Tel: 01827 768286
Design and Branding for Nonprofits
We know how the sector works
Nonprofits don’t have the luxury of wasted budgets. Every penny you spend on design needs to work. Whether you’re a local charity building credibility with new funders, a social enterprise refreshing a brand that’s outgrown its original identity, or a national organisation running a fundraising campaign, the stakes are higher than most people assume.
The problem most nonprofit teams run into isn’t a lack of ambition. It’s time, capacity, and the frustration of working with agencies that don’t understand the sector. Agencies that need everything explained twice, deliver work that looks like a corporate rebrand, or can’t adapt to smaller budgets and governance-heavy sign-off processes.
We’ve been working with charities, social enterprises, and nonprofits for 16 years. We understand how funding cycles affect timelines, what trustees want to see, why donor communications need a completely different tone to service-user materials, and what good actually looks like when the budget isn’t unlimited.
Who we work with:
- Local and community charities
- National nonprofits and foundations
- Social enterprises
- Hospices and health charities
- Arts and heritage organisations
- Membership bodies and professional associations
Who we work with
Local and community charities
You do important work. The brand should reflect that, not make you look like you knocked the logo together in an afternoon. We help smaller charities build identities that feel credible and considered, without charging like you’ve got a corporate marketing budget.
National nonprofits and foundations
Bigger organisations come with more stakeholders, more layers of approval, and more ways for a project to slow down. We’ve navigated all of that. We know how to keep things moving without cutting corners, and how to present work in a way that gets sign-off.
Social enterprises
Social enterprises sit in a strange middle ground. Too commercial-looking and you lose the community feel. Too charity-like and you undermine the business credibility you need. We help you find the balance, and hold it consistently across everything you produce.
Hospices and health charities
Health-related charities need design that handles difficult subject matter without being either bleak or saccharine. It’s a harder brief than most people realise. We’ve worked in this space and know how to get the tone right.
Arts and heritage organisations
Lottery-funded projects, heritage sites, arts organisations. Often design-literate audiences with high expectations and limited budgets. We produce work that does justice to the subject matter and satisfies the people holding the purse strings.
Membership bodies and professional associations
Not strictly charities, but the same rules apply. Multiple audiences, competing priorities, and a board with opinions. We’ve been there. We know how to produce work that serves members, attracts new ones, and makes the organisation look like it has its act together.
What we do for nonprofit clients
Brand Identity
A rebrand is a big ask for any nonprofit. Governance, legacy associations, audiences who’ve grown up with the old look. We approach it carefully. Proper discovery, clear rationale, and a finished identity the whole organisation can get behind. Logo, colour, typography, imagery, and guidelines your team can actually use.
Website and Social Media Design
Our website needs to reassure donors, serve users quickly, and satisfy funders all at once, on any device. Your social media needs to do the same job in a fraction of the space. We design and build websites that work for every audience, and create social assets and templates your team can use to produce content.
Fundraising and Campaign Materials
Fundraising campaigns live or die on the strength of the creative. The wrong tone and donors switch off. The wrong visual hierarchy and the ask gets buried. We design campaign materials across print, digital, and social around a clear objective, crafted to move people to act.
Motion Graphics and Video
Impact reports, social media, awareness campaigns, donor stewardship. Video & motion graphics cut through in a way static design can’t, particularly for organisations trying to communicate the human side of what they do. We make content that feels considered and purposeful, not like it was filmed on someone’s phone at the last minute.
Annual Reports and Documents
The annual report is often the document that gets the most scrutiny and the least enjoyment. We design reports that are actually worth reading. Clear data visualisation, strong photography direction, layouts that communicate confidence. Whether it’s digital, print, or both.
Print and Publications
Fundraising packs, service user guides, event programmes, case study booklets. Print still does a job in the nonprofit sector, particularly at moments of personal connection. We design print materials that reflect your brand properly and work hard where it counts.
Nonprofit projects
Over a decade of projects across across charities, social enterprises, membership bodies, and health organisations.. Here’s a selection.
How we work
1. Brief and discovery
We start by getting under the skin of your organisation. Who are you actually trying to reach? What does the funder see versus what the service user sees? What’s working about the current brand, if anything? We ask the questions that surface the real brief, not just the one on the initial call.
2. Strategy and messaging
Before we touch a design tool, we make sure the foundations are solid. Positioning, tone of voice, key messages. The things that make your communications feel consistent whether you’re sending a donor email or producing a printed appeal.
3. Creative development
We work collaboratively and keep you in the loop. Concepts are presented with clear rationale, feedback is taken seriously, and revisions happen without the drama. Nothing should land on your desk as a surprise.
4. Delivery and handover
Final assets, brand guidelines, and everything your team needs to keep things consistent going forward. Whether you’re applying the brand in-house or continuing to work with us, you’ll leave with everything you need.
A design agency that gets the nonprofit sector…
We’re not an agency that lists charities as one of fifteen sectors we serve and then treats every brief the same way. The nonprofit sector has its own rhythms, its own pressures, and its own standards for what good looks like. We’ve been working in it long enough to understand all of that.
If you’re based in Staffordshire, the West Midlands, or anywhere across the Midlands and you’re working on something worth doing, we’d be glad to hear about it.
FAQs
Both. Some of our favourite projects have been with smaller charities where we’ve had the chance to build something from the ground up. We adapt our process and pricing to fit the scale of the project, not the other way round.
Yes. If the identity is solid and you just need someone to apply it properly and creatively across a range of outputs, that’s something we do regularly. We don’t push for a full rebrand if one isn’t needed.
We’re used to it. Presenting work to boards, incorporating feedback from multiple stakeholders, working within approval structures that take longer than a straightforward commercial project. It’s part of working in this sector and we build it into how we manage projects.
Yes. We can provide quotes and project outlines suitable for grant applications, and we’re experienced at scoping work to fit funding parameters. Get in touch early and we can work through the options with you.
We work with nonprofits at different budget levels and we’ll scope every project accordingly. The honest answer is: get in touch and we’ll give you a straight answer within 24 hours.
Yes. A number of our nonprofit clients work with us on a retainer basis, using us for everything from campaign materials to annual report production. It’s more cost-effective than starting from scratch each time, and the work stays consistent.
Ready?
Let’s create something brilliant.
Free 30-minute discovery call, no obligation. Just an honest conversation about what you need.