supporters to join your cause. Certainly, it’s good to dream big and aim high.

But when you’re first starting, set specific, achievable goals that you can feasibly reach given your organization’s time and resources. For example, you might identify goals such as:

Traffic goals. For instance, you might aim for 700 blog views within your first three months or 1,500 unique visitors in your first year.
SEO goals. Create keyword-optimized blog posts to improve organic search-related traffic. Perhaps you’ll aim to have at least three blog posts rank on page one of Google search results for specific keywords.
Conversion goals. Adding links to your donation page in blog posts can help boost your online fundraising. Perhaps you want to increase your fundraising revenue resulting from blog posts by 20% within six months.

Your blog can be an effective tool to increase awareness of your mission and encourage more donations and volunteers. By setting specific goals, you can more easily measure progress toward these ambitions.

2. Find your storytelling style and voice.

A blog allows you to be creative and speak directly to your audience. Work on cultivating a unique voice—this is the tone you use to address your audience and the feeling you wish to convey to readers. Having a distinctive, engaging voice can set your blog apart and make your posts more memorable.

As you develop your blog voice, think about your target audience—what tone of voice will they respond to best? For example, younger audiences may prefer a more casual style, while older audiences often appreciate more formal and authoritative writing.

Also, consider your nonprofit’s overall brand—what image or personality are you trying to convey? Would you like to come off as a helpful teacher introducing new concepts to your audience or a friend speaking casually about the activities and programs you have going on?

Here are a few words you might use to define your blog’s tone:

Authoritative and reassuring
Friendly and casual
Playful and upbeat
Witty and humorous
Emotional and inspiring

For example, according to Kanopi’s guide to healthcare web design, medical-focused websites often take on an authoritative, professional tone to reassure potentially anxious visitors seeking medical help. On the other hand, an organization that seeks to increase voter registrations among young voters might use an upbeat, witty, and playful tone to appeal to young adults.

Create a style guide for your blog that describes your unique tone and storytelling style. Include examples of words and phrases to use and ones to avoid to match the brand personality you’re looking to cultivate.

3. Create a content strategy.

Your content plan will be the bread and butter of your nonprofit blogging strategy. Having a clear blogging plan ensures that your blog roll will stay updated with new, thoughtful, and well-researched content. This shows supporters that your organization is active and continually working on new and exciting projects, initiatives, and events.

Follow these steps to build your blog’s content strategy:

Recruit a blogging team. Who will write the posts? Who will take photos and videos at events? Who will draft the posts and publish them online? Decide whether these tasks will be taken on by one or multiple people. Meet with your blog team regularly to assign responsibilities and ensure everyone is on the same page.
Define your SEO objectives. Use a tool such as Google Keyword Planner or Moz to identify high-traffic keywords relevant to your nonprofit’s mission. Create clear guidelines for ensuring all posts are SEO optimized, such as using headings to structure posts, including keyword mentions throughout the text, and writing alt text for all images.
Create a posting calendar. Create a rough posting calendar that aligns with your blog goals. For instance, to reach your SEO objectives, make sure you’re consistently writing keyword-optimized posts. If you already have certain events on your nonprofit’s calendar, plan to publish wrap-up blog posts the week after the event.
Establish a verification process. The facts, statistics, and data in your blog posts should be true and accurate. Including misleading or incorrect information can damage your credibility among supporters. To avoid errors slipping through the cracks, create a process for double-checking facts before pushing your posts live. Make sure at least two people read through your posts before publishing.

Your content strategy doesn’t have to be set in stone—it can be a rough outline that you adjust when necessary. Current events will undoubtedly impact your organization throughout the year, so you can write posts as needed to address recent developments and news stories as they come up. But outlining a plan ahead of time ensures that your blog won’t become stagnant or outdated at any point.

4. Craft your graphic design strategy.

Images can stir emotions, inspire empathy, and ultimately lead to visitors feeling a deeper connection to your cause. Double the Donation’s guide to nonprofit web design says it best: “humans are a visual species, so information that’s conveyed in a visual way is more immediate and visceral.”

