Canva is a website where users can make engaging graphic design projects ranging from birthday cards to animated end cards for videos. We will use it primarily to make visuals for social media posts, such as pictures or videos. It can be a bit of a learning curve at first, but don’t worry; Canva was made to be easy to navigate. Don’t hesitate to reach out to a team member if you need assistance making posts on Canva.

You will get access to all Canva Pro features through the AHA Social Media Team. In order to gain access, you must accept the Canva Team invitation sent to your email.

Although Canva is a useful resource, if you already have graphic design or social media marketing experience and prefer to use a different tool or program (e.g., Adobe Photoshop, Figma) to make posts, that is completely fine. Just let the team know so that we are aware.

Alternatively, you do not need to make a design on Canva for every post. For example, this post highlights donors that helped out with folding origami for International Day of Older Person’s Day 2022, presented as just a set of pictures. This will be specified in the posting schedule.

Introduction to Canva

Below is a brief introduction to how the AHA Social Media Team layout looks like. Highlighted below in yellow is the Canva Team “AHA Social Media” (denoted by the letters “AS”) that you are a part of. Please ensure you are in this Team (and that you are not currently in the page of another Canva Team that you may be a part of), otherwise you may not have access to the Canva Pro features being in a Canva Team provides.

You do not need to make designs on Canva from scratch (however, feel free to if you want!). There is a “Templates” tab (highlighted in green above) which you can use to edit and use to make social media posts.

The template categories that are most relevant to AHA are under “Social media” (highlighted in yellow below), but feel free to explore all templates. The blue box below shows a small fraction of the many templates you can use, purely for an Instagram post alone. You can also use the search bar at the top to search for more specific templates (e.g., templates related to donations, holidays, etc.,), as well as filter templates by preferred style, theme, color, and more if you scroll down on the left sidebar (highlighted in the green box below).

You can edit the text, images, shapes, positioning, colours, and even the animation of all templates you use; images and graphics are also provided by Canva (although in some cases you may need to use images provided by AHA).

Here is a 6-minute tutorial on how to make and upload a square Instagram post on Canva. The Canva site also has its own set of tutorials. The lessons are split into short digestible chunks, each lesson usually teaching you one function. We recommend watching the tutorials on Getting Started and Designing with Canva to learn the basics. Of course, tutorials aside, much can be learned from hands-on experience and exploration, which you will be gaining by volunteering with AHA!

Sharing Canva Designs to the AHA Social Media Team

A confusing aspect of Canva is that, although the Canva Pro features are granted to you on behalf of the Canva Team subscription, the designs you make are usually private to you until you share it with the Team and the associated AHA account. For this reason, it is important that you know how to share Canva designs with the AHA Social Media Team

Here is a short 1-minute Canva tutorial on how to share your design with Team members. Please share your design with two people: the AHA Social media Team, and the Asha Hope Amanaki account; you can do this by copy-and-pasting or typing these names in the search bar. If needed, click on the icon on the right of the person or team you are sharing the Canva design with and change the access to “edit,” indicated by a pen icon (highlighted in yellow in the image below). In the end, your “Share this design” box should look like this (with you being the Owner):

If you are unsure if you have shared your Canva design to the AHA Social Media Team or not, please always make sure to see who you shared your Canva design with!

Projects Page: Folders

We use folders to organize our designs on Canva! You can access all your folders (highlighted in blue in the image below) in the “Projects” page on the left sidebar (highlighted in yellow in the image below). The most relevant folder is the “Social Media – Assets” folder (highlighted in blue in the image above). In this folder, you will find the following:

Standard Templates folder: This is where you will find designs that line-up with certain themes (e.g., Volunteer Spotlight, Donation progress, promotion); if you are scheduled to post according to a theme that lines up with one of these templates, feel free to edit a standard template design. For reference, below is the “AHA Volunteer Spotlight” design template used for three different posts:

Gallery folder: Here you will find sub-folders that contain images and designs that pertain to specific events or themes. Feel free to use these in any way that is fitting (e.g., You post images on their own or integrate them into your own designs; you can edit other people’s designs to fit a theme).

