More and more nonprofits are using visuals to tell their story, illustrate impact, and create a case for giving. But creating visuals can sometimes be costly, time consuming, and seemingly impossible without advanced software. At Network for Good, we see clients using visuals in amazing ways to share their stories, engage donors, and raise more money in ways that are effective, easy, and—guess what?—FREE! We’ve compiled a top 10 list of tools and techniques to help you incorporate more visuals into your organization’s work.
10. Keep it simple! Start by taking and sharing pictures of your team and the people, places, or purpose you serve. Pictures taken with your phone are totally okay!
9. Empower your constituents to help. Ask volunteers, board members, and others involved with your organization to take pictures and send them to you. Then you’ll have options to choose from when you need a photo.
Brianne Nadeau is Martha's Table! Supporter/Neighbor/Volunteer + Ward 1 DC Councilmember10 years#IAmMarthasTable at bit.ly/IAmMT
Posted by Martha's Table on Thursday, April 16, 2015
Martha’s Table is encouraging their community to share #IAmMarthasTable photos on social media to celebrate their 35th anniversary.
8. Have pictures, but they need to be edited or jazzed up? Check out Picmonkey, a great free photo editing service.
7. Once you create a great image, make sure it’s correctly sized for every social media channel. Our friends at Constant Contact created a great cheat sheet to help you size all your images.
6. Do file names like JPEG, PNG, and GIF confuse you as much as they confuse me? Here’s a helpful chart to show you when to use what file type.
5. Still don’t have a picture you want to use? Check out this helpful list of stock image sites to find a picture to fit your need.
4. Share your impact using an infographic. Check out Picktochart, a fantastic infographic creator that’s free for nonprofits!
3. If you haven’t discovered Canva yet, go check it out! Canva is our favorite tool on the marketing team here at Network for Good—and we’re pretty sure it’ll be your favorite too. Plus, it’s free!
2. Join us tomorrow for our next Nonprofit911 webinar, “The Art of Social Media,” featuring Guy Kawasaki, chief evangelist at Canva. Guy will be talking about how to build your online presence and how to use visual tools to do so! Register now!
We made this graphic with Canva!
1. Have fun and be creative! The days of posed headshots and perfectly positioned group photos are behind us. People engage with brands and organizations in fun, organic, and unique ways. Might we suggest a social media selfie contest?
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Join the conversation to offer your insight and experience. Have a question? We’d love to hear it!