Establish your graphic design strategy up front to ensure your blogging team is on the same page when designing graphics and choosing images. Ask yourself the following questions while developing your approach:

Will you use infographics? How will you design and format these images?
What fonts and brand colors will you use in infographics?
Where will you source blog images? Will you use any stock photos or only original photography?
What types of images will you use as feature images? For example, do you want all feature images to show people? Do you have any guidelines for choosing stock images for feature photos?

As you build your graphic design strategy, take some time to standardize your blog post layout. Include specific guidelines in your brand style guide for the font styles and sizes, colors, button types, post margins, and other stylistic elements of your blog posts. This ensures consistency, even if multiple team members are uploading posts.

5. Promote your blog.

Once you start creating well-researched, informative blog content, you’ll need a way to drive traffic and increase engagement with your posts. Marketing your blog posts can increase awareness of your blog, boost your website traffic, and introduce more people to your mission.

Promote your blog across platforms such as:

Social media. Post links to your new blog posts on any social media sites you use—Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. Pull out interesting quotes or statistics from the posts to include in your captions.
Email. Include recent blog posts in your weekly or monthly email newsletters. You might even create exclusive blog content or sneak peeks just for email subscribers.
Paid advertising. Promote blog posts using Google Ads to help capture both paid search engine traffic, supplementing your SEO efforts. Consider applying for the Google Ad Grant program to earn $10,000 per month in Google AdWords funds. This can allow you to pursue a paid advertising campaign without spending more of your marketing budget.

You can grow your blog audience quickly by promoting your content regularly across each of these platforms. The more eyes you can get on your blog posts, the wider your audience of potential new donors, volunteers, and other supporters will be.

Adding a blog to your nonprofit’s website can be a great way to revamp your online presence and grow awareness of your mission. By following these steps, you can ensure that your blog is a valuable, trustworthy resource for learning more about your cause and how to get involved.

Author: Allison Manley, Director of Marketing & Communications for Kanopi

Allison is a recovering (and award-winning) designer who applies her creative and organizational skills to marketing strategy for Kanopi. Her diverse, multi-disciplinary background — which in addition to design includes glassblowing, publishing, podcasting, and figure skating — contributes to strong relationships to which she offers a broad perspective.

Her job is to tell the story of Kanopi by sharing information, writing, working with staff and partners, and keeping the brand cohesive across all channels. When not keeping the Kanopi brand on point, Allison is working on double jumps on an ice rink, chasing small children, or organizing something somewhere.

Learn 6 advocacy event ideas to raise money for your cause.

Advocacy Events: 6 Fundraisers to Earn More for Your Cause

August 23, 2022/in Nonprofit Fundraising /by Contributor

The key to creating lasting change today is advocacy—speaking up on behalf of members of your community affected by a particular issue. Running a successful advocacy campaign will likely start with mobilizing supporters and educating your community about your cause. To support these efforts, you’ll need to raise funds.

Events are a particularly effective fundraising method for advocacy groups. When you hold a fundraising event, you’ll bring supporters together, spread awareness, and earn funding at the same time. The type of event you choose to hold will depend on your organization’s needs and capabilities, in addition to your supporters’ interests.

To help your advocacy group earn more for your cause, these five fundraising event ideas are a great place to start:

With the right tools and a solid plan, any of these five events will help you engage donors as you raise the funds you need to support your advocacy campaign. Let’s dive in!

1. 5K Races

Race fundraisers work well in a variety of communities. 5Ks in particular tend to attract large audiences, as there are many ways for participants to get involved. Many 5Ks allow participants to choose whether they want to run in the timed race or walk the race course at their own pace. Supporters who decide not to race can volunteer at the event or donate while they cheer on their friends and family.

Grassroots Unwired’s guide to 5K fundraisers suggests several tips for making your event more effective, such as:

Setting clear fundraising goals. As with any fundraiser, your organization should plan a 5K with specific, measurable goals in mind. For example, you might set goals of increasing your revenue total from last year’s race by 20% and registering 50 new supporters who you can add to your organization’s contact lists.

Marketing your event throughout the community. Besides sending out emails and posting on social media, distributing fundraising flyers in your community can be a great way to spread the word about your 5K to new supporters.

