Hi friends 👋🏻

This week, some tips for building a brand kit! Having a well-organized, accessible brand kit will save your org so much time, AND make sure everything you put out there is aligned and professional-looking.

Disclaimer: I'm not a trained graphic designer, but as I work with nonprofits on digital strategy and website overhauls I ask about a brand kit EVERY TIME. I've seen all the variations ...

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Brand Kit Basics

A brand kit doesn't have to be complicated. At its core, it pulls together:

• Fonts
• Colors
• Logo

If you're including nothing else, just start with those three elements.

Then think about adding in:

• Logo variations
• Brandmark
• Photos
• Graphics
• Icons
• Brand voice guidelines
• Guidelines for acceptable color pairings
• Guidelines for how to use fonts
• Templates for documents and presentation slides
• ... and whatever else might be helpful!

Who's going to use it?

Short answer: Everyone that is creating visual assets that represent your organization.

And that isn't just your comms team (or person). Share that well-organized brand kit with other internal teams so they can use the built-in document and slide templates. Share it with contractors who are working on your website (like me!), or social media / paid ad agencies.

Nonprofit Brand Kits on Easy Mode

When I ask to see a client's brand kit, I typically get a PDF, with an apology about how out of date it is. Or sometimes a link to a Google Drive folder with an assortment of files.

My recommendation, if you want to do this on easy mode:

1. Sign up for a free Canva Pro for Nonprofits account
2. Use Canva's built-in Brand Kit tool to organize all those assets I listed above

I'm not necessarily a big Canva booster and this isn't a paid promo of any kind, but their offer a free account for nonprofit orgs with 501c3 status (or equivalent internationally) is a huge benefit. You get a ton of "pro" features for free, and you can invite up to 50 users to join your team!

​Read more about eligibility and the sign-up process here.

How to build a brand kit on Canva

This is the kind of thing where a visual walkthrough is easiest, so I recommend giving this video a watch from Roger Coles. Some of the Canva options have moved around a bit since this was recorded, but it's a good introduction to building a brand kit in just under 12 minutes.

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Your contractors – web developers, fundraising consultants, social media teams – will thank you for getting these assets organized.

And hopefully you'll see greater brand consistency within your organization as well!

Go watch the video and see if you can level up your brand kit!

Until next time ✨

— Ed Harris (your digital strategy guide)

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