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Curated Resources

Top Nonprofit Branding and Design Resources That Inspired Our Team in 2024

Looking back on 2024, our team at Constructive has explored countless tools, frameworks, and sources of inspiration that helped us stay organized, innovate, and find joy in our work.  So, we asked our designers, strategists, and project managers: What inspired you in the past year? What nonprofit branding and design resources will you use going forward in 2025? 

Recommended Books

Our team found inspiration in books spanning nonprofit strategy, design, and communications:

Design as an Attitude by Alice Rawsthorn

In response to recent social, political, and environmental challenges worldwide, Design as an Attitude offers a comprehensive look at design as it exists today.

Recommended by Cecilia Portillo, Client Services Lead

Designs for the Pluriverse by Arturo Escobar

Most design serves capitalist ends. In Designs for the Pluriverse, Escobar shows how evolving design practices could lead to the creation of a more just, sustainable world.

Recommended by Cecilia Portillo, Client Services Lead

Educated by Tara Westover 

“I found this memoir about finding truth through education eye-opening. It reminded me how something we all take for granted (learning and knowledge) can completely change somebody’s life for the better.”  

Kaylee Gardner, Digital Strategist

Engine of Impact: Essentials of Strategic Leadership in the Nonprofit Sector by William Meehan and Kim Starkey Jonker

Drawing on decades of teaching, advising, grantmaking, and research, Engine of Impact provides a roadmap for cultivating high-achieving social impact organizations.

Recommended by Cecilia Portillo, Client Services Lead

Strategic Content Design by Erica Jorgensen 

“This book is full of effective content testing strategies and ways to get buy-in from senior leadership. Super, super valuable takeaways for any content-rich web project.”  

Katie Szymanski, Content Marketer

Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite by Paul Arden 

“It’s a classic. I found myself picking it up a lot this year when I felt blocked or uninspired. It includes lots of quick and easy ways to reframe your perspective.”

 — Holly Truax, Senior Designer

 

Recommended Newsletters

Newsletters are a great way to stay current on industry trends and uncover new ideas. Our team subscribed and kept coming back to these in 2024:

10 Things by Lauren Pope

This monthly newsletter focuses on content strategy for nonprofits and provides resources for professionals “interested in making content with a purpose.”

Recommended by Katie Szymanski, Content Marketer

BrandNew

This newsletter is a source of design education and inspiration, becoming a go-to for branding news and trends.

Recommended by Doug Knapton, Senior Designer  

It’s Nice That

This newsletter shares stories, insights, and creative inspiration from designers worldwide.

Recommended by Holly Truax, Senior Designer

Nielsen Norman Group

“NN/g offers a great variety of newsletters that provide articles, videos on various topics, and webinars about specific practices. They always provide great insight into the simplest of things in UX. Sometimes, UX isn’t “sexy” like UI, but a product/website must be usable. If it looks great but doesn’t address user goals, the product is a failure. NN/g makes it easy to find articles and research on a wide range of topics, and its site is easy to use. I can always find insights and answers to questions quickly and have improved my best practices in UX work.” 

Kevin Ng, Senior UX Designer 

The Shortcut by Figma

I’ve started engaging a bit more with newsletters from tools that I’m using in work (like Figma’s newsletter) because I find when I read them, I learn how to utilize the tools even better.”

Kaylee Gardner, Digital Strategist 

 

Recommended Podcasts

Podcasts have been a source of inspiration, learning, and creative fuel for our team. Here are a few of the shows that stood out: 

2Bobs: Conversations on the Art of Creative Entrepreneurship with David Baker and Blair Enns

Recommended by Cecilia Portillo, Client Services Lead

A Question of Care with Robert Espinoza 

“This is a deeply compelling podcast that poses critical questions about America’s caregiving systems in conversations with leading experts. It recently won multiple awards, and it’s created by the now-CEO of the National Skills Coalition.”

Tess Stewart, Senior Brand Strategist 

Design Matters with Debbie Millman 

“It always features really insightful interviews, but I recently listened to an episode with Sarah Polley that reminded me that community engagement can be a creative’s greatest source of inspiration and  motivation. Also, Sarah Polley is just so cool.” 

Holly Truax, Senior Designer

 

Recommended Tools

From streamlining project management for large-scale nonprofit websites to optimizing design workflows, we utilized several tools to stay productive and organized. These tools empowered the team to work smarter and more efficiently: 

Asana

“I tracked and completed over 4,000 tasks last year. It’s been a critical tool to help me balance my workload and meet deadlines.”

Heather Varndell, Office Manager

Figma

Figma allowed everyone on our team to collaborate more. We were able to build out templates for strategists to then integrate into their work. It’s important to see everyone’s mouse and “be together” in the same file while doing remote work.”  

Doug Knapton, Senior Designer 

Flow & Motion

“In today’s remote working world, I find it easy to start a task and get derailed by Slack, an email alert, or a text message. I’ve combined Flow and calendar blocking to get meaningful chunks of work done. Motion helps me group similar tasks together so I minimize context switching.”

Katie Szymanski, Content Marketer

Google Alerts

“One game-changer: Automatic reminders for things like recurring activities, recurring calendar events, and even setting up Google alerts to receive client news and notifications. Setting all of this up in advance was key for staying on top of things over the year.”

Kaylee Gardner, Digital Strategist

Notion

Notion has so many great organizational templates to plan and track projects. I love to use goal trackers for projects, breaking down each phase by goals and documenting the progress. It’s an easy way to keep on top of tasks and integrate the unexpected realities of large web projects.” 

Holly Truax, Senior Designer

Optimal Workshop

“UX testing is very important in getting buy-in from partners and learning more about users. The analysis tools provided by Optimal Workshop allowed us to make better sense of a large data set and helped us to create a content structure that made sense for users.” 

Kevin Ng, Senior UX Designer

 

Recommended Videos & Webinars

These sessions offered practical knowledge, new ideas, ways of approaching challenges, plus a chance to engage with experts in their respective fields:

The Content Wrangler

The resource hub from Scott Abel features talks on content strategy, information architecture, structured content, AI, and more.

Recommended by Katie Szymanski, Content Marketer 

MasterClass

“My overall take is that you can find inspiration and lessons to use at work, even from unlikely or unsuspecting sources and places. Be inspired by everything!”  Heather Varndell, Office Manager

Sessions she enjoyed in 2024 include: 

  • Achieve More With GenAI Guided by Leading Experts
  • Business Strategy and Leadership with Bob Iger
  • Graphic Design with David Carson
  • The Art of Storytelling with Neil Gaiman
  • Independent Thinking and Media’s Invisible Powers with Noam Chomsky

Yoast SEO

As best practices for organic website search evolve, it’s important to stay on top of trends and insights we can bring back to our clients and partners. Yoast SEO’s monthly webinars offer invaluable learnings for ongoing website optimization and SEO performance.

Recommended by Kaylee Gardner, Digital Strategist

 

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