Securing sponsorships. Asking businesses in your area to sponsor your 5K will help you cover event costs and get necessary supplies (like tents, race course markers, and water bottles). In exchange, you’ll promote them on your marketing materials, helping to associate their names with a good cause. Make sure to choose sponsors whose business values align with your cause.

Adding a peer-to-peer component. To bring in additional funding and involve more community members, consider pairing your 5K with a peer-to-peer fundraiser. When supporters sign up to race, ask them to create a fundraising page through your organization’s peer-to-peer software and share it with their friends and family.

Besides using peer-to-peer software, digital event tools that include registration and ticketing features can help your advocacy group organize your 5K. Careful planning and efficient registration is key to a successful race fundraiser.

2. A-thon Style Events

The characteristic all a-thon style fundraising events have in common is that you’ll ask supporters to do a particular activity as much as they can to raise money for your cause. To maximize the funds you bring in, you’ll want to choose an activity that interests your supporters.

To help make this decision, you could send out a survey to supporters asking them to vote on their favorite a-thon style event idea. Some of the most common a-thon events include:

Walk-a-thons
Bike-a-thons
Swim-a-thons
Dance-a-thons
Bowl-a-thons
Read-a-thons

When deciding which a-thon style event to hold, consider what activities coordinate best with your cause. For example, if you’re advocating for an education-related issue, a read-a-thon would be a great fit. Or, if your cause is related to health, you could try a bike- or swim-a-thon to encourage supporters to be physically active while fundraising.

No matter what event you choose, you’ll need volunteers to run it. Look into volunteer grant opportunities to bring in even more funds. These grants can also help expand your network and get the word out about your cause as you form new relationships with the businesses who provide volunteer grants as well as the volunteers themselves.

3. Auctions

Hosting an auction can also bring your community together while raising funds to support your cause. Auctions are an especially versatile fundraiser—you could host either a silent auction or a live event depending on your organization’s capabilities and your supporters’ interests. You can also decide whether to hold your auction in person, virtually, or in a hybrid format.

Once you’ve decided on your event’s format, you’ll need to procure items for your supporters to bid on. Auctions often attract more attention when they offer items that supporters can’t buy at major retailers, such as:

Experiences and services. Highly popular auction items often aren’t physical. These items can range from car wash gift certificates to spa packages to vacations.

Goods made by local artists. This category can include paintings, jewelry, furniture, or anything else created in your community. Locally made goods are often one-of-a-kind, making them more valuable. Plus connecting with artists in your community can help you gain even more support for your cause.

Prize baskets or bundles. To increase the value of individual items,Handbid’s guide to silent auctions recommends auctioning off several smaller items as one prize basket or bundle. For example, you could put together a movie theater gift certificate, popcorn, candy, and a throw blanket to create a “movie night” prize basket.

Your organization can often get these auction items via in-kind donations from corporate sponsors. Besides featuring your sponsors in your marketing materials leading up to the auction, make sure to mention them during the event and thank them afterward.

4. Lectures, Webinars, and Panels

Educating supporters about your cause is key to a successful advocacy campaign. Hosting an educational fundraising event can serve that purpose and bring in funds at the same time.

Your educational fundraisers can be in-person or virtual events. If you go the in-person route, you’ll want to find a large space where an expert on your cause can give a lecture explaining the history and impact of your target issue. To raise money, charge an admission fee and set up a donation box at the event.

To educate your supporters through a virtual event, try a webinar or panel. Your supporters can attend from the convenience of their homes, and you can bring in speakers from different locations to share their unique insights.

5. Rallies

When considering events related to community advocacy, rallies are probably one of the first that comes to mind. Besides providing an opportunity for supporters to donate, rallies help raise awareness of your cause throughout your community and prompt action.

If you organize a rally, you’ll need to get permission to use a large outdoor space. Find several speakers who can speak to your audience about the cause you’re advocating for and inspire them. Also, prepare educational materials that can be distributed during your rally featuring links or QR codes to your website so supporters can connect with your organization afterwards.

