65+ Free (or low-cost) Digital Resources for Nonprofits
Who loves FREE stuff…. We love free stuff! As busy nonprofit organisations and community groups we know how important every single donor dollar is to us. Our time is precious and in this day and age there is a wealth of online tools, apps, systems and platforms to help us to be more efficient and organised and many of them offer discounts and even FREE versions for change makers like us.
Because of that, I did a little research and compiled these more than 65 free or low-cost digital resources that nonprofits can use to increase their efficiency and effectiveness in whatever cause they set their sights on.
Design Resources
Building a brand or creating any marketing campaigns will require you to have resources that you can use. It could be fonts, photos, templates, designs, graphics, videos, and many others. Good news! You can find tons of them online, and you can have access to these high-quality resources for free or at an affordable price. Hence, with a little bit of digging, I compile this list of free or discounted design resources for higher education and nonprofits.
Font Resources
Fonts are intellectual property that you need to have a license before using them. Besides that, with different resources available for you, it can help you build your collection from reputable websites you can find online that will offer you free fonts or paid bundles. But, don’t share your fonts with others unless you’ve acquired a license that allows multiple users on different devices.
Adobe Typekit (Free or $)
Creative Cloud users have (almost) unlimited web usage and receive 100 synced fonts. There is a Black Friday special available until 26 November for individuals that saves you 40% on usage for your first year
Free plan has limited web font usage and allows for 20 synced fonts. Sign up for a free Adobe ID and try out their basic library of 1,000 fonts
Creative Market (Free or $)
Free goods each week range from fonts to graphics to WordPress themes
Font Bundles (Free or $)
Free fonts for commercial use
Google Fonts (Free)
MyFonts.com (Free or $)
Special offers on selected fonts
Font bundles for discounted prices
Free font identification tool - What The Font
Stock Photography
Photos are also intellectual property. This means you should not use them for promoting your cause, unless you have been given permission from the rightful owner or you’ve obtained a license to use them. There are several great stock photography websites that you can purchase photo licensing through and there are plenty of options that will provide you with royalty-free photos that you can use for your task or project you’re working on. I am currently loving unsplash and the New York Public Library DIgital Collections. I have included in this list a wide range of sites to help you find that perfect picture.
Adobe Stock (Free or $)
Free Stock Collection
Adobe nonprofit pricing discounts and programs
Creative Market (Free or $)
Free goods each week range from fonts to graphics to WordPress themes
Death to Stock (Free or $)
Scholarships and discounts for nonprofits
Deposit Photos (Free or $)
AppSumo has occasional deals on Deposit Photos ($39 for $500 value)
Sign up to download free weekly stock images
Flaticon (Free or $)
Premium account offers unlimited use, Free account has usage limitations
Istockphoto ($)
Subscriptions or credit packs available
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (Free)
Make sure to verify the image in pubic domain or has no known restrictions before using
Life of Pix (Free)
New York Public Library Digital Collections (Free)
Select “Search only public domain items” to filter items with no known U.S. copyright restrictions.
The Noun Project (Free or $)
Free with more than 3 million icons in PNG and SVG formats
Educators, students and edu staff get over 30% off NounPro account
Pexels (Free)
PicJumbo (Free)
Pixabay (Free)
Unsplash (Free)
Dreamstime (Free or $)
Receive 15 free images when you trial a subscription
Credit packages and discount subscriptions available
Design Templates
To engage with our communities consistently, we can find ourselves needing to be a jack of all trades and graphic design is one of those tasks that comes up again and again. From newsletters to social media, presentations and invitations it can be such a time vortex to get things looking right. If you don't have the skills inhouse you can recruit a skilled volunteer to assist or you can now start exploring these amazing design templates from the list of sources below. I personally love Canva and these days do almost all my design work in it, this is how I build my training and presentations, how I design your strategic planning documents, proposals and even quotes.
Adobe Spark & Spark Video (Free or $)
Free for Education Program (students and teachers)
Canva (Free or $)
Free up to 250,000+ free templates and 100+ design types
Free premium account for nonprofits
Creative Market (Free or $)
Free good every week
(Nonprofit Rate) Note Adobe creative cloud is a bit of a cross over - its is a collaborative project management platform for teams and also great for creative and design purposes.
Also available: Creative Cloud for education, an affordable licensing option for small workgroups, departments, classrooms/labs or institutions.
Adobe Spark & Spark Video (Free or $)
Free for Adobe Creative Cloud members
Project Management, Meeting, and Productivity Resources
Project management and productivity tools boost efficiency and workflow by keeping the team connected and collaborating. In serving so many nonprofit clients I realised the need to implement systems and tools to streamline processes and build connections between our small staff and the projects i’m working on. I currently use Trello for most of our internal project management along with Basecamp and Slack.
Project Management
Asana (Free of $)
Free for up to 15 teammates
50% Discount for nonprofits
Basecamp (Free of $)
Basecamp Personal is free for 3 projects, 20 users and 1 GB of storage
10% off Basecamp Business for nonprofits
Dropbox (Free or $)
Dropbox Basic is free 2 GB of storage and 1 user
Contact Dropbox Business for nonprofit discount
Evernote Business (Free or $)
Free up to 2 devices and 2 MB storage
Discounted rate for NGOs and nonprofits
Discounted rate for students and teachers
Monday (Free or $)
Free up to 2 members
Discounted rate for nonprofits on yearly plans
NeonCRM ($)
Packages start at $49/month for nonprofits
Salesforce (Free or $)
Free up to 10 subscriptions for nonprofits.
Additional subscriptions, $36 per user every month
Slack (Free or $)
Free or discounted plan upgrades for nonprofits
Free up to 10 integrated tools and limited to 10,000 messages
Teamwork (Free or $)
Free with basic project and task
Contact Teamwork’s sales team for nonprofit discount
Trello (Free or $)
Free up to 10 10 Boards and 1 Power Up per Board
75% off Trello Business Class and Enterprise for nonprofits
Twist (Free or $)
Free up to 5 integrations and unlimited guests
50% discounts for nonprofits
50% discount for students and education professionals
HelpScout (Free or $)
Up to 100% discount for nonprofits in some situations. Contact for more information and to apply.
Online Meetings
UberConference (Free or $)
Free for up to 10 users with 45-minute limit on meetings
Zoom (Free or $)
50% off 1-year subscription for nonprofits
Plans start at $150/month for educators
Free for up to 100 participants with 40-minute limit on group meetings
Google Meet (Free or $)
Free up to 1 license and 100 participants and 60-minute limit on group calls
Google Workspace offered at no charge for Nonprofits
Business Standard nonprofit discount is USD $3/user/month
Business Plus nonprofit discount is USD $5.04/user/month
Enterprise editions is at 70% plus nonprofit discount
Microsoft Teams (Free or $)
Free version available
Microsoft 365 Business available for free or at a discounted rate for nonprofits
Slack (Free or $)
Free or heavily discounted (85%) for eligible organisations
Productivity
CleanMyMac ($)
30% discount for teachers and students
Todoist (Free or $)
Free up to 5 active projects and 5 MB file uploads
50% discount for nonprofits
Zapier (Free or $)
15% off any plan for nonprofits
Free for 100 tasks per month and 5 zaps
Zoho (Free or $)
Contact them for discount for education institutions and nonprofits
Free up to 20 subscriptions and 1 user
Grammarly (Free or $)
Free access to key Grammarly features for qualifying nonprofits
Google for nonprofits
Free with premium services like Ads credits and custom G Suite account
PandaDoc (Free or $)
Free with unlimited legally binding signatures and document uploads
Requires a demo to access special pricing for qualifying nonprofits
Jotform (Free or $)
Free up to 5 forms limit and 100 monthly submissions
50% discount for nonprofits
`DocuSign (Free or $)
30% discount on annual DocuSign plans for nonprofits
Timetastic (Free or $)
50% discount for charities
Social Media, Content, Online Ad, and Email Marketing Resources
It can be a bit frustrating and overwhelming trying to understand marketing on different platforms. Especially if you are new to all of this and don’t know the right tools or systems to use. But I am here to help! It is more important than ever to be able to share our message and enhance our impact using the tools that are available to us. So here you will find information on social media marketing, email marketing, blogging and much more. Getting a handle on these platforms, and how they can support you, helps to maximise your time, effort and resources. Let’s dive in!
Social Media and Content Marketing Resources
Due to the progress of technology, you can no longer have any issues in creating content and even dealing with stress in manually publishing your posts on social media accounts. With the help of the different resources listed below, you can surely enjoy scheduling posts using a social media scheduler and planning your content effectively using the content calendar. Hence, check each platform below and be familiar with their features that will significantly help you become more efficient in social media and content marketing.
Buffer (Free or $)
Free up to 3 channels with basic publishing tools
50% discount for nonprofits
Buzzsumo (Free or $)
Free up to 10 searches a month for 1 user
Contact Buzzsumo Support Team for 40% nonprofit discount
30% off for educational institutions
Campaign Monitor ($)
15% discount for nonprofits
Constant Contact ($)
20% discount 6-month repay for nonprofits
30% discount 12-month repay for nonprofits
CoSchedule ($)
Nonprofit discount of 30% for Marketing Calendar and Marketing Suite plans
Free Headline Analyzer
Grum ($)
Email [email protected] for nonprofits discount of 50%
Hootsuite ($)
Nonprofit 50% discount for Professional and Team plans
Later (Free of $)
Free up to 1 user and 30 posts per social profile
Nonprofits 50% off on annual & monthly subscriptions
LeadPages ($)
Contact LeadPages for nonprofit discount
MaySocial ($)
Up to 50% off on subscriptions for nonprofits
Planable (Free or $)
Planable offers free account
Confirm your nonprofit status, and you will receive a code for a discount
PostPlanner ($)
50% off for nonprofits
SproutSocial ($)
Email [email protected] to request for a nonprofit discount
Sendible ($)
25% discount on annual plans for nonprofits
Email Marketing Resources
Email marketing is one of the most popular strategies in marketing a business but did you know that nonprofits have the highest open rates (rate of people that open an email you send to your list versus those who do not open the email) of any sector. A great way of presenting your message in a professional yet conversational way, if you haven't sent an email to your list in a while, maybe it's time to get started again. Have you tried any of these email marketing resources below, it’s your time now to explore what each platform can provide to support you in marketing your organisation.
AWeber (Free or $)
AWeber offers free account
3 months for free and nonprofit 25% discount for after that
ConvertKit ($)
Free up to 1,000 subscribers
20% off for verified nonprofits
MailChimp (Free or $)
Free account with email builder and marketing CRM
15% off for verified nonprofits
MyEmma ($)
MyEmma grants 25 nonprofits free-for-life email marketing services every year
GMail (Free)
Option for small lists, but as you grow you will be served by upgrading to something a more robust and fit for purpose
Hotmail (Free) As with GMail, this is a great option for small lists, but as you grow you will be served by upgrading to something a more robust and fit for purpose
Keep in mind that most platforms don’t actively promote their non profit discounts. It’s always worth the time and effort to reach out to the platform you are keen to use, or any you currently use to talk about your needs and see how they can support you.
Did I miss anything? Let me know so I can add it to the list. Also, be sure to bookmark this page because I will update it as new resources become available.
Photo from Pexels Offers are subject to change, refer to the links for most recent information. Updated (18 November 2021). These links are from my independent research and The Forever Agenda does not receive any affiliate payment as a result.
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