Substance and Style

Like any business, nonprofit organizations require effective graphic design. In order to be effective, all design needs a goal, and that goal is usually to influence the audience’s behavior.  Getting someone to support a cause requires a different approach than getting someone to buy something. For one thing, you must appeal to morality instead of desire, which can be a tougher sell. Instead of convincing people that they would feel better if they bought a particular brand of ice cream, you must remind people that they would feel better if the world were just and people weren’t suffering. Here are some things to remember in order to create a more effective design for advocacy:

1. Stay consistent with the established brand. This is a rule for all design; cause marketing is not an exception. Brand recognition is important to everyone. If you are working for a specific organization, stick to established branding and style guides. 
2. Use colors that are associated with the message, as long as they don’t clash with the brand’s colors. For example, blue is associated with education and green is associated with environmental issues. It’s common to use jarring color combinations for shocking statistics (the current trend is red over black and white). 
3. Take a page from the grant writing handbook. When you write a grant, you typically present an emotional appeal for your mission as well as the underlying facts supporting the need for it. You should think of design in the same way. Appeal to the audience’s empathy, but don’t just appeal to the audience’s empathy. Some people may be moved to volunteer or speak up for your cause because you have tugged at their heartstrings, but others, especially donors, tend to require the underlying facts: how many people are affected, how donations are used, how your mission aligns with their mission, etc. If you can create a balance of facts and emotion, you will appeal to a larger audience. This is especially important for smaller organizations that don’t have the budget for multiple campaigns. 
4. Strive for clarity. Nothing about your design should be confusing. The words and images should work together to convey one message. Try not to use large chunks of text unless you’re working on a multi-page document. If you do need to use a lot of text, try to break it up into bullet points or small paragraphs with white space in between. Consider using bold or pull quotes to direct the reader to the most important information. 
5. Be cognizant of the audience’s needs. This is always important, but it bears repeating here. When you’re working to solve problems, make sure you aren’t contributing to different problems. Use good design principles. Make sure your online content can be read and understood on a variety of devices. Make your content accessible. Don’t use tiny type or poor contrast.  Always leave enough negative space to make a design easy on the eyes.
6. Choose everything for maximum impact. You don’t want to throw everything about a cause or organization into one design. Choose thought-provoking facts, numbers, and stories. Use color, size, and space for maximum visual impact.