Please also feel free to explore the other folders in order to familiarize yourself with Canva and AHA’s events and programs!

Projects Page: Designs, Images, and Videos

Also in the “Projects” Page are three other tabs:

Designs: highlighted in yellow below, this is where you will find all the designs that have been made using/in Canva.

Images & Videos: highlighted in green above, this is where you will find all the images and videos that have been uploaded to Canva, but are not implemented as part of a Canva design (or edited with a software other than Canva). As such, you will most likely find raw videos and images in these tabs. You will have to download these raw files into your personal device (e.g., computer, laptop, phone) and upload them while making a Canva design.

A note on uploading images to Canva Designs: The image below shows what the Canva editor looks like. Highlighted in yellow below (left-side) is the “Uploads” section, and in order to upload a file, you click the “Upload files” button (highlighted in blue below) and select the appropriate file from your device. From there, you can edit and use it in your selected design or template as you wish!

If you are having trouble finding designs, images, or videos shared to the AHA Social Media Team by others, please ensure that the Projects filter bar (highlighted in yellow below) is displaying “All projects” or “Shared with you” (highlighted in blue below).

Posting on Different Platforms

You have two options on how to upload social media posts:

log into each AHA social media account individually, and post each post as if you were using your personal account. Please refer to the “PLATFORMS” section on making posts on each platform.
Posting through Canva

Although which option you choose depends on preference, it is generally easier to post through Canva, as you don’t need to save the design to your device or desktop before uploading it to the designated platforms. Here is a 1-minute Canva tutorial on how to connect Canva to different social media platforms.

The first account you want to connect Canva to is AHA’s “Facebook page”; the second account you want to connect Canva to is AHA’s “Instagram Business” account, which you should be able to connect through the previously connected Facebook page. When connecting, please ensure you use the same Facebook account that you shared with AHA, otherwise this process will not work.

When posting, please post on all three platforms at around the same time. Please refer to the video under the “Volunteer Resources” in the “Folders” Tab on the AHA Social Media Team page; it is a tutorial on how to post through different connected Canva accounts. Alternatively, here is Canva’s page on sharing designs on different social media platforms.

Unfortunately, you will need to post from the LinkedIn site directly, as Canva links your personal LinkedIn account rather than the AHA LinkedIn page, and thus cannot be posted from Canva. Likewise, you must post Instagram Reels and Stories (and similar post types like Facebook Stories) directly from the designated platform themselves because these types of posts are not supported by Canva. For Instagram in particular, Canva does not allow you to upload a post containing multiple images (Carousel posts), although this is possible when posting to Facebook, so you will need to post Carousel posts directly from Instagram.

Pre-scheduling Posts

We recommend that you post around the same time every week for the sake of consistency and professionalism. However, we recognize this is not always possible. Fortunately, Canva has a built-in feature that allows you to schedule posts directly from the Canva editor, outlined in this page. We are not currently using the Canva Content Planner, so please refer to the second section “Scheduling posts from the Canva editor.” However, as stated in that page, as of right now, you can only schedule each (one) Canva post to one social media account.

Further, as stated in the preceding sub-section, Any post that cannot be posted from Canva, outlined in the paragraph above, and hence cannot be scheduled, needs to be posted directly from the respective platforms itself.

Alternatively, you can also schedule posts to the Meta Business Suite (on desktop) on AHA’s Facebook page. This page outlines how to do this. You can also read the below.

Below is an image of the AHA Facebook page. On the left-side bar, highlighted in yellow below is the section you must click to access the Meta Business Suite.

The Meta Business Suite “Home” page should look like the below. Click the blue “Create Post” button, outlined in red below to start a new post. Also, some other post options that may be useful are the “Create reel” and “Create story,” highlighted in yellow below, which you can access by clicking the “More” button. The Meta Business Suite allows you to schedule all three types of posts, which is more ideal than Canva, which only allows you to schedule normal posts.

