Documenting a non-profit or charity event with a professionally printed photo book is an excellent way to capture memories, promote your cause, and honor the hard work of volunteers and participants. Selecting the right theme and layout is essential for your photo book. Incorporating non-profit photography tips can help your photos stand out.

Create a lasting memento of your event, showcasing the story of your cause in stunning visuals.

Why Documenting Your Charity or Non-Profit Events Is Essential

Documenting charity events helps tell your organization's story and records your important fundraising work. Whether you hold one big annual event or several smaller ones throughout the year, event photography captures moments in a way that simply assessing your fundraising figures doesn't.

Photo books help you and other viewers quickly recall the significance and success of specific events. They're also an excellent tool for putting together your yearly impact report. You can use the images and memories in your photo book to support the drier facts and figures held with those reports.

The Power of Visual Storytelling

A photo book goes beyond the traditional photo album. They provide an opportunity to tell a cohesive story with images, text, and other embellishments. Pictures stimulate emotions more keenly than writing alone. They create lasting connections with your audience and show them the importance of what you do and why.

Effective visual storytelling actually promotes the production of hormones that make you feel good. A carefully crafted non-profit photo book could genuinely make people feel better about themselves and your organization. It can also increase engagement and encourage participation in future events.

Photography for Social Impact

One of the best stories your non-profit event photo book can tell is your organization's social impact on the communities you serve. Fundraising photo books showcase the best moments from galas, fairs, and fun days. They can also show snaps of the people you're helping or the cause you're furthering. This helps anyone who views the book understand the motivation behind your fundraising efforts.

You could also use a page or two of your non-profit event photo book to show gratitude for partners, donors, or volunteers who helped make the event such a success. Snaps of these people hard at work or joining in the fun help them feel like they're a true part of your community.

For charities involved with wildlife and conservation, consider including images of the animals fundraisers are supporting with their work. You could show before and after pictures of areas you're rejuvenating or shots of your volunteers at work in these areas.

Top Non-Profit Photography Tips

Consider a professional photographer if the option is within budget.
Search for pros that may work at a reduced rate for non-profit organizations.
Take photos in well-lit areas and avoid too much shadow.
Take multiple shots of the same moment and compare them for quality later.
Consider a "burst" of photos for action shots.
Ensure you get photos of all aspects of the event.
Snap people, props, banners, meals; anything that matters at the event should be in your photos.
Ensure you use a device connecting to a computer or the Cloud.
If you or other photographers use smartphone cameras, ensure your backup is switched on to avoid losing incredible shots.
Create a link to a shared folder where all participants can upload their snaps from the night. This is a quick way to gain consent, as you can add a disclaimer that by uploading photos here, guests are happy to have their image used in promotional materials.

Non-Profit Photo Books: Choosing a Theme, Layout, and Design

Creating a memorable photo book for a non-profit event starts with deciding what you want your finished project to look like. If you have brand colors, patterns, or other identifying visuals, you'll want to add these to your photo book at some stage. Ensure you can access a photo book service to add organizational touches like this.

Some digital photo book creation services provide pre-built themes for organizations to use. These may be themed around colors, seasons, or particular event types, such as sporting events. Choose a theme that matches your event or resonates with your work. For example, you might choose a rainbow-themed photo book for a pride event or if your charity supports the LGBTQA+ community.

Invest in a photo book service that allows you to go beyond the foundational theme and fully customize your project. As well as the branding points we mentioned, you'll probably want to adjust the layout of photos and how they fit in any pre-crafted framing devices. When you design your layout, try not to make each page too cluttered. A single photo may have more impact than a page full of similar shots.

Enhancing Your Photos

While photos tell an incredible story, they don't have to do it alone. Creating a non-profit photo book allows you to add snippets of text or full captions to your images. You can add labels with people's names, a few lines about a particular moment, or figures to show how much money each event segment raised.

Adding text in this way helps underscore the purpose of your event. Talk about your cause and your goals. Explain what the money is used for. Be proud of your achievements: This encourages more people to support your organization.

Designing a charity photo book doesn't stop there. With Mixbook, you can add multiple stickers and decorations and immerse your viewers in the moments you capture. Create a digital scrapbook feel, or keep everything crisp and clean for an ultra-professional finish.

