Quick answer
A £129 charity logo from us is designed for the way charities are actually seen: on collection tins and buckets, volunteer tabards, grant applications, event banners and the donation page. It has to work in one colour, leave room for the registered charity statement, and be approved by a board of trustees. All three layouts are in the fee.
Charity logo and the registered charity statement
In England and Wales, section 39 of the Charities Act 2011 says a registered charity whose gross income in its last financial year exceeded £10,000 must state that it is a registered charity, in legible characters, on notices, advertisements and other documents that ask for money or property, and on its invoices, receipts and bills. Scotland has its own rules under the Charities References in Documents (Scotland) Regulations 2007. A charitable incorporated organisation whose name does not include “CIO” or “charitable incorporated organisation” must also state that it is a CIO, in legible characters, wherever it has to show its name.
That affects the logo in a practical way. The statement and the charity number need a consistent home, and the best place is a lockup (the logo with a text line fixed beneath or beside it), not a corner they are squeezed into afterwards. We design the horizontal version with a clear line underneath for “Registered charity no.” so it appears the same way on letters, leaflets, banners and the website footer. Supporters can check that number, because GOV.UK lets anyone search the register of charities by name or number. Check the exact wording your regulator expects; the design simply makes room for it.
Tins, buckets, tabards and the stall
Charity branding spends much of its life outdoors, in volunteers’ hands, often in the rain. These are the surfaces that matter most:
| Surface | How it is usually branded | What the logo needs |
|---|---|---|
| Collection tin or bucket | A wrap-around label or sticker on a curved surface | A stacked or icon version that reads on a curve, with the charity number |
| Volunteer tabard or T-shirt | One-colour print on the front and back | A bold one-colour version legible from across a street |
| Pull-up banner at events | Full colour, read from a distance | The horizontal lockup large at the top |
| Leaflets and donation forms | Full colour or black and white | A version that photocopies cleanly |
| Donation page and social media | A small square or circle avatar | The icon alone, centred |
| Charity shop fascia | Painted or printed sign | The horizontal lockup in strong contrast |
Street collections bring their own permissions. In England and Wales, GOV.UK says you might need a street collection licence from your local council to collect money in public places, including shop doorways and car parks. Branded tins and tabards make an authorised collection easy to recognise, which reassures donors.
Who the logo has to convince
A charity speaks to several audiences at once, and each one reads the logo for something different.
| Audience | What they are judging | What the logo should signal |
|---|---|---|
| First-time donors | Is this charity real and well run? | Trustworthy, established, clear about the cause |
| People you support | Will they treat me with respect? | Warm and approachable, never pitying |
| Grant funders | Can this organisation deliver and report? | Professional and consistent across documents |
| Volunteers | Would I be proud to wear this? | Something people want on a T-shirt |
| Corporate partners | Will our logo sit well beside theirs? | Clean, confident, easy to co-brand |
If those audiences pull in different directions, the people you support usually come first: a charity that looks like it respects them earns the trust of everyone else too.
Getting trustees to agree
A charity logo is usually approved by a board, sometimes after consulting staff, volunteers and service users. Committees can stall a project or water it down until nothing is left. A clear process helps:
- Agree the brief first. Before any design, get the board to sign off who the logo is for (donors, service users, funders, volunteers) and the three words it should convey.
- Nominate a small decision group. Two or three trustees with authority to approve, rather than the full board voting on every round.
- Judge concepts against the brief, not taste. “Does this feel trustworthy to a first-time donor?” is a better question than “Do I like purple?”
- Record the decision. Note the approval in the minutes so the logo is not reopened at the next meeting.
Because our concepts and revisions within the brief are unlimited, a slower board process does not cost the charity more.
