Want to Pursue Graphic Design at a Nonprofit?

Graphic design is a diverse field of work, encompassing web design, illustration, advertising, social media, branding, and much more. The work of graphic designers is all around us, and Idealist has plenty of opportunities available for people looking to create the next big thing.

But how exactly do you get into this field, showcase your work in a job interview, or even discuss your goal with a college professor or parent? We break down the ins and outs of landing a graphic design job at a nonprofit no matter where you are in your career, whether you're fresh out of university or a mid-career professional looking to try something new.

What is graphic design for nonprofits?

Pursuing graphic design for the nonprofit sector involves creative visual communication and design skills. Graphic design is a powerful tool to engage communities, raise awareness, and drive action, all while conveying a message of social impact. With any other role at a social-impact organization, the main bulk of your work will be to support and amplify an organization’s mission and goals.

This can be done on a variety of different teams! If you're pursuing a brand illustration job, you'll probably be involved with picking or designing an organization's image assets, fonts, colors, and other things that will influence how it is presented to supporters. If you're more interested in marketing, you'll be tasked with creating static and moving images that can be posted across the website, social media, and other marketing channels.

Showcasing graphic design skills

Showcasing your graphic design skills effectively is essential, whether you’re applying for a nonprofit job, seeking an internship, or volunteering your talents. Here’s how to make your work stand out:

• Build a portfolio. A strong, well-organized portfolio is the cornerstone of showcasing your skills. Include a variety of projects, such as branding, web design, social media graphics, and infographics, to demonstrate your versatility. Even if you've never had an official graphic design job before, you can come up with a few concepts to showcase your skills.

1. Highlight relevant experience. Include examples of work that directly relate to nonprofit causes. For instance, if you’ve designed materials for a community organization or created visual assets for a social campaign, be sure to feature those projects. Need some help getting started? Search for volunteer opportunities at organizations that need graphic designers!
2. Demonstrate technical and creative skills. Showcase your proficiency in design tools like Adobe Creative Suite, Canva, and other relevant programs. Include projects that showcase your creativity and the field you want to go into, whether that is interactive media, educational videos, website design, or printed resources.
3. Network, network, network. Engage with nonprofit organizations and other social-impact professionals through platforms like Idealist, where you can add past projects to your Employment Profile. Share your portfolio online or through social media, and attend networking events with professionals in the nonprofit sector.

Landing a graphic design job

Whether you need to build up your portfolio or just want to transfer your skills to the social-impact sector, Idealist offers hundreds of graphic design opportunities through our job board and volunteer listings.

Get to work on showcasing your skills to make the world a better and more beautiful place!

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About The Author | Matt Cifaldi was a Community Manager at Idealist. He's originally from Connecticut and started working at Idealist 2009 after jumping around from NYC, Alaska, Argentina, and back to NYC. He loves helping people use Idealist seeing the range of nonprofits that exist in the world! He likes to travel, brew beer, cook, and play hockey. He thinks he should probably live in Portland, but for now he lives in New York.