4 Simple Ways Creative Illustration can Support your Next Nonprofit Campaign
Get seen and heard with compelling visuals that support your cause. Here are four unique ways that illustration can be used to increase the power of your message.
1. Custom Designed Emojis or Sticker Packs
Offer newsletter subscribers custom-designed emojis or virtual sticker packs.
Creating custom emojis or “sticker packs” gives your audience the opportunity to engage with your brand and share your story in a fun and interactive way. American Rivers celebrated National Rivers Month with this free “Life Needs Rivers” emoji pack. These unique stickers became a way to make their cause part of an everyday conversation between friends and family. When someone gets a text message with a cool sticker they’ve never seen before, the first thing they think is “I want that!”
Platforms like Top Stickers make it easy to share your stickers for use on WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage.
2. Artist-Inspired Murals and Interpretive Signage
Create a Call for Artists to develop murals or interpretive signage.
Education comes in all shapes and sizes and learning can happen anywhere. Tastefully and strategically placed murals or interpretive signage creates an opportunity to connect your community with a cause. Art in public spaces creates an approachable, low-pressure environment for a person to gain tidbits of knowledge, feel inspired to take action, spark a conversation or have a sense of wonder.
The Town of Vail put out a call for artists to create art for their storm drains to help educate locals and tourists in the area about the Gore Creek and its declining health. By drawing attention to the storm drains, the project is an opportunity to educate folks that anything going down the drain ends up in the Gore and hurts not only the water quality but the animals who rely on it as their habitat.
3. Custom Illustrated Map Drawings
If your conservation group or nonprofit is place-based, an illustrated map design can be an excellent tool to show an audience your coverage area and visually explain the reach of all of the hard work you do. Maps help people connect with a place and puts your work into perspective. The best part is that can be used in so many applications from reports and PowerPoint presentations to social media posts and direct mail pieces. Hiring a designer to create a custom map can be a larger investment, consider the unique impact it will have, the variety of applications and the longevity of the piece as maps can easily be updated by the designer and used for years to come.
This map was created to help members of the Lake Tahoe community understand how Tahoe Food Hub facilitates the transportation of food from 50+ local farms to Truckee, CA where it’s used by restaurants, in farm shares and sold in their very own farm shop.
The Yampa River Fund (a project by The Nature Conservancy) works to support a healthy river and enhance water security in Colorado’s Yampa Valley. This detailed map illustration of the Yampa River shows everything from recreation areas to potential threats to the area which helps residents and potential supporters understand the size and importance of the rivershed.
4. Illustrated Fact Sheets
Competing for space in today’s media landscape takes something special. A long bulleted list of reasons to support a cause can easily get missed or glazed over. Adding compelling visuals to your message helps grab the attention of your audience and makes the information sharable, savable and – best of all – memorable. Like maps, these visuals can be used for so many applications. Just make sure to check with your designer about licensing your graphic for multiple uses.