by Jayne Cravens
via coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web site)

Design Checklist: What to Review Before Publishing a Communications Product

A drawing meant to look like
a petroglyph. A figure is carving petroglyphs. Nonprofits produce communications products, online and in print, from web pages to social media to brochures.

Whether that product is designed by a professional designer or is designed by someone who has never had a design class, each of those communications products needs to be:

relevant / necessary
complete
informative
legible for a majority of viewers / readers
understandable for a majority of the target audience

It doesn't matter how attractive a poster is, it doesn't matter how "cute" or powerful a logo is, it doesn't matter how much you like the color scheme - if a published product doesn't have those five qualities, it is not a quality communications product and will not fully meet your communications goals. If it doesn't have those qualities, you aren't going to have a good turnout for an event, you aren't going to create support for your organization, you aren't going to increase your donor base, and on and on.

There are a lot of terrific resources about how to make accessible web sites. There are a lot of resources to advise on the usability of online materials. But advice for design on print products and graphics used in social media have been buried under AI slop and click bait. The web page you are reading now, written by a human with decades of experience overseeing designers, is meant to help fill the gap in this lack of easy-to-find guidance.

Nonprofits, NGOs, community groups, government agencies and other mission-based companies create and publish print products: flyers, postcards, annual reports, fact sheets, brochures, posters and on and on. They also produce graphics for social media that are full of critical information. For those communications products to meet the aforementioned five goals, they need to have certain information and present it in a certain way. Hence the below checklist. It's for both designers, whether professional or a student or a volunteer, and for those that work with designers.

Nonprofit executive directors: don't be afraid to tell a designer that these qualities on this page are important. Don't be afraid to say, "You have to change this, because readability is essential, and I can't read this." Designers can get too focused on an attractive arrangement and sometimes need to be reminded of what the priorities are of your organization or program.

Checklist for your communications products

Here's a checklist that can help you whenever you create any communications product, whether its a flyer, a poster, a brochure, or a graphic for social media, and can help the nonprofit executive director or marketing manager or whomever who is viewing a design know if it meets the five requirements from the top of the page:

Is the name of the event or topic on the thing to be published?
Is the physical address there?
Is the date & time there?
Is it noted if registration or a fee is required, or if this is free?
Is everything spelled correctly?
Is the organization's official logo there, and is it at least as large as the name of the event or topic name?
Is the organization's web address there?
Does a "why" statement need to be there, or is it obvious from the title?
Is ALL of the text large enough to read without a magnifying glass? (usually, anything less than 12 points is hard to read).
Is the text really dark on a really light background, or white on a really dark background? Never put, say, dark yellow on light yellow , gold or white.
If this is a printed flyer, can you read it a few feet away, without having to get really close to it?
If this is a graphic on social media, can anyone read ALL of the text on it without having to magnify a part of the graphic (for instance, the address of the event - is the text so tiny that some people, even most people, have to make their screen bigger to read it?)
If this is going to be an online ad or in print ad,and if you are using a photo, what are the pixel resolution requirements for the graphics? The lower the pixels, the worse the resolution (and the worse it will look).
Does the organization have agreements with sponsors that their logos should be present on this product? Please remember that no sponsor logo should be bigger than the nonprofit organization's.

Single focus whenever possible

Sometimes, you need to make two posters, or two social media graphics, each with different information on it, instead of just one. That means that you may need a poster for EACH event, rather than trying to put multiple events on one image or product.

Someone should be able to merely glance at a poster or flyer or web page and know, in general, what that page is about. If the product is too busy, all someone may see is a lot of easy-to-ignore text Or they may see one graphic that, while cute or fun, doesn't represent the information you are trying to convey. You may love that graphic representing American football to use for your "kick off" event, but is it clear from the title of the product that, in fact, what you are announcing or promoting has nothing to do with football?

At a glance, I should know that you are announcing a volunteer orientation. Or a theater production. Or openings to serve on your board. Or a class. Or a kids' activity. Or that this publication is your annual report - and for what fiscal year.

A warning about Canva

I use Canva. But I also make sure, when I use it, that I alter the graphics and design enough so that, if someone else uses the same template or starts out with the same graphic, our products will NOT look alike. You may think that's unnecessary, but TWICE I've seen two different nonprofits in my community use the same Canva graphic for their annual fundraising event. So many nonprofits social media accounts are starting to look the same as well. If you aren't taking photos of your own to use on social media and your web site, if you over-use Canva for graphics, you are going to look more and more generic - and be more and more forgettable.

I'm not a professional designer

It's pretty clear from the simple, almost primitive design of my web site that I'm not a professional designer. But when you work in communications for nonprofits, you often have to design flyers, posters, brochures, web sites, etc. My designs are plain and blocky. My designs won't win any design awards. However, my designs adhere to all of the aforementioned suggested qualities, and that means they work: I am amazing at recruiting volunteers, at getting attendance to an event, at getting participation in a program, at getting traffic on a web site, and on and on.

I once worked for a nonprofit that, before I joined, had all of its brochures designed by an award-winning graphic designer. One of his brochures won a design award. They presented me with the brochure during my job interview. I looked at it for a moment, and then I was honest: "I can't read most of this." The Executive Director stared at me for a second and asked what the problem was. So I went through all of the design issues: light-colored text on light colored backgrounds, and text often too small for me to read without squinting - and I was in my late 20s and didn't wear glasses. I also held the brochure up and noted that, from even just a few steps away, I had no idea what the brochure was for, because the text was too small and the color scheme too hard to read. I was amazed I still got the job. But we never used the award-winning graphic design again.

My point is that, even if you are NOT a professional designer, you know what your nonprofit needs. You know your audience, which likely includes seniors and people over 40 who do not like to be called seniors but also can't read 9 point fonts.

More Communications Resources (on my web site or blog):

I have an extensive online library of tips for Community Relations, Advocacy & Communications for nonprofits, NGOs, community groups, government agencies, andother mission-based organizations. The advice, all offered for free (no paywalls), is based on real-world experience with mission-based agencies. None is written by AI - there's no imagined or theoretical advice here. There's real-world advice here regarding various aspects of social media management, blogging, podcasts, web site design and management, addressing online criticism, evaluating communications activities and much more.

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