3 Tips to Improve Your Nonprofit’s Imagery
2 min to read ✭ Learn three tips to improve your nonprofit’s imagery to connect with donors and increase year end giving.
We are almost to September, which means it’s time to start preparing for Year End. For a nonprofit’s fundraising campaign to be effective towards year end, they must make a strong connection with a potential donor to get them to contribute financially. There isn’t one strategy that can be used to generate consistently positive results. However, adding a visual element to campaigns can help to connect with donors emotionally, causing them to make a donation–hopefully on a recurring basis and not just as a one-time gift at the end of the year.
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words and visual storytelling can be a powerful way to increase giving. Here are some tips and best practices we think nonprofits should be utilizing when it comes to imagery.
1. Use Emotional Imagery
When making an appeal, use emotional or urgent imagery to connect donors to a specific problem they can solve. Compelling pictures that tug at their heartstrings is a must. However, that doesn’t always mean using “sad” images. Using a great emotional, hopeful image works well too. You want donors to envision the good their gift will accomplish. This kind of imagery establishes in their mind that they can fix the “sad” problem in the appeal into a “hopeful” one with a gift or donation!
2. Use Personal Images
Personal images resonate well with people, so instead of large groups of people, choose an image that includes one person or a small group. Connect a great story to a person with a name and a face. Use one with your subjects looking at the camera if you can! UNICEF does a good job at utilizing imagery of small groups of children in the images they share. Humans react to eyes looking at us, whether it’s on the page, the screen, or real life. This kind of image will grab donors’ attention and make them more likely to respond to your appeal.
3. Show Your Nonprofit’s Culture
Your imagery shouldn’t just focus on the issue your organization is trying to solve. You should also be showing off your nonprofit’s internal culture. Many nonprofits work so hard, and their hard work should be seen and recognized. Many donors give to a nonprofit and sometimes have no idea of what takes place behind the scenes. A good strategy would be to showcase the inner workings of your nonprofit and show them what goes on behind the scenes. This can be done using pictures that identify key members of your nonprofit and what their roles are. Habitat for Humanity does a great job at this and regularly features visuals of their volunteers building houses. By giving donors this kind of visual imagery, it helps to strengthen the bond with your nonprofit and encourages giving.
Finally, as you are using all these tips and tricks, just remember to stay consistent. Consistent visuals help nurture familiarity and trust with your nonprofit while inconsistency can cause disconnect between viewers and your visuals. When you apply specific branding elements to your images, you make it easier for people to identify your messaging and recognize it. Make sure that the style of your images, specific brand colors, and fonts are consistent across your images.
Remember, images help donors visualize your mission and connect with your work, so start using images as a way of storytelling and showing your impact to potential donors in your upcoming Year End campaigns! Interested in learning how Community Boost can help with your nonprofit’s Year End campaign? Click on the link below for a free audit with our team of digital marketing experts.