Once you are in the “Create post” page, it will look like the image below. Since post creation is not the focus of this section, we will only go over it briefly.

On the left half of the page is where you can upload all your photos and videos (in the “Media” section) and write your captions (in the “Post details” section). You can choose whether to post on both AHA’s Facebook and AHA’s Instagram page, or just one of the platforms (if needed for whatever reason) by adjusting the “Post to” options at the top (not pictured) and checking the desired platforms. Also, you can write different captions for the same Facebook and Instagram post (again, if needed) under the “Post details” section by activating the “Customise post for Facebook and Instagram” toggle, highlighted in blue below.

On the right, outlined by the red box, is the post preview section. It shows what your post will look like to your audience on Facebook and Instagram. You can switch between the Facebook preview and Instagram preview at the top.

Most importantly, in the “Scheduling options” section there are three options listed.

Publish now: the post will publish immediately after clicking this button.
Schedule: highlighted in yellow below, clicking this will allow you to schedule what date and time the post is published. This will allow you to pre-schedule posts.
Save as draft: if you are not ready to publish or schedule a post, and want to come back to it later, you may save it as a draft to work on it at a later time. If you try to exit the “Create post” page without publishing or scheduling a post, they may ask if you want to save the post as a draft; this is generally a good idea to do!

You can view which posts are scheduled for when in the “Planner” section on the left-sidebar, highlighted in yellow below. It is displayed in a calendar layout. You can also go back to posts you pre-scheduled before and change its details in the “Planner” page.

For more details on managing and scheduling account posts on the Meta Business Suite content planner, refer to this page.

Once again, although both of AHA’s Facebook and Instagram accounts are connected on the Meta Business Suite, AHA’s LinkedIn is not, and as such, you will need to post directly from LinkedIn every time you need to post there. Although LinkedIn does have a feature to schedule posts, outlined in this page, this feature may not be available to all users because it just came out in November 2022 and may still be undergoing testing. (However, if it is available to you, feel free to use it!). Further, as stated before, since we cannot connect AHA’s LinkedIn account to Canva, we cannot take advantage of Canva’s post scheduling features either.

Finally, whenever you decide to schedule a post, please make sure to double check its contents to make sure everything is in place, as well as make sure the time and date you scheduled is correct! (e.g., scheduled for 10am, not 10pm)

Brand Colours, Logo, and Fonts

AHA’s Brand colours, logo(s), and fonts are listed under Tools > Brand (highlighted in yellow).

The logo we use most often is the circular one shown in the first page of this document. Usually, you would want to place it in the upper right corner of each design; the size should be small enough to not intrude on the main design, but large enough to be indefatigable.

The brand colours are #11141a #e9584e #63b8db #f59f00 and #ffffff. Please conform to these standards in creating the visuals of a post whenever you can, although we allow a fair amount of creative liberty. Below are some examples that use some or all of our brand elements.

UPDATED: Ordering of Brand Colours

To maintain consistency, we recommend posting to a set colour scheme order of:1)#e9584e → 2 #63b8db → 3)#f59f00. Before making your post, you should be aware of the colour scheme of the previous post, and then make your post (that is after it) the next colour in the above order. For example, if the previous post was red (#e9584e), you should focus your post around the blue brand colour (#63b8db); if the previous post was yellow (#f59f00), you should focus your post around the red brand colour (#e9584e).

