What images are you using to represent your organization? Do these images best express your work? Will supporters or constituents see themselves depicted in the pictures you’re using? Are there photos that you should capture over the course of the year that better express your organization’s work and voice?
Your organization may need to refresh content with your photos or use some stock images. If you don’t have a budget for outside images, it can be hard to find free photos that align with your brand and organization.
Below are several image websites that we’ve used for client projects and our blog posts. While free images often feel too-generic, these sites often have a wider variety of available images.
Unsplash
This website is a resource with over 1 million free high-resolution images. The search field is reasonably handy. When you download photos, they ask you to credit the photographer when possible (which is a recommended practice for free photos). They recently announced a partnership with The Library of Congress, British Library, New York Public Library, and several more!
Vice’s Gender Spectrum Collection
This stock photo library features images of trans and non-binary models that go beyond cliché images. It’s well organized and provides images under the subjects, Lifestyle, Relationships, Technology, Work, School, Health, and Moods.
Nappy
Provides beautiful, high-resolution photos of black and brown people. You can search for images or browse collections for Active, Food, People, Places, Things, and Work. Their