A rally can help strengthen community support for your cause and draw new advocates. It may also attract the attention of the local press, spreading the word about your cause even further. This increase in both support and interest will make contacting policymakers about your cause a natural next step—if the issue has been in the news, they’ll already be aware of it when you reach out, and you’ll have new supporters who you can encourage to call or write to them.

6. Community Art Festival

Every activist has a deep emotional connection to their cause. Allow them to share their passion, connect with other activists, and educate the community by hosting a themed community art festival devoted to your cause.

Raise money with this dynamic fundraising event idea by charging admission, selling food and drink tickets, and selling custom merchandise for the art festival. Remember to place collection boxes and information booths around the venue so guests have ample opportunities to give and learn more about your nonprofit.

If you’re envisioning an average arts and crafts sale when planning the festival schedule, don’t be afraid to think bigger! Art comes in many forms, and the more art you showcase, the more people can participate. Some events you could add to your art festival lineup include:

Benefit concert
Poetry slam
Art gallery
Dance showcase
Fashion show
Film festival

Since activism is about inspiring action, ensure your supporters get the chance to spread the word about your cause to people who aren’t yet aware of your initiatives. Help them forge these connections by offering hands-on art workshops. For instance, if the theme of the art show is environmentalism, an art demonstration could entail creating a sculpture out of recycled materials. Not only does this help attendees better understand your cause but it’s also an effective strategy to enhance your fundraising.

Wrapping Up

The ideas listed above are just five of the possible event fundraisers that your advocacy group could hold. Weigh several event options to choose the best ones based on your organization’s budget and supporter base. As you plan your fundraising events, make sure to invest in the right digital tools to help you earn more for your cause.

This article was contributed by our friends at Grassroots Unwired.

Author: Russ Oster

Russ’ first experience in the world of grassroots organizing came when he was an infant and his mother pushed him in a stroller door to door to collect signatures for the Impeach Nixon movement. Eighteen years later he embarked on his college career in Washington, DC and during that time developed a passion for campaigns and elections that started with an internship on the campaign of the first woman ever elected to Congress from the State of Virginia.

For the next 15 years Russ lived and breathed campaigns, running field operations in a wide range of races and for a number of coordinated campaign efforts. When it became obvious to Russ that the technology existed to make field efforts drastically more efficient and accountable but the solutions did not, he launched Grassroots Unwired and has worked every day since to keep GU on the cutting edge, pushing new features and enhancements to meet the needs of ever evolving grassroots organizing efforts.

Mobile Optimization: 5 Reasons it Matters for Nonprofits

August 11, 2022/in Nonprofit Communications, Nonprofit Tools /by Jessica King

You’ve heard it time and time again: optimizing your website for mobile devices is crucial. Your website goals probably include engaging with donors, volunteers, and other supporters, and encouraging them to stay involved for the long term. A mobile-optimized website can support these goals and help you drive more online traffic.

Specifically, we’re going to discuss five reasons why mobile optimization is so important for nonprofit websites:

Most people spend a large portion of their day on their phones.
Mobile donations are more popular than ever.
Social media use is also increasing globally.
Mobile optimization is a Google ranking factor.
Mobile load speed affects bounce rate.

The best nonprofit websites engage and excite supporters whether they’re using their laptops, tablets, or phones to connect. Let’s take a closer look at why you should emphasize mobile-friendliness when designing your website.

1. Most people spend a large portion of their day on their phones.

Research shows that the average smartphone user spends five to six hours per day on their phone. People use their phones for everything from online shopping to binge-watching TV shows, messaging loved ones, and ordering food.

Therefore, your nonprofit’s supporters expect to be able to connect with your organization using their mobile devices. The first step to keeping donors close is appealing to their preferences by offering them a way to engage with and learn more about your nonprofit from the palm of their hand.

2. Mobile donations are more popular than ever.

Supporters want to be able to give any time, anywhere, without having to pull out their laptops to do so. To attract and retain donors, you must offer plenty of convenient, simple donation opportunities, including a mobile-responsive giving page and text-to-give options. Your supporters should be able to easily fill out and move through the donation process on their phones without squinting or having to pinch their screens and zoom in.