Below is an example (on our Instagram page) of what this ordering should look like; the posts are numbered in the upper right of each post to indicate the order of posting, and the letters on lower right of each post indicates the colour scheme it centers around (Yellow → Red → Blue):

Some notes on colour ordering:

Post 1, 4, 7, and 10 are Yellow. Post 2, 5, 8 and 11 are Red. Post 3, 6, 9 and 12 are Blue. The numbers in each colour set follow a pattern of +3 to indicate this ordering (1+3 = 4; 4 + 3 = 7).
You do not need to use the exact saturation or lightness of the brand colours. For example, you may use darkened versions of the brand colours to allow more contrast and readability with white (or light) text. Please do not change the hue of the brand colours unless absolutely necessary.
The brand colour does not need to be the background colour. You just need to include the specific brand colour in a way that lets the viewer see that it is the focus of the post. There are several ways to do this
1. Make it the background colour.
2. Make it the main colour of the text.
3. Use blocks of the main colour to organise information.
4. For image-focused posts, create a border using the main colour.
5. Use the main colour minimally, but make sure it still stands out by pairing it with neutral colours (e.g., white, black, greys, ivory, pale colours)
6. Try following a monochromatic colour scheme of the main colour: (e.g., #e9584e ,#F1A6A0 , #FADAD8.)
If you are having trouble making a design that pertains to the colour scheme, please refer to these templates made by other volunteers:
1. Volunteer positions template (post 1, 2, 3)

1. Muted colour scheme – text posts template (post 4, 5, 6)

1. Coloured frame – square images

1. Delivery template 3 – two photos

Caption Guidelines

The same person who posted the posting schedule will either:

Provide a caption and hashtags in the Weekly Calendar that pertains to each post’s theme. You are free to adjust its contents as long as you have a reason for doing so (e.g., to better fit the theme, it will gain more traction, it lines up with our current goals and events).
Not provide a caption and hashtags in the Weekly Calendar, and may only state the theme of each post. In this case, you are responsible for writing the caption for your assigned post.

Here are some guidelines on writing captions

Introduce the main body (The part that corresponds to the attached picture/visual) early on. Ideally, put it at the very top so that people see it right away
Try opening with an eye-catching quote or fun fact if the main body does not seem engaging
Feel free to use emojis to brighten up the caption, but note that in some instance this may not be the norm on the platform, like LinkedIn
Use language that is plain and easy to understand (considering showing it to a younger family member or someone who is unfamiliar with social media)

Updated Caption Guidelines (Jan 2024)

The general structure of captions consists of specific sections, but may vary depending on the purpose or highlighted event of each post. As for the format, sections are usually separated with a new empty line, or a new line with just a dash (for clarity). These sections are as follows:

Hook: (if applicable) an eye-grabbing quote or fact that’s meant to draw the viewer in.
Main section(s): indicates the theme of the post, which can range from details of a community fridge delivery, recapping an event, highlighting the achievements done by one of our volunteers, or celebrating and describing the importance of a commemorative or celebratory day (e.g., International Volunteer Day/Week, International Day of Education, International Women’s Day, etc.,)
Related or important link(s): (if applicable) a brief description of any links that are pertinent to the theme; for example, a food delivery update may include a link where the viewer can donate, or an event recap post may include a link for anyone interested in volunteering for AHA’s future events. Viewers may also be referred to the host’s social media accounts instead.
Program and/or event description(s): (if applicable) a brief description of the program and/or the event (when, where, who the hosts are, etc.,) the post is outlining.
Image credits: (if applicable) A brief thank you to those who provided the images for the post. This is usually not mentioned if they are the focus of the post already (e.g., a food delivery volunteer, a volunteer highlight).
Tagline: our tagline: “One small step; triple the hope☀️”
Call for volunteers: (if not included in the post already) a brief description of our current open volunteer positions and where viewers can find this. Please be sure to adjust the wording on each platform to reflect this accordingly:
1. On Instagram: usually people are referred to our pinned posts
2. On Facebook and LinkedIn: usually people are referred to our website
Contact information: a basic list of how to contact us (email, website, phone number, etc.,)
Hashtags: are detailed directly below!

The order of these sections may change from time to time and is ultimately up to your discretion for what would work best for the specific post, but generally sections 6-8 are always last and do not vary a whole lot between posts.

