The FREE Gamechanging App Your Nonprofit Should Be Using

Episode Overview

• The episode introduces Canva as an essential and free design tool for nonprofits, highlighting its user-friendly interface and powerful capabilities.
• The speaker explains how nonprofits can get a free upgrade to a Canva Pro account, unlocking premium features at no cost.
• The discussion covers various ways nonprofits can use Canva, from creating social media graphics and GIFs to designing professional annual reports and event invitations.
• Key benefits like maintaining brand consistency, saving time, and creating engaging content without a design budget are emphasized throughout the episode.

Key Concepts

• Canva is presented as a "game-changer" for nonprofits, offering a user-friendly alternative to complex software like Photoshop for creating a wide range of marketing materials.
• Nonprofits can apply for a free Canva Pro account, which allows them to upload their specific brand colors and fonts, ensuring all created assets are consistent with their style guide.
• The tool helps diversify social media content on platforms like Instagram by enabling the creation of quotes, text carousels, and GIFs, which can break up monotonous photo feeds and increase engagement.
• Canva empowers organizations with limited budgets to produce high-quality, professional documents like annual reports and presentations in-house, saving significant costs on graphic designers.

Quotes

• At 00:46 - "Canva is basically like Photoshop for the masses, right? It's completely user-friendly, it has a really robust capability to create social media graphics, invites, presentations, and even an annual report." - explaining the core function and versatility of Canva.
• At 01:16 - "You can take five minutes and load your organization's style guide. So that means your fonts, your brand colors, load them into your pro account, do it one time, and it's done." - highlighting the time-saving benefit of setting up a brand kit for consistent design.

Takeaways

• Immediately go to Canva.com and apply for a free Pro account for your nonprofit to access premium features.
• Upload your organization's style guide, including fonts and brand colors, to ensure all your designs are consistent and on-brand.
• Use Canva to create a variety of content for social media, such as quote graphics, text carousels, and GIFs, to make your feed more visually interesting and engaging.
• Leverage Canva's templates to design professional documents like annual reports and presentations without needing to hire a graphic designer.
• Create all your event collateral, from invitations to social media cover photos, in one place to streamline your workflow and maintain a cohesive look.