Your nonprofit’s brand identity is influenced by many factors—colors, typography, taglines, word choice, and various other visual and verbal elements.
Among these aspects, your logo stands out as not only one of your most important brand assets, but also a representation of your entire organization. A strong logo design helps your nonprofit differentiate itself in its sector while informing supporters about your nonprofit’s mission, vision, and values.
To inspire your logo creation process, we’ve compiled a list of more than 100 of the best nonprofit logos, categorized by vertical for your browsing convenience. Before we dive into these examples, let’s get started by considering what a nonprofit logo is and how to create one.
What is a nonprofit logo?
According to Loop’s nonprofit logo design guide, “Your nonprofit logo is the visual representation of your organization’s identity. It translates your mission, vision, and values into a graphic that encapsulates who you are, what you stand for, and the impact you strive to make.”
While for-profit organizations use their logos to sell products or services, the main purpose of your nonprofit’s logo is to make your organization recognizable and memorable. When supporters encounter your logo, they should immediately associate it with your mission. This experience builds trust by reassuring supporters that they’re actively making a difference by engaging with your organization.
Nonprofit Logo Best Practices
As mentioned previously, the most important thing to remember about your logo is that it’s one aspect of your nonprofit’s brand. Use your brand color palette and typography to inform your logo design, and ensure it aligns with your messaging standards to help develop a complete brand identity for your organization. Compile all of these elements into a digital style guide so you have a consistent reference as you create various types of branded content.
Here are a few other tips to make the most of your nonprofit logo:
- Include your logo in all of your organization’s communications. This repetition makes your logo stick in supporters’ minds. Create a few variations of your logo so it can always align with the content’s format and available space. For example, you might use the full-color version of your logo in digital communications like emails and social media posts and a black-and-white version for print channels like presentation handouts and direct mail.
- Revisit your nonprofit logo design regularly. Your organization might update its branding for a variety of reasons: to keep up with current design trends, engage new audiences in your work, or reflect a shift in your nonprofit’s values or leadership. If you decide it’s time for a refreshed logo design, communicate about the rebrand in advance to reduce the risk of any confusion among your community after the change.
- Work with a nonprofit branding agency. Creating a logo that reflects your nonprofit’s identity, resonates with your audience, and aligns with the rest of your branding and communication strategy can be challenging. Consider partnering with design experts who will collaborate with you to develop a meaningful, inspiring logo for your organization. Plus, they can provide input on the rest of your branding and creative strategy to ensure cohesion.
To see how a professional nonprofit branding agency could take your nonprofit’s design to the next level, check out these examples from Loop and consider what kind of updates or overhauls might be best to support your nonprofit’s current goals.
Additionally, keep these best practices in mind as you dive into the logo creation process—they should shape the way you approach the technical aspects of design.
Designing Your Nonprofit Logo
Logos are designed to be easily understood. However, don’t confuse this with thinking there isn’t much to them. The anatomy of an effective logo is much more complex than it might initially appear.
Before diving into specific nonprofit logo examples, understand that each component plays an important role in the overall composition of your logo. Some common elements you’ll want to consider when designing yours include:
- Wordmark: This is the part of the logo that displays the brand name. Considering that it explicitly identifies the brand, you’ll want to make sure it’s stylistic while also legible.
- Tagline: Usually paired with the wordmark, the tagline (AKA slogan) provides more information about the brand. Ideally, ensure your tagline contrasts with the wordmark by using smaller or more condensed typography.
- Frame: This optional nonprofit logo element encloses the design with decorative lines. It can be as simple as a stamp shape or black lines that form a box. The idea of a frame is to give your logo a definite shape.
- Colors: People naturally associate certain colors with certain emotions and meanings. For example, many disaster relief and health organizations use red to create a sense of urgency or symbolize health. Many environmental organizations use green since it’s associated with the Earth and growth. Choose colors that communicate your mission.
As you look through the examples in this article, pick out these different components and write down what you like and dislike about the different designs. That way, you can communicate the look you’re envisioning to your graphic designer.