3. Social media use is also increasing globally.

Creating mobile-friendly marketing content is also critical for increasing engagement with your social media campaigns. 78% of social media users worldwide only use their mobile devices to access social media platforms. Plus, 55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media eventually take some sort of action, whether that’s contributing monetary or in-kind donations, volunteering, participating in advocacy campaigns, or attending events.

Developing social media campaigns that look great on mobile devices, with elements such as vertical videos and mobile-friendly landing pages, should be a priority for your organization.

4. Mobile optimization is a Google ranking factor.

Since 2015, Google has used mobile-friendliness as an SEO ranking factor. That means that to improve your site’s chances of ranking higher on search engine results pages, you must ensure it’s mobile-optimized.

To create a mobile-optimized website that ranks highly on Google, keep the formatting and design simple, ensure your text sizes are large enough to be read on mobile devices, and review and edit your site in the mobile view to check for any formatting issues. When you combine these efforts with other SEO best practices, such as optimizing your website’s pages for relevant keywords, you can help your content become more visible on Google and drive more traffic.

5. Mobile load speed affects bounce rate.

A mobile-optimized website is not only crucial for SEO—it’s also a central element in creating a better visitor experience. That’s because visitors expect a streamlined, fast-loading mobile website experience. In fact, 53% of visitors will leave your website if your mobile pages take more than three seconds to load.

If you’re planning to reformat your website’s mobile version, keep web design best practices in mind. Decrease load times by resizing and compressing images, leveraging browser caching, and eliminating unnecessary characters and spaces from your code.

If you’re running into any roadblocks when trying to create a mobile-optimized website, reach out to a nonprofit web design firm for support. These experts can help you carry out audience research and develop a website revamp strategy with your organization’s unique branding and goals in mind.

Whether you tackle your website design in-house or with the help of an experienced professional, these five reasons make it clear that mobile-friendliness should be a top priority.

This guide explores the power of fundraising flyers and how nonprofits can create them.

Fundraising Flyers: How to Boost Nonprofit Marketing

August 1, 2022/in Nonprofit Communications /by Jessica King

When developing your nonprofit’s marketing plan, you’ll probably brainstorm some of the content you’ll create for several popular communication channels, including your website, email, social media, and direct mail. To make your organization stand out, consider branching out from these typical marketing methods and adding a new—but also traditional—marketing channel: fundraising flyers.

Fundraising flyers have been around for years, whether they were attached to bulletin boards, handed out at events, stacked in a bin by the front desk, sent in the mail, or delivered door to door. While paper flyers are still an effective way to draw attention to your cause, digital fundraising flyers open up even more opportunities for nonprofits.

Fundraising flyers come in all shapes, sizes, and content types. In this article, we’ll help you create fundraising flyers that will be most helpful to your organization’s marketing strategy:

What should a fundraising flyer include?
Fundraising flyer content ideas
Fundraising flyer format ideas
How to start designing fundraising flyers

Designing fundraising flyers can be highly rewarding for your organization, but it can also come with challenges. If you’d like help getting started or have any questions along the way, you can reach out to a graphic design service that will work with you on all your fundraising flyer needs.

What should a fundraising flyer include?

The exact information you include on a fundraising flyer will depend on your organization’s current advertising goals and the delivery method you choose. For instance, you’ll prioritize different details on a mailer promoting an ongoing fundraising drive than you would on a downloadable digital flyer advertising a one-time event.

There are a few common pieces of information that should always be on fundraising flyers, including:

Your organization’s name and logo. These foundational pieces of your nonprofit’s brand will allow supporters to identify that the flyer belongs to your organization immediately. In addition to increasing brand recognition, your name and logo will make your flyer stand out from any others supporters may see.
Consistent visual branding. To cement the connection between your flyer and your organization, use your nonprofit’s brand elements, like fonts and colors. While you’re focusing on these elements, ensure that your flyer is legible—for example, use dark-colored text on a light background or light-colored text on a dark background.
The title and purpose of your fundraiser. Supporters will only want to get involved if they know what they’re putting their time and money towards. Give your fundraiser a catchy name and explain its goals clearly on the flyer.
How supporters can participate. If you’re hosting an event, put the date, time, and location on the flyer. If you’re promoting a different fundraising method, such as a product fundraiser or in-kind donation drive, include the different ways in which supporters can contribute (online, in-person, via text, etc.).
Any benefits of participating. Supporters will have extra motivation to get involved in your fundraiser if they see on your flyer that they can enter a raffle, earn a prize, or enjoy a fun activity by participating. If you aren’t offering these incentives, place extra emphasis on the positive impact that supporters can make by contributing.
A specific call to action. Include a link or QR code where interested supporters can go to give to or register for your fundraiser as soon as they see your flyer, accompanied by a noticeable call-to-action phrase like “Sign Up Today!” or “Click Here to Donate Now!”
Contact information for your organization. Some supporters might have questions or want to learn more about your fundraiser before they commit to participating. To help them out, add a line of text to the bottom of your flyer that says, “For more information, contact us at…” followed by a phone number or email address.

Above all, your fundraising flyer should be helpful to supporters, so plan the content and style of your flyer with them in mind.

Fundraising flyer content ideas

In some ways, the name “fundraising flyer” can be a bit misleading as it may sound like it applies only to flyers that promote traditional donation drives. In reality, you can use a fundraising flyer to promote whatever fits with your organization’s current goals, whether that’s non-standard fundraisers or even fundraising-adjacent initiatives. These content ideas are great places to start.

1. Organizational overview flyer

If your nonprofit is relatively new, trying to reach an untapped group of potential supporters, or promoting your annual fund, you may want to create a flyer explaining the basics of who you are and how you make a difference. An organizational overview flyer includes the following elements:

A more prominent logo than on other types of flyers.
Your organization’s mission statement and core values.
Examples of major impacts you’ve made, supported with statistics and images.
A link to the homepage of your website and/or a contact form.

This way, you can connect new supporters to more resources after they get an overview of your mission and impact. While you may gain donors in the process, the main result will likely be increased awareness about your nonprofit that you can leverage for future support.

Example: charity:water

2. In-kind donation drive flyer

Fundraising flyers aren’t just for collecting monetary donations—they also work well for in-kind donation drives. Your flyer should include:

A list of items that need to be donated (and anything your organization can’t accept).
Start and end dates for the drive.
How donations will be collected—for example, indicate whether they’ll be picked up from supporters’ homes and workplaces or if they need to be brought directly to your organization.

Spread the word about your next food drive, clothing drive, school supply collection, or other need that can be fulfilled with gifts of physical items by designing a flyer.

Example: Community Food Bank

3. In-person event fundraiser flyer

Attract more attendees to your organization’s next event by distributing flyers far and wide. Compile the following elements on your flyer:

The title, date, time, and location of the event.
A short description of what participants will do at the event.
Some ways in which attending the event will make an impact.
The names and logos of your event’s sponsors.

Because in-person events often require large upfront costs, attracting participants to come and make donations is key to an effective fundraiser. A flyer is also a great way to put all the basic information that supporters need to know in one place.

Example: American Red Cross

4. Virtual event fundraiser flyer

Using a flyer to advertise your organization’s virtual event has similar effects to advertising an in-person event. You’ll just need to include slightly different details, such as:

A more concise, image-heavy description of the event, its impact, and its sponsors.
Any relevant links and instructions for how to participate virtually.
The date and time if applicable, or a note that participation is flexible.

Keep the design more simple as you’ll probably distribute the flyer via digital channels only. The flyer should be easy to download and skim for supporters who may quickly scroll past it.

Example: Coats’ Disease Foundation

5. Specific fundraising initiative flyer

Your nonprofit can spread awareness of new donation programs, major funding needs, or initiatives targeted at specific groups by highlighting them on fundraising flyers. Include the following elements:

Your mission statement front and center, no matter how well recognized your organization is.
Lots of details about the initiative’s purpose and rationale, supported by statistics.
Multiple ways to give.

Audience analysis will be especially helpful in this situation to ensure that you distribute your flyer in ways that your intended donors will notice. That way, your flyer will truly engage supporters and urge them to get involved.