Consider Partnering With a Professional

If you're not sure where to start when it comes to designing your non-profit photo book, you can partner with a professional designer or photo book service.

Designers can take your photos and your event information and craft something beautiful. They may offer full service, including producing a photo book, but be aware that this can be expensive when ordering from individual designers. Alternatively, they may work with you to create a great design you can order from a more budget-friendly service.

A photo book service allows individuals or organizations to upload photos and create their own professionally finished photo books. These services normally provide an intuitive editor, themes, and the ability to customize photo books until they match the customer's needs.

Either option empowers non-profits and charities to document their events with highly-polished, professional photo books that fit with the organization's look and branding. Mixbook prints personalized photo books in multiple sizes, formats, and cover types, with three different choices of high-quality paper, giving non-profits plenty of cost-effective options.

Choosing the Right Photos for Your Non-Profit or Charity Event Photo Book

Once you've decided on the right photo book service, how do you choose the best photos for your event photo book? If you've invested in an event photographer, you'll probably have a selection of high-quality shots. If you've relied on guests and co-hosts to take photos, you might have more shots but mixed quality.

Non-Profit Event Photo "Dos"

Try and choose photos of a similar, high resolution.
Choose well-spaced, uncluttered photos.
If your event had guest speakers or guests of honor, ensure they're included.
Look for well-lit, cheerful photos of the event itself.
For photos about your cause, choose the pictures that evoke the most emotion.

Non-Profit Event Photo "Don't" s

Avoid anything negatively affecting your organization, e.g., fights or poor behavior.
Rule out dark, shadowy shots.
Avoid blurry pics or overexposed shots.
Avoid shots that have no obvious focus or seem too busy.

Sharing Your Photo Book

A photo book is a step up from a simple photo album. Once you're happy that your project succeeds at telling the story of your event, you can order as many copies as you like. Some photo book services may allow you to send multiple copies to different addresses, although postage costs will vary.

Promoting your photo book as a memento of the event may benefit your organization. You could offer it to supporters or donors at a set price to cover costs or raise more funds for your organization. Utilize your social media platforms, website, or email list to let people know the book is available. Make sure you tell anyone included in the book, as they may have a special interest in getting a copy.

Top tip: When holding a charity or non-profit event, advise guests they may be in photos and get them to consent. This ensures you can distribute your photo book as widely as you like without potential legal ramifications based on lack of consent.

Once you've got your gorgeous, printed fundraising photo books, you don't just have to keep them as a record of your events. You can utilize them as tools for further fundraising, raising awareness of your non-profit, and potentially increasing engagement across your social media platforms.

You could take a short video of two members of your team flicking through the photo book and talking about the event. Highlight specific photos that relate to key moments during the special day, and don't be afraid to laugh at funny photos! Viewers love organizations that don't take themselves too seriously.

You can also have your photo books to hand when planning future events. Use them to inspire and show partners or potential venues what to expect. Existing stakeholders can quickly see your impact, and potential donors can get a glimpse into the activities their money will fund.

Are There Alternatives to Non-Profit Event Photo Books?

You could choose a traditional photo album instead of a digitally-designed photo book. This is a multi-stage process including:

Sourcing high-quality photo albums, which vary in costs
Taking photos at the event
Choosing to pay a third party to professionally develop the photos or print them yourself
Carefully placing each photo in your chosen photo album

The downside is that costs are not fixed, as there are multiple items to source. Even if you print your own photos, you must consider the cost of high-quality photo paper and ink. Photo albums are generally not as durable as professionally printed non-profit photo books, and over time, the film that holds the photos in place could degrade.

Because of the potentially higher costs, organizations may only use a few photos. This may not tell the whole story of the event. The other primary downside of traditional photo albums is that it's tricky to duplicate them. If you want to offer multiple people a collection of photos as a memento of an event, this would require painstaking manual work.

Using a digital service to duplicate photo books is easy, quick, and cost-effective.

The lowest cost option is not to document the event, which is a shame when you consider all the time and effort put into planning, coordinating, and holding a non-profit event. You could hire someone to handle the non-profit event photography and store those photos digitally. This makes them available for updating your website and socials. If you decide you want to create a professional-looking photo book at a later date, the option is always available to you.

Mixbook provides over 600 themes to complement your organization's story or the theme of your non-profit event. Take a look and get started today.