If you’re anything like me when I first started out designing for the nonprofit I worked at, you took one look at the design program that was recommended to you (Adobe Creative Suite) and felt completely overwhelmed, not to mention way in over your head. 

Sadly, ten years ago, to create something that didn’t look like Microsoft Word clip art (clippy the paperclip anyone?), using Adobe Creative Suite was my only option, as not many other online options existed. 

So what did I do? Well, the Enneagram 1 in me gathered all the details I needed, wrote a short proposal, submitted it to my director, and prayed she would see the value of justifying investing a few hundred dollars of our nonprofit budget into purchasing this design program.

Thankfully, my efforts were successful, and she gave the go ahead on the purchase. And thus began my journey of learning how to draw a line in Illustrator, create a newsletter in InDesign, and edit photos in Photoshop. (Oh but I still cringe at those first designs!) 

Many trials and errors, google searches and YouTube videos later, I can find my way around Adobe pretty well. 

But I also know that most nonprofits don’t have the time nor energy to spend hours upon hours learning this program and the basics of design. Well friend, I have good news for you, you don’t have to.

I’m about to make your life much easier!

Thanks to the ingenuity of the millennial generation (yeah I’m gonna claim this one for us), there are now multiple programs online that you can use to literally drag and drop to create beautiful graphics. I’m going to introduce you to my two top favorites.

#1 CANVA

Canva is a pretty well known program by now, and the company continues to grow. I’ve used Canva for years now, and they have saved so many hours of my life. Not only do they have loads of beautiful graphics to choose from, but they have templates for just about anything under the sun! 

Need to create a quick Facebook Event header? Just click on that option and it automatically sizes it for you. Pre-sized instagram post? Not a problem. You can even create things such as menus, certificates, flyers, email headers and business cards. Literally, almost anything you can think of. 

The best news? Canva is absolutely free!

Anyone can go on, create an account, and begin creating. Now, a small sidenote is that some of their graphics do cost money (usually $1 per graphic). But I’ve found that there is such a massive library of free graphics, that I’ve never had to use a paid for one. You can also import your own graphics or images, which I often do.  

But, it gets even better. For registered nonprofits, they offer an exclusive deal that gives you their premium version for free! Their premium version allows you to have unlimited storage space, access to 400,000 more graphics and photos, set color palettes for your nonprofit’s brand, upload fonts from your brand, download designs with transparent backgrounds, and so much more! This version is normally priced at $12.95 per month. 

What more could you ask for? And the best news is that it is so easy to use, anyone could do it. To apply for the nonprofit deal, SEE HERE. 

#2 Piktochart

Another favorite quick design program I like to use is Piktochart. Piktochart is used to design beautiful infographics. Have an Annual Report ready to go out, but want to create a quick, visually appealing 1-pager showing your impact for the year? Piktochart is your friend. 

They have hundreds of pre-made templates you can choose from, or you can also start from complete scratch. I personally usually start with a template, and then tweak it to how I want it to look. 

And guess what? Although Piktochart is not free, they also offer an incredible deal for nonprofits!

You can get a yearly subscription with them starting at only $39.99 per year (and trust me, it’s worth it!). This is compared to the normal $150 per year for the lite plan.

Piktochart operates similarly to Canva, with drag-and-drop functionality that anyone could use. To apply for the nonprofit deal, SEE HERE.

Well friends, there you have it. Although the perfectionist in me still loves to design in my Adobe programs, if I’m in a rush, need to save time and just get a quick graphic created (especially for social media), these two tools are my definite go-to’s.

Hopefully they will become your friends too, saving you hours upon hours of your valuable time, while still giving you beautiful graphics to represent your brand. Keep up the good work!