Last week, we said that design matters to your nonprofit - whether it’s in graphics, on the web, or through video. But what should you specifically be doing to improve your design you ask?

Courtesy of our designer Martha Ormiston, we’ve boiled down the top 3 tenets of graphic design that you and your nonprofit need to follow. In addition to the 3 tips in the graphic below, we’ve provided some additional helpful hints that can get your nonprofit on the right track with graphic design.
 

Here’s some bonus tips:

4. Say more with less. Too much text can turn off a reader from your site, and can result in them clicking away from your nonprofit online. It’s true that sometimes, with design, more is less.

5. Focus the site on what’s important. This is similar to the tip above, but it’s more than just text. If you put too many things on the site, it can become intimidating and users won’t bother browsing your site.

6. Get social. Add share buttons! It’s a fact you need to have your social networks proudly displayed on your homepage, but adding share buttons to content can just increase your reach online. Don’t know where to find share buttons? We’ve got you covered.

7. Use typography and Google Web Fonts. Arial and Helvetica can be effective (though Comic Sans never is), but using some of the free Web Fonts provided by Google can help make your nonprofit’s website stand out.

Following the above seven tips will help your nonprofit’s website stand out from the rest, and can put you on the road to implementing design into your organization’s content strategy.