If you’re a nonprofit, donor engagement is one of your top priorities.

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Engaged donors take action.

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They support your cause, donate their resources, and increase the impact you’re able to make. But figuring out how to get your donors’ attention and keep them engaged is one of the hardest challenges nonprofits face.

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Graphics and visuals, done well, are one of the secret tools you can use to overcome a lack of donor engagement and get more people interested in supporting your cause. 

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Sound like the kind of solution you’re looking for?

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Come with us as we walk step-by-step through the process of creating visuals that improve donor engagement and drive serious impact. 

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Everything starts with your mission and goals

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At Acton Circle, we work with a lot of clients who come to us feeling frustrated with how much time and money they’re putting into creating graphics and designing visuals that just aren’t getting results.

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We can almost always trace the issue back to one core problem: The nonprofit’s visuals don’t reflect or connect to their overall mission and goals.

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Let’s look at an example.

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Nonprofit A works to provide reading support, tutors, and resources to children who struggle with dyslexia. But when we look at the visuals they’ve created, they feature a neutral, dull color palette, small fonts, and lots of text. 

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These graphics don’t look like they have anything to do with children, and what’s more—they make it hard to read the information due to an abundance of text and a small font size. 

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This is a nonprofit that focuses on making reading more accessible (and fun!) for children. 

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Their graphics will attract more of the right attention, and actually motivate their potential donors to learn more and get excited if they can:

• Use brighter colors to reflect a focus on school-age children
• Increase their font size
• Decrease the amount of text in their visuals
• Add organic shapes and elements of “fun” 

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If you’re struggling to create visuals that improve donor engagement, always go back to your mission and goals.

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Do your visuals reflect your target audience? Do your graphics align with your primary beneficiaries? 

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When your graphics are grounded in your mission—they will always be more effective. 

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Show, don’t tell to increase donor engagement

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The power of visuals is that readers can quickly and easily understand what you’re trying to tell them.

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This is why infographics are so powerful. Instead of reading a two-page report of numbers and stats, you can sum up the findings in one engaging infographic.

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The key here is making sure you’re using your graphics to tell a complete, compelling story. 

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Making an emotional connection is the key to improving donor engagement, and storytelling is one of the strongest ways to build those connections. When a donor can see how their donation is used and what their resources help achieve, they are far more likely to take action. 

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Before-and-after visuals are particularly useful for telling the story of what you do, who you help, and why it matters.

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You can use infographics to highlight key metrics and let donors see for themselves just how crucial their ongoing support is. 

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Remember that graphics show the story you’re trying to tell. Don’t feel like you need to over explain with words when the visuals are clearly telling the story you want to share.

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Stick to your brand guidelines

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Once you’ve aligned your graphics with your mission and goals and committed to telling an emotionally compelling story, it’s time to make sure you’re following your brand guidelines.

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If you don’t have brand guidelines, you may want to work with a professional designer to create a cohesive, effective brand that helps you get more attention and drive stronger donor engagement. 

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When you do have brand guidelines, it’s important that your graphics and visuals follow them every time.

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Consistent branding should include:

• Colors
• Typography
• Logo and brand marks
• Brand patterns
• Image treatments 

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Visuals that follow your brand guidelines create a cohesive experience for your donors and potential donors. They support your visual storytelling efforts and help engage your donors.

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Want to create visuals that improve donor engagement and drive impact?

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We'll help you design materials that connect with your audience and amplify your story. Whether you need a single big project or ongoing support, our team is ready to transform your vision into powerful designs that get more eyes on your mission. Let's talk about your goals.