Hashtag Guidelines

The first hashtag must always be #ashahopeamanaki
Put the hashtags at the very bottom. They are key for engagement but may look cluttered and offer minimal information.
Put about 15-25 hashtags and try to maintain a good variety of hashtag types (e.g., event, nonprofit, community, location, trending)

Caption Examples

Below are some captions that were posted on different platforms. The sections described before are also noted, but please note that this is for the sake of clarity in this orientation document only—please do not include the section names in the final published caption.

EXAMPLE 1

Main section:

💞🚚 DELIVERY UPDATE:

🌟WHERE: behind the Beaverton Bahai Center-5355 SW Murray Blvd

🌟WHEN: Sun, Dec 17th

🌟WHAT: plenty of tomato, lettuce, ham, and cheese sandwiches

🌟TO: @beavertonfoodprojecf

🌟DELIVERY BY: Isaias Mauricio

Related or important link:

☀️ SUPPORT US:

➡️https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=VHM4EZ5NUS2J6

Program Description:

🍳 What is Cook and Serve?

Asha Hope Amanaki’s Cook and Serve Project aims to provide sustainable, diverse, and dietary-specific foods to the shelters and elderly care facilities that we have partnered with to ensure all have meals they not just need, but meals they love 😋🥪🥨

Tagline:

One small step; triple the hope☀️

Call for volunteers:

📌 Check out our pinned posts for open volunteer opportunities! We are currently looking for Social Media managers, Python programmers, cupcake bakers, transcribers and more! (both in-person and virtual positions available!)

Contact information:

💌: [email protected]

🌐: ashahopeamanaki.org

📱: (662)-786-0922 — through WhatsApp or calling directly

📭: DM us or consult the link in our bio!

Hashtags:

🏷️ #ashahopeamanaki #CookAndServe #baking #cooking #cupcakes #homemade #dessert #food4all #foodphotography #homebaking #foreveryone #foodlover #communityfridge #donate #foodsecurity #communityevents #servingourcommunity #foodservicestrong #servinghumanity #leaveitbetterthanyoufoundit #holidaycheer #seasonofgiving #christmas #holidayseason #giveback #givingback #tistheseason #hopeonthestreet #washingtoncounty #beavertonor

EXAMPLE 2

Hook:

💬 “I expect [this experience] to help me in the future as I have gained a lot of experience in Graphic Design and it might help me get an opportunity at another company doing the same work.” —Brendon Bradford

Related or important link:

🔗 READ THE FULL BLOG HERE: https://ashahopeamanaki.org/2023/10/04/volunteering-for-nonprofit-as-a-social-media-volunteer/

Main section:

✨️📷 INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHT 📷✨️

Here it is! Check out our latest blog post (linked above!) where we talk to Brendon Bradford (@die4bnb), an undergraduate Computer Science student from Jackson State University, about his experience of volunteering at @ashahopeamanaki as a Social Media Manager ✨ Get to know how he discovered us, what the learning curve was like, the skills he’s learned, how he expects these skills to help him in the future, and, of course, more about Brendon himself 🤗💞 Thank you for all your hard work, Brendon! We’re extremely honoured to have you as a volunteer and to have watched and been a part of your growth 🌱🥹

Tagline:

One small step; triple the hope☀️

Call for volunteers:

Contact information:

💌: [email protected]

🌐: ashahopeamanaki.org

📱: (662)-786-0922 — through WhatsApp or calling directly

📭: DM us or consult the link in our bio!

Hashtags:

🏷️#ashahopeamanaki #portlandstate #communityservice #projectmanagement #successtips #getinvolved #graphicdesign #socialmediamarketing #remotevolunteer #leadershipopportunities #leadership #motivation #entrepreneurship #studentsuccesstories #inspirational #motivation #volunteer #leaveitbetterthanyoufoundit #makeadifference #culturalevents #culturalarts #hopeonthestreet #washingtoncounty #beavertonor #studentsforthefuture #onlinevolunteer

EXAMPLE 3 – Can you identify the sections correctly?