Example: United Way

6. Volunteer opportunity flyer

Your organization can use flyers not only to attract donors, but also to bring in volunteers. You’ll still help to fulfill important needs, and volunteers are likely to engage with your nonprofit again in the future—and eventually donate—once they’ve seen your impact firsthand. Your flyer should include:

A description of what volunteering opportunities entail, supported by images.
Benefits both to your nonprofit and to volunteers.
The date, time, and location of each opportunity.
Several ways to sign up or contact your organization.

You could choose to make a large flyer explaining all the volunteer openings your nonprofit is trying to fill or several smaller flyers highlighting specific opportunities.

Example: Habitat for Humanity

Fundraising flyer format ideas

In addition to the variety of content types that you can use for your fundraising flyers, you can design them in several different styles. Each format type is suited for different delivery methods, and although you could use any style of flyer with any content you wanted, some types below and in the previous list pair particularly well.

1. Classic poster-style flyer

When you think of a flyer, the first thing that comes to mind is probably a rectangular poster about the size of a piece of printer paper. A classic, poster-style flyer could provide information about:

In-person events
Virtual events
In-kind donation drives

These are probably the most versatile style of flyer—in digital form, they’ll be small files that download quickly from your website, and you can print many copies in-house to deliver door-to-door or post around your community with permission.

2. Mailer-style flyer

When you start a direct mail marketing campaign, include a flyer with information and updates on your organization to illustrate the impact that donations will make. These flyers should cover specific fundraising initiatives, such as:

New donation programs
Major funding needs
Campaigns targeted to specific groups

Alternatively, mail out flyers individually to spread awareness of your organization.

3. Uniquely shaped flyer

Anyone can make a rectangular flyer, and nearly all organizations will. To make yours stand out on a bulletin board or in the mail, try designing your flyer in a different shape, such as:

The outline of your nonprofit’s logo
A shape related to your mission (such as a paw print for an animal shelter or a stack of books for an education-focused nonprofit)
An important item to the fundraiser you’re advertising (like a running shoe for a 5K or a can of soup for a food drive)

The main drawbacks to uniquely shaped flyers are that they can be more time-consuming to produce in-house since your staff or volunteers will have to cut each one out individually, and a print shop may charge more for each one. But if you really want to make your flyer stand out, these extra costs will be worth the added benefit of grabbing supporters’ attention.

4. Brochure-style flyer

For fundraisers where you need to go into extra detail in the marketing materials, creating a tri-fold brochure instead of a single-page flyer will maximize the available space on a standard piece of paper.

Organizational overview: Include a variety of statistics and photos of your impact.
Specific fundraising initiatives: Detail new funding needs or donation programs.
Volunteer opportunity: Give supporters several options for involvement.

These may take longer to download digitally than a poster-style flyer, but they’re just as easy to print many copies of so that each supporter can take one and refer back to it later.

How to start designing fundraising flyers

When you decide to make any content type or style of fundraising flyer for your nonprofit, you have two main options for creating the design. First, someone within your organization can make the flyer themselves, using graphic design tools available to help nonprofits, each of which offers a range of templates and features so that you can choose the program that best fits your needs.

But if you run into challenges when trying to create a flyer in-house or want to take your design to the next level, you can partner with expert graphic designers. Kwala is a graphic design service that connects nonprofits with a team of experienced professionals. Their subscription model gives your organization an unlimited number of designs and revisions each month for a flat rate. If you want to try out Kwala’s services before committing to the monthly rate, you can also request a quote on a one-off project.

Additional fundraising flyer resources

No matter what content or format type you choose, fundraising flyers are a great way to market your nonprofit. Spread awareness and spark engagement by creating a flyer for your organization today!

For more information, check out these resources:

Nonprofit Marketing Ideas: Promote Your Cause Effectively. Are you trying to figure out how fundraising flyers will fit into your nonprofit’s overall marketing strategy? Take a look at these ideas.
Creating Your Best Fundraising Flyer: 8 FAQs. Do you still have unanswered questions about designing fundraising flyers? This FAQ list will help you overcome challenges in the flyer creation process.
Kwala: Quality Subscription-Based Graphic Design. Are you ready to partner with expert graphic designers to create fundraising flyers for your organization? Fill out Kwala’s onboarding form to get started.