When it comes to charity communications and marketing, the right tools can save you time, reduce stress and help you show up more consistently, especially if you’re juggling multiple roles or don’t have a dedicated comms person on the team.

Over the years, I’ve come to rely on a small set of tools that make the biggest impact for the charities I work with. Whether you’re planning a campaign, updating your social media or just trying to keep everything in one place, these four tools are reliable, versatile, and (best of all) free.

Here’s what I swear by:

1. Canva

Most people know Canva by now, but I meet so many teams who are only using it at surface level. There’s so much more it can do.

It’s a full content toolkit with features for brand kits, animation, planning, templates, resizing and video. They offer regular free online sessions to help you upskill, see Canva Design School. And if you’re a registered charity, you can access Canva Pro for free via Canva for Nonprofits.

If you’re producing social posts, posters, newsletters, leaflets, you name it, learning Canva properly will make your life so much easier.

2. Google Workspace

Whether you’re managing projects, events, surveys or just trying to keep things organised, Google tools are a charity’s best friend.

• Drive is perfect for file storage and sharing across teams or with external collaborators. The storage limit is also very generous at 15 GB.
• Google Sheets is great for content planning and integrates easily with so many other external tools and software.
• Forms is ideal for surveys, sign-up sheets or feedback collection, super easy to use and share.
• Google Meet is reliable for meetings and has no time limit.

Even if your main email system is Outlook, I recommend setting up a dedicated Gmail account just to access these tools. You’ll thank yourself later.

3. MailerLite (or Mailchimp)

I’ve worked with both of these platforms and think they each have strengths, but here’s the current picture:

MailerLite is currently the better option, with intuitive, neat design options, and their free plan lets you grow your audience without rushing into a paid tier. Mailchimp was my go-to for years, but their new free plan caps you at 500 contacts, which can be restrictive once you start growing your list.

Both are easy to learn, offer email automation and are ideal for newsletters, campaigns and announcements. If you’re just getting started, I’d steer you towards MailerLite.

4. Buffer

Buffer is great for managing socials, and it does the job really well without overcomplicating things. Their team is also amazing at keeping things updated regularly, and the platform constantly evolves with emerging trends.

The free plan allows you to connect up to 3 social media accounts. You can schedule 10 posts per account at a time. Bonus: If you need more than 3 accounts, you can always set up another Buffer account using a different email.

It also offers some helpful extras for working across a team or gathering approvals, really useful if you have several people helping with content.

Need a hand with any of these?

If you’re a charity that’s feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to juggle your comms alongside everything else, I can help.

Drop me a message, always happy to talk things through.