💬 “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” —Margaret J. Wheatley

–

🌿 BEAVERTON FARMERS MARKET: WHERE LOCAL COMMUNITIES CONNECT 🦫

Thank you to all the folks over at Beaverton Farmers Market for organizing such an engaging and fun event for the community and newcomers alike 💞🥰 We were there just yesterday and were touched by the bustling, warm, and inviting atmosphere 🥹⛅ What a wonderful place for both established and up-and-coming businesses to connect with the local community! 💖🙌 Can’t wait to see what the upcoming Saturdays will bring!!

–

🌟 Visit Beaverton Farmers Market

➡️WHEN: Every Saturday

February – March, 10:00AM – 1:30PM

April – November, 8:30AM – 1:30PM

➡️WHERE: SW Hall Blvd, between 3rd and 5th streets

–

🌟 Learn more about Beaverton Farmers Market:

https://www.beavertonfarmersmarket.com/

Instagram @beavertonmarket

Facebook @ Beaverton Farmers Market

–

📸 Thank you to our volunteer @sreyoshi_p for taking these wonderful photos!

➡️LEFT: Food for Thought LLC: a local food business who donates 100% of their proceeds to charity!

➡️RIGHT: Our volunteers Sreyoshi and Tasneem!

–

One small step; triple the hope☀️

–

💌: [email protected]

🌐: ashahopeamanaki.org

📱: (662)-786-0922 — through WhatsApp or calling directly

📭: DM us or consult the link in our bio!

–

🏷️ #ashahopeamanaki #beaverton #beavertonmarket #farmersmarket #farm #portlandoregon #farmtotable #PDX #portlandbusiness #onthetable #bbq #homemade #healthyfood #healthylifestyle #smallbusiness #fresh #shoplocal #organic #shopsmall #supportsmallbusiness #supportlocal #community #local #vegetables #washingtoncountyoregon #yamhilloregon #beavertonor #nonprofitcommunity

FEEDBACK & COMMUNICATION

We encourage you to post your graphics and/or captions to the WhatsApp group chat if you want feedback. It is recommended that you post your caption for feedback at least a few hours before you are going to post to allow others the time to review it. Ultimately, you are responsible for deciding how to format and present your post; please use your own judgement to decide if others’ suggested changes would be appropriate.

Of course, this feedback also goes both ways. If you have any suggestions for how we could improve in any way, please don’t hesitate to message Ashwin privately or make a suggestion in the WhatsApp group chat!

END

We understand that this document is not all-encompassing of all you need to know on how to manage AHA’s Social Media platforms, but we hope it has served as a good introduction that will allow you to better grow here. As always, don’t hesitate to ask any questions you have to specific team members or the Social Media Team group chat on WhatsApp, no matter how trivial you think it is! Alternatively, you can submit your feedback anonymously through a Google Form linked here. Even seemingly trivial feedback like a typo, grammar mistake, broken link, etc., that you find in this document helps!

This is the first iteration of the Asha Hope Amanaki Social Media Orientation Document and we are continually striving to expand on and improve it as we figure it all out. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read it and, of course, in offering your precious time to volunteer for us here at Asha Hope Amanaki.

How to Make a Post

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MAKING POSTS

Canva

Introduction to Canva

Sharing Canva Designs to the AHA Social Media Team

Projects Page: Folders

Posting on Different Platforms

Pre-scheduling Posts

Brand Colours, Logo, and Fonts

UPDATED: Ordering of Brand Colours

Caption Guidelines

Updated Caption Guidelines (Jan 2024)

Hashtag Guidelines

Caption Examples

FEEDBACK & COMMUNICATION

END

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Volunteer Experience with Asha Hope Amanaki – Johanna Weiss

How to Make a Post

Social Media Orientation Document

Volunteer Guidelines for Food Preparation, Delivery, and Photography