When & When Not to Bring in a Professional Nonprofit Graphic Designer
Learn when and when not to hire a professional nonprofit graphic designer to support your organization.
Nonprofits have what feels like a million marketing pieces to design each year. Appeals, pamphlets, social media graphics, website images…the list, as you know, is quite long.
Most of the nonprofits I’ve worked with truly appreciate and understand the importance of a strong brand image. The challenge, however, is almost always a choice between your budget and your team’s capability and capacity.
So, when should you put on your DIY hat and dive into design? And when is it time to bring in a professional nonprofit graphic designer?
In this article, I’ll help you decide when a graphic designer is worth the investment and share tips to make your DIY design pieces shine.
Your Branding is Your Design’s Foundation - Make Sure it's Solid.
First and foremost, if you haven’t yet defined your brand design, start here. Before designing a web graphic or brochure, you need to solidify the visual elements of your brand.
Tip: Brand design calls for a professional graphic designer
Why? Because your brand’s design elements are the guiding light for all of the design elements that follow. Establishing a thoughtful and meaningful logo, brand elements, and supporting tools is essential to the long-term success of your nonprofit.
Invest what dollars you can and hire an experienced nonprofit graphic designer to support your organization’s vision.
DIY Nonprofit Design Has a Time and Place. Here’s How to Do it Successfully.
When your brand design is established, and it's time to put it to work, you’ll need to make a decision: should you hire a professional or DIY your design?
To decide, I recommend nonprofits consider two factors: impact and difficulty.
The higher the impact a piece will have on your audience or the more difficult or elaborate you need it to be, the higher the odds are that you should enlist a professional.
Items with a lesser impact or that are easier to create are usually fair game to DIY. Most often, these are pieces that have a short shelf life or can be templated. Think social media graphics, presentations, and memos.
If you decide to take the DIY route, remember the onus is on you to ensure your design represents your brand and serves as a visual steward for your organization.
To Better Ensure Success, Follow My 4 Rules for DIY Nonprofit Design.
Rule 1: Stick to Your Brand Guidelines
For all of the reasons explained above, a solid design foundation with clear brand guidelines is key to the success of your nonprofit. These guidelines tell you what to do and how to do it, so even if you’re designing a piece yourself, you have a roadmap.
The key here is to stick to it. Fight the urge to play around with colors outside your brand template or try new fonts. Consistency is what inspires brand loyalty.
Rule 2: Go Beyond Your Logo
It takes 5-7 interactions before someone will remember your brand. Consider Coca-Cola. I bet you’d recognize a Coke ad without even seeing the logo. That’s because we instantly recognize the brand’s red color and curvy lines and the bottle’s shape.
A compelling brand uses all of the tools in its toolbox. Just because you plop your logo on a design doesn’t mean you’re showcasing your brand in the best way. Colors, textures, fonts, graphic elements, iconography - these are all opportunities to establish recognition with your audience. So make sure you use them!
3: Canva is an Endcap, Not a Catch-all
You’ll hear other designers chant, “Death to Canva!” But at the end of the day, it’s a solid DIY resource you can use once you’ve established some boundaries.
Canva is built to templatize creative efforts. While it can be a huge help to non-creatives, when not used thoughtfully, it can place your designs alongside a sea of others. This can dilute your brand identity, making it nearly impossible for your designs to stand out.
Use Canva for DIY design once your brand guidelines are established. Not before. And it should be used when access to Adobe isn’t possible, not as a library of inspiration.
If you decide to design within Canva, set up a Canva Brand Kit. This is a tool within the platform that allows you to pre-set fonts, colors, and your logo so you’re always designing consistently.
Rule 4: Don’t Neglect Photography
Photography is an essential and often primary part of your visual identity. There are a ton of resources out there for affordable or free photography when hiring a professional is out of your budget. But remember, the same rules apply to photography as they do to the rest of your creative efforts:
Define a style and stick to it. Consider color, mood, and angles as much as the subject.
For example, if you search for a stock image with the keyword “community,” you’ll find hundreds of different styles and options. When selecting the right image, be choosey. Dig for the one that reflects the composition you’re after and your overall brand identity.
Invest in Design Where You Can. DIY Where You Can’t.
There’s nothing wrong with DIY-ing your nonprofit's design elements as long as it’s done with care and follows your brand guidelines.
Remember, your brand guidelines should help define your brand foundation - not restrict it. The better you define your visual identity up front, the easier it will be to showcase it across all platforms and marketing efforts – and give you confidence in creating some materials on your own.
Good luck as you jump into creating incredible designs for your nonprofit! And remember, if you’re looking for design support, we’re always here to lend a hand.
Happy Designing!
Jill
Jill Kratz
About The Author
Jill Kratz’s passion is using creativity to solve problems and designing meaningful projects that have an everyday impact. In addition to her skills as a designer, she believes that collaboration is at the heart of powerful creative work. She brings this people-forward approach to every client. Jill has facilitated countless workshops focusing on the intersection of creativity and strategy.