If you don’t have a graphic designer on staff, consider turning to a professional one. Especially when you choose ones that specialize in mission-driven design, you can rest assured that you’ll wind up with a timeless logo that encapsulates your cause.
We recommend Kwala! They offer unlimited revisions, meaning they’ll keep designing until you have the perfect nonprofit logo. Here’s an example of their work in action:
With plenty of experience in the space, they know how to create designs that supporters will instantly associate with your organization. If you’re considering outsourcing your nonprofit logo design to an expert, reach out to Kwala to chat about your graphic design needs.
Best Nonprofit Logos from Medical Organizations
Medical organizations’ brand identities need to thread the needle between unquestionable professionalism and a sense of warmth and care. To balance these two equally important characteristics, many medical organizations use logos that represent their organization abstractly.
However, these artistic representations are anything but random. Complemented by a wide range of comforting and uplifting colors, these designs aim to create a sense of hope in their iconography without resorting to simplistic, childish markers of positivity, thus striking a balance between comfort and unquestionable expertise.
Best Nonprofit Logos from Arts and Culture Organizations
The phrase “arts and culture” might call to mind bold, almost over-the-top imagery. In reality, most arts and culture organizations instead focus on subtle, artfully designed typography that let their organization’s name do the talking for them.
These nonprofits show just how diverse typography can be. From deliberate applications of negative space and bold font to overlapping lettering, these nonprofits manage to convey their brand identity solely through how they present their organization’s name. To avoid distracting from the typography, many of them also stick to a limited palette of just one or two colors.
Best Nonprofit Logos from Environmental and Animal Rights Organizations
Environmental and animal rights organizations are at a slight advantage when it comes to iconography, though some of them still think outside the box and step away from straightforward imagery of animals and trees.
Many environmental organizations stick to their strengths and use blues and greens to call nature imagery to mind. Others use a more simplistic but also bolder black and white color scheme, sometimes with touches of other colors to make them stand out all the more. However, whether they prioritize typography or imagery, nearly every organization tries to convey a sense of naturalism and urgency through their logo.
Best Nonprofit Logos from Community and Economic Development Organizations
Nonprofits focused on helping their constituents start businesses, complete job training, or otherwise improve their economic standing need to be both professional and inspiring. Today, many of these organizations also focus on tech advancement, and some of them have subsequently put a technology-inspired twist on their logo.
These organizations embrace bold colors, whether through sharp color contrast in their typography or by using multiple bright colors in one logo. Even simpler logos favor bright colors that give off the impression of change and progress, helping to put their constituents in the right state of mind from the moment they spot the organization’s logo.
Best Nonprofit Logos from Human Rights Groups
Many humanitarian groups are international organizations and thus need to be instantly recognizable with only limited typography. Subsequently, these organizations understand the importance of universal symbols and demonstrate a spectrum of ways to communicate togetherness, progress, and promises of vital resources.
These logos also tend to veer towards simplicity in order to be easily reproducible and recognizable with minimal effort. Organizations operating all over the world will need to present their logo in a wide variety of contexts to reach an even wider range of audiences.
Best Nonprofit Logos from Child Development and Youth Programs
Chances are that you’re already familiar with the iconic logos of decade-old organizations like the Boy and Girl Scouts. These logos have stood the test of time with their memorable—and in the case of the Girl Scouts—slightly enigmatic designs.
Today’s youth development organizations have taken a page from the Boy and Girls while also putting their own modern spin on these designs. Many of these organizations stick to only one or two colors, but use bolder designs, whether in their typography, symbolism, or both.
Best Nonprofit Logos from Religious Organizations
Religious organizations bring together their followers to support a good cause. These faith-based organizations strive to create elegant, simple logos that use typography and abstract designs to be instantly recognizable without being over the top or distracting.
Bright colors might help some types of nonprofits stand out, but too bold of a design may feel antithetical to the grace and modesty religious and faith-based organizations bring to their mission-driven work. Instead, these logos embrace minimalism, creating a timeless feeling.
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