The best graphic design tools for charities

Great graphic design is a great tool for getting people to pay attention to your charity online. More than 1.2 million people have stopped to admire the stunning images from the National Trust on Instagram because of their beautiful imagery and well-branded graphics.

 

Small and micro charities, such as arts organisation Youth Music, have also been able to boost their following online with bright, shareable images; Youth Music has more than 7,800 followers on Instagram. 

 

Using flawless graphics to tell compelling stories, these organisations enhance their content, increasing reach and engaging audiences. Research suggests that well-chosen visual content makes users 80% more likely to engage with the written content it accompanies, while compelling images make text easier to remember and digest. 

 

With the right graphic design and editing software, charity teams can build a wealth of remarkable content at little to no cost. Below, we run through some of the best (and most cost-effective) graphic design options for charities.

 

 

The best tools for designing and editing graphics

 

• Adobe Express Premium

 

Adobe Express is an online and mobile app for creating custom marketing materials, including social graphics, videos, and more. The software’s pre-built templates and access to royalty-free stock images allows charities to create a variety of content without requiring any graphic design experience. 

 

Through the Charity Digital Exchange, charities can gain free access for up to ten devices for one year. Charities can add effects, remove backgrounds from photos, resize images, and much more.

 

Organisations can also upload their brand elements, such as logo, colour scheme, and fonts to easily apply them to any design. This brand identity can be shared across teams to ensure consistency. It also allows charities to plan, schedule, and publish their social media posts easily – all completely for free.  

 

How much does it cost? Free, through the Charity Digital Exchange

 

• Canva

 

The creative graphic and editing software offers users templates to work from and can help them create everything from social media banners to presentations. It is intuitive and easy for people at all levels of experience, and the ready-made templates can be a timesaver for those who need to create content on the fly. 

 

For charities on a shoestring budget, the basic package is free, but offers a narrower selection of tools, including no access to its background remover tool and a limit of 10 downloads per month. For more than that, charities would need to upgrade to Canva Pro.

 

How much does it cost? The basic version is free and pricing for Canva Pro starts at £99.99 per year, however Canva for Nonprofits allows nonprofits to use Canva’s premium features for free.

 

• GIMP

 

For more advanced users and graphic designers, GIMP is a free graphics manipulation package. The digital ‘canvas’ can be customised to suit user preferences. GIMP allows users to contribute to the platform, so charities familiar with programming languages can create their own workflows to automate graphic editing. 

 

For charity digital marketing and communications teams who are starting out, the GIMP website also has tutorials, but this option may be too complex for organisations looking for a more intuitive platform.

 

How much does it cost? Free

 

• Inkscape

 

An alternative to GIMP, Inkscape is an open source code, free-to-use graphic design and editing software. Similar to GIMP, Inkscape gives graphic designers and developers the option to contribute to the platform’s coding, which may be challenging for some charities starting out on their digital journey or those simply looking to improve their imagery at pace.

 

For designing and editing graphics, the typical suite of tools is available, including layering, text additions, colour augmentation and more. 

 

How much does it cost? Free

 

• Pablo

 

Free for charities, Pablo’s stock images, text boxes, and content sizing are perfect those looking to immediately upload to social media. By Buffer, Pablo has over 600,000 images to choose from, or charities can upload their own stock images.

 

Once selected, images can be layered with text and customised by size for Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. However, for larger, more complicated projects, other editing software might be more suitable as Pablo offers limited graphic creation and editing features.

 

How much does it cost? The basic version is free; other packages start at $60 per year

 

• Stencil

 

Loaded with over 2.2 million royalty free images, Stencil’s image library offers charities a wealth of choice to create digital content. Stencil is also an online graphic content editor and creator. Tailored specifically for social media content, Stencil has pre-set image dimensions for most platforms.

 

Once created, Stencil can also link-up with the social media manager Buffer so projects are uploaded according to schedule. For charities, Stencil offers a 7-day free trial.  

 

How much does it cost? The basic version is free; other packages start at $108 when billed annually

 

• Sketch

 

A downloadable application for Apple Mac users, Sketch offers charities a free 30-day trial. The graphic design and image editor specialises in creating digital content, and, for charities working in teams, projects can be shared internally. The software also offers templates and sizing formats suitable for social media platforms.  The tool is made for Mac, but also has a web app for non-Apple users. 

 

How much does it cost? Standard pricing starts at $108 when billed annually