How your church can apply for a free Canva Pro account

24/11/2023

Canva.com is an easy-to-use design tool, created for people without any design experience in mind.

Here at Digital Labs, we promote Canva to churches, as it’s a great way to create content. If you’re interested in Canva and would like to learn more, you could attend one of our introductory webinars.  

Canva offer a free, non-profit account which churches are eligible to apply for. This type of account provides you with all the ‘pro’ features on Canva. 

Some of Canva’s pro features include: 

  • Unlimited access to templates, stock media, elements and fonts 
  • Up to 100 Brand Kits to help you establish your church’s visual identity (e.g. your brand colours, fonts and logos) 
  • Magic Resize feature to help you resize your designs easily 
  • 100GB of cloud storage 

But how can churches gain access to these pro features for free? 

When a church registers for a non-profit account, they need to provide a piece of documentation which confirms their non-profit status and proves that they’re eligible for a free account. This blog will talk you through the different types of documentation which you could provide to prove your non-profit status. 

 

Charity Commission charity number 

For churches with an income of over £100k annual income who are therefore listed as registered charities, they can use proof from the Charity Commission’s website to apply for a non-profit account.   

 

Gift Aid registration 

If a church is registered for Gift Aid, the application process should be fairly straightforward.  

Upon registering for Gift Aid, the church should've received a ‘signing on’ letter from HMRC. This letter, or any correspondence the church has received from HMRC Charities, will include the ‘tax exemption number'. This will start with two letters or an X and will include up to 5 numbers. The PCC treasurer should have access to this number, but letters with the tax exemption number can also be downloaded from the HMRC website. If the HMRC doc is used to apply for a non-profit account, select 'HM Revenue and Customs' as the 'Registry Institution' dropdown on the non-profit registration form. 

 

Other accepted documents 

  • Articles and Memorandum of Association 
  • Certificate of Incorporation 
  • Bylaws 

Top tips: 

  • A few people have told us that they had success with their application after messaging Canva on Facebook or X, formerly known as Twitter, to explain the problem and get support (rather than on their support system on the website). This might be worth a try – just search for Canva on Facebook or X and then click to send them a message and explain the problem. 
  • There is also a Facebook group called ‘Canva for Church’, and while this group isn’t affiliated with the Church of England, it is a great source of inspiration and ideas from fellow churches. 

Ready to apply for a non-profit account? Head to this link to get started.

 

- Naomi Ensor, Digital Labs Officer