Canva for Work - Free for Libraries!

As you all know by now, I am a big fan of Canva. I've talked about it a few times on here... I cannot recommend it enough. It is the perfect program for people who are ready for something more professional than Microsoft Word/Publisher but less intimidating than Adobe InDesign. Personally, I've found it so easy to use and it's upped my design skills.

But a new development has made me even more excited about Canva. A few months ago, they rolled out Canva for Work, which takes the free Canva account and upgrades it with a paid subscription for special features. I was intrigued, but I didn't try the trial because I was afraid I would fall in love with it and I wasn't ready to pay. But then I got a tip from the Libraries & Social Media Facebook Group that Canva for Work is free for nonprofits. I was disappointed to learn they asked for a 501c(3) nonprofit form first, which we don't have, but then I found out they do accept Tax Exempt forms.

I immediately upgraded my work account. They put it on a trial mode and then when the trial ended, they accepted our nonprofit status. Yay!!!

And I LOVE IT. Here's a picture tour of all the goodies:

In the first photo, I was pleased to see that my personal account was separated from the Canva for Work Team Account. I have to click on my library account to access all work designs.

Easily move between your personal and work accounts!

When you switch over to the Canva for Work Account, your dashboard adds a few new features. As you can see below, you can easily see your own designs, the designs that were only shared with you, and your whole teams' designs, called the "Team Stream."

Simple but upgraded dashboard

When you go to "Your Brand", you can make your own templates for Presentation, Facebook Post, Twitter, Instagram, Flyer, Pinterest, Invitation, Letterhead, Business Card, Gift Certificate, Poster, Card, Facebook Cover, and Custom. What a time saver! We use Custom to make images for our Website Slider and our Digital Picture Frame.

Scroll down and make templates for flyers, social media, and more!

The Brand Kit is really awesome! You can save your own colors and they'll default to the top of your color palette in any document. You can upload fonts and set each heading to different font types and sizes. And you can upload your logos for easy locating later.

Brand Kit Part 1: Set your own color palette. These colors default to the top of Fonts, Background, and Elements.

Brand Kit Part 2: Set your own fonts and sizes. Upload the fonts you want!

Your Brand Kit fonts show up in EVERY template as the default setting.

Brand Kit Part 3: Upload your logos for easy locating later.

Brand Kit Logos appear under "Uploads",
in their own folder.

One of the big advantages with Canva for Work is that you can use it with a group of people in your organization. So, you can invite up to ten people to join your "team" and you can set them to be Administrators, Template Designers, or just Members. All teammates can create and share designs. Template Designers are in control of the templates and brand kit and Administrators can do that as well as manage team members.

The benefit of being part of a team is that you can easily show your design to ONLY team members. When you finish your design, you can click on "Showing" in the top right and you'll see that option.

The images will appear in the Team Stream and anyone can easily make changes to it. They just click on your image and then click "Remix". No more having to email everyone through the share option on each design when you want some feedback. So simple and easy to use!

Just click the green "Remix" to make quick changes.

But of course, the greatest feature is their "Magic Resize" option. You can take any design, go to File and then choose which formats you want it in. It was pretty impressive. As you can see below, it kept all the images in the correct proportions and just changed the background size behind it. It wasn't always perfect (sometimes there's too much space and not enough design), but still a huge time saver!

All the options for resizing your current design.

 Example of Resizing:

Size: Small Flyer

Size: Facebook Post

Size: Twitter

And that ends our photo tour. If you really enjoy Canva, I highly recommend upgrading to Canva for Work and applying for the nonprofit status. There is so much to gain and all you have to do is scan in a copy of your Tax Exempt form.

Thanks, Canva, for supporting nonprofits!

For more articles on Canva, check out:
Canva: Make Easy Designs in Little Time
5 Secret Tricks to Using Canva Like a Pro