A worked example: a town food bank’s first proper logo
The food bank here is hypothetical, not a client of ours. A volunteer-run food bank has used a clip-art heart and a word-processor font for years. Before: the heart blurs on the bucket label, the name breaks across two lines on the tabard, and every volunteer has a different version on their laptop. After: a wordmark of the town name and “Food Bank” in a sturdy sans serif, one warm accent colour, a stacked lockup with the charity number line for tins, and one shared folder of approved files. The decision group signs it off against a three-word brief: local, practical, welcoming.
Grant applications and funders’ logos
Funders often ask to see your branding on applications and, if they fund you, want their own logo on your materials. Your logo will sit in a row next to lottery funders, councils and corporate sponsors, often on a white strip at the bottom of a poster. Design for that: a horizontal version that holds its own beside other marks, a one-colour version for when the funder’s guidelines ask for one colour, and a clear area so logos do not crowd each other. Follow each funder’s acknowledgement rules exactly; they are often a grant condition.
Accessible by design
Charities serve everyone, including people with sight loss, learning disabilities and older supporters who read printed newsletters. A charity logo should pass basic accessibility checks:
- Strong contrast between the logo and its background, especially for text in the logo.
- A clear, readable name. Avoid thin scripts and tightly spaced capitals that are hard to read at small sizes.
- Meaning without colour. The mark should still work for someone who cannot tell your two brand colours apart.
Charity logo ideas: beyond hands and hearts
Charity logos lean on a familiar set of symbols: two hands, a heart, a tree, a dove, people holding hands in a circle, a ribbon. They signal “charity” but rarely which one, and a donor seeing five heart logos at a fundraising fair remembers none of them. Better starting points are your cause and your place: the specific people, animals, landscape or service you work for, drawn simply, or a confident wordmark of your name that stays readable on a bucket. Our guide to briefing a designer helps a committee describe that clearly.
A brand volunteers can use
Charity material is often made by volunteers and staff in Canva, Word or a printer’s template, not by a designer. That is fine, if the brand makes it easy. Keep the logo files in one shared folder with a short one-page note: which version to use where, the colour codes, the minimum size and what not to do. If you want that written properly, with fonts and examples, our Brand Identity Design (£299) includes brand guidelines. Where volunteers write appeal copy as well as laying it out, point them to the Fundraising Regulator’s Code of Fundraising Practice, which sets the standards for fundraising by charities and the people who fundraise for them. If you want templates for posters and social posts, Social Media Design (£79) and Flyer and Leaflet Design (£89) build them from the logo.
Charity shops: the fascia, the bag and the price tag
If you run a charity shop, the logo works as a retail brand as well. The fascia (the sign above the shop window) is read from across the high street, so it needs the horizontal lockup in strong contrast, with the cause in a short line beneath it. Inside, price tags, swing tickets and carrier bags carry the stacked version, and the window display changes weekly around it. Keep the shop’s look consistent with the rest of the charity, so a shopper who buys a coat also recognises the appeal leaflet on the counter.
What £129 covers for a charity
Our charity logo design costs £129 with every layout included: horizontal with room for the charity number for letters, banners and the website, stacked for tins and leaflets, and icon-only for the donation page and social avatars. You get unlimited concepts, unlimited revisions within your brief, a single-colour version for tabards and funder strips, a 3D mockup and every file format a printer and embroiderer will want. The copyright passes to the charity on delivery, which keeps the logo an asset of the organisation, not of one volunteer.
- Every fee is on our pricing page.
- Our UK logo cost guide compares our fixed fee with typical quotes from studios and freelancers.
Launching it with supporters
A new charity logo is a story to share, not just a change of file. Tell supporters why the charity is changing and what stays the same, then update the donation page and social profiles first, followed by the letterhead and receipts so the registered charity statement is right everywhere. Tins, tabards and banners can be replaced as they wear out, which keeps the cost down for donors. First concepts arrive within 48 hours, so you can take them to the next trustee meeting. Customers rate us 4.8/5 Excellent. When the board has agreed the brief, order the charity logo and tell us who you help.
