For many small charities with limited resources, having a professional designer or photographer in-house or on-demand can get pricey. Depending on your charity’s work, your daily routine may or may not be conducive to Instagram-worthy photography. Not all of us are rescuing cute puppies or cuddly pandas. Fortunately, you can get stellar visuals for your charity’s use at little to no cost.
If you often find yourself scrambling to assemble last-minute donor or volunteer emails, it’s time to get resourceful. When all you’re missing is the perfect photo or graphic to go with your well-crafted copy, take a moment to peruse the websites below. They offer free (or very low-cost), professional photos and graphics, which are available for commercial and personal use. They are guaranteed to save you time and money and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them.
Pexels: This website offers thousands of free, professional photos that you can save to your computer and use as needed. They have photos readily available to suit just about every charitable cause you can think of: environmental, religious, social services, animal - you name it. The best part? They’re a far cry from the typical stock photos that can tend to feel more or less artificial. Find photos on Pexels.com.
The Noun Project: Their mission is to share, celebrate and enhance the world’s visual language into one easy-to- use, online library that can be accessed by anyone. With graphics added daily by graphic designers across the globe, and nearly a million curated icons, they are undoubtedly on the fast track to offering a graphic for just about every person, place or thing imaginable. Explore TheNounProject.com.
Creative Market: It’s exactly what it sounds like; a market fuelled by creativity. Whether you need photos, graphics, fonts, presentation templates, brochure templates, website designs, or simply inspiration, you’ll find it at CreativeMarket.com. Sign up for their weekly eNewsletter and you’ll receive an exciting selection of free assets every Monday. Visit CreativeMarket.com.
Canva: Creating beautiful social media posts, posters, blog graphics, ads, email banners and other digital marketing essentials is super easy with Canva’s built-in text editor and drag-and-drop functionality. A wide array of beautiful, free designs are available to choose from, and you can even upload your own. Create your next design at Canva.com.
Unsplash: Based out of Montreal, Québec, the Unsplash team reviews every photo submitted to their website, resulting in curation of gorgeous, unique photography for your use. They seem to have a knack for landscape and wildlife photography that may especially appeal to all you environmental charities out there. Browse photos at Unsplash.com.
Bookmark this page for the next time you find yourself craving some fresh, inspiring photos to liven up your emails and blog content. We want to hear from you! Does your charity use other creative websites and resources not listed here? Share them with the charity community by commenting below.
Nicole Danesi is a Marketing Associate at CanadaHelps. As a registered charity itself, CanadaHelps.org allows donors to safely donate and fundraise online for any registered Canadian charity and also provides charities the secure online fundraising platform and education resources they need to succeed. Stay connected with CanadaHelps on Twitter @CanadaHelps.
