FAQ · Nonprofit design & budget
Pro bono, pricing, and the honest budget answers.
Almost every nonprofit conversation starts with budget. This page answers the questions we get most — what pro bono design services actually look like, what design for nonprofits typically costs, and where volunteers, grants, and free tools are (and aren't) the right call.
Pro bono design services
The most common budget question we get is whether we work pro bono. Here's the honest answer, and what we offer instead when the budget isn't there.
- Do you offer pro bono design services for nonprofits?
- Not as a standard offering. We take on one or two fully pro bono projects a year, chosen in December for the following year, and only for organizations under $500K in annual revenue where a paid engagement would genuinely be out of reach. For everyone else, we offer a nonprofit rate, staged payment plans, and a fixed-scope starter package designed to fit smaller budgets — because a discounted paid engagement almost always ships better work than a pro bono one.
- Why don't more design studios offer pro bono work?
- Pro bono work usually gets deprioritized the moment a paying client has a deadline. That's true at almost every studio, ours included. A paid engagement — even at a reduced nonprofit rate — gets the same project management, timeline, and accountability as any other client, which is what you actually need.
- How do I apply for your annual pro bono slot?
- Applications open each October. Email admin@stephenhaydesign.com with your mission, annual revenue, the specific project you'd want us to take on, and why now is the moment. We review in November and notify by mid-December.
- Are there good alternatives to pro bono design?
- Yes. Taproot Plus and Catchafire match nonprofits with skilled volunteers for defined projects. Local AIGA chapters sometimes run pro bono programs. Design schools often place senior students on nonprofit briefs for course credit. These are great fits for small, well-scoped projects — logos, one-page sites, event collateral.
Design for nonprofits — pricing
What design for nonprofits actually costs, and how to think about budget when you're the one presenting it to a board.
- How much does design for nonprofits typically cost?
- Our nonprofit engagements usually run $3,500 for a focused starter project (logo refresh, one-page site, campaign kit), $6,000–$18,000 for a full website, and $15,000–$35,000 for a mission-aligned rebrand with rollout. Every project ships with a fixed scope and fixed price before you commit — no hourly billing, no surprises at invoice time.
- Do you offer a nonprofit discount?
- Our published rates are already the nonprofit rate — we don't run a separate 'commercial' price sheet. If your organization is under $250K in annual revenue, ask about our starter tier; if you're mid-size and building for a specific campaign, ask about phased scope.
- Can we pay in installments?
- Yes. Standard structure is 40% at kickoff, 40% at design approval, 20% at launch. For larger projects we can split into monthly payments across the engagement, and we've worked with clients to align payment milestones to their fiscal year.
- What's the cheapest way to get real design help for our nonprofit?
- Start with a starter package — one clearly-scoped deliverable done well — rather than a discounted-but-shrunk version of a big project. A $3,500 landing page that converts is worth more than a $12,000 website that doesn't. We're happy to talk through where to start based on what your organization needs to move next.
Volunteers, grants, and free tools
Budget-sensitive orgs ask us these all the time. Here's what we actually recommend.
- Should we use a volunteer or freelance designer instead?
- For a one-off deliverable with a clear brief — a flyer, a social graphic, a simple landing page — a good volunteer or freelance designer is often the right call. For anything that has to be maintained, extended, or shipped on a deadline (a full website, a rebrand, a campaign system), the coordination overhead usually eats the savings. A paid studio engagement gets you a scope, a timeline, and someone accountable when things drift.
- Are there grants that cover nonprofit design or website costs?
- A few. Google Ad Grants ($10K/month in search advertising) doesn't cover design directly but frees up marketing budget you can redirect. TechSoup offers discounted software (Adobe Creative Cloud, Canva, Webflow). Some community foundations fund capacity-building grants that can include branding or website work — ask your program officer specifically about 'operational' or 'capacity' funding.
- Can we just use Canva and skip hiring a designer?
- For social graphics, event flyers, and internal documents, Canva is genuinely great and we recommend it. For your logo, brand system, and website — the assets every other asset points to — it's worth investing once in something built for you, then using Canva to extend it. We often set up nonprofit clients with a Canva brand kit as part of the handoff.
- What's the minimum project you'll take on?
- Our starter tier is $3,500 for a single focused deliverable — a landing page, a logo refresh, a small campaign kit. Below that, we point people toward Catchafire, Taproot, or a good freelancer. It's not that small projects don't matter; it's that we can't do them well at a lower price without cutting the parts that make them good.
Choosing digital marketing tools
Most nonprofits inherit their tool stack rather than choose it. Here's how to evaluate what you actually need before you sign another annual contract.
- How do nonprofits choose digital marketing tools?
- Start from the workflow, not the feature list. Write down the three things your team does every month — send an appeal, publish an event, thank a donor — and pick the tool that makes those three things fastest. Then check three practical filters: does it have nonprofit pricing (most do, through TechSoup or direct application), does it export your data cleanly if you leave, and can a non-technical staff member run it without you. A tool nobody on staff will open is more expensive than a paid one they use daily.
- What's a realistic digital marketing tool stack for a small nonprofit?
- For most organizations under $2M in revenue: one email platform (Mailchimp or Beehiiv), one donation platform (Givebutter or Donorbox), one design tool (Canva, with a brand kit set up by your designer), one scheduler for social (Buffer or native platform tools), and Google Analytics 4 plus Google Ad Grants for search. That's five tools, most of them free or nonprofit-discounted, and it covers the entire funnel from awareness to gift receipt.
- How do we know if a marketing tool is worth paying for?
- Tie it to one measurable outcome and give it one quarter. If you're paying $99/month for an email platform, it should produce more than $1,200 a year in incremental giving or save more than a day of staff time a month. Track that before renewal. Most nonprofits find one or two tools in their stack that nobody has opened in six months — cutting those usually funds the one tool the team actually needs.
- Should we use a CRM or just spreadsheets?
- Under roughly 300 active donors, a well-maintained spreadsheet plus your donation platform's built-in reporting is genuinely fine. Past that, or as soon as more than two people need to update donor records, the reconciliation cost of spreadsheets exceeds the cost of a CRM. Look at Bloomerang, Little Green Light, or Neon for the small-to-mid range before you consider enterprise systems.
Choosing a creative agency
How to evaluate a design or marketing partner when you're the one who has to defend the decision to a board.
- How do you choose a creative agency for a nonprofit?
- Look for three things in this order: evidence they've shipped for mission-driven organizations with comparable budgets, a fixed scope and fixed price in writing before you commit, and a named person who owns your project day to day. Ask to see a project that went sideways and what they did about it — the answer tells you more than any portfolio piece. Be skeptical of agencies that won't quote until you've had three meetings, and of anyone who leads with awards rather than outcomes.
- What questions should we ask a creative agency before hiring?
- Who specifically will do the work, and will we meet them? What's the fixed price and what triggers a change order? What happens if we miss a feedback deadline? Who owns the files and source assets at the end? What does support look like after launch, and what does it cost? Can we talk to two nonprofit clients from the last year? Vague answers to any of these usually predict where the project will hurt.
- Agency, freelancer, or in-house — which is right for us?
- A freelancer is the right call for a single well-scoped deliverable with a clear brief. An agency earns its premium when a project has multiple moving parts — strategy, design, build, content, launch — and someone needs to hold the timeline. In-house makes sense once you have enough steady volume to keep a designer busy roughly half-time; below that you're paying salary for idle capacity. Many nonprofits land on a hybrid: in-house for day-to-day production, an agency retainer for the harder strategic work.
- How long should a nonprofit website or rebrand take?
- A focused website project runs 6–10 weeks from kickoff to launch; a full rebrand with rollout runs 3–5 months. If an agency promises a full rebrand in three weeks, they're skipping the research that makes it defensible to your board. If they quote nine months for a marketing site, they're likely under-resourcing your project. Ask for the week-by-week timeline in the proposal, not just a total.
- What are red flags when hiring a creative agency?
- Hourly billing with no ceiling, portfolios full of concept work that never shipped, no written scope, a single point of contact who is also the salesperson, and reluctance to name which team members do the work. One more: an agency that agrees to everything in the first call. A partner worth hiring will push back on at least one thing in your brief.
Keep reading
Nonprofit graphic design
What it is, why it matters, and how to choose the right designer.
Nonprofit website design
Fixed scope, mission-first, launch in 6–10 weeks.
Creative project management
How to keep creative work on mission, on time, and on budget.
Case studies
Outcomes from mission alignment, storytelling, and design system work.
Still not sure what fits your budget?
Book a 20-minute call and we'll tell you honestly whether a paid project, a starter package, a volunteer, or a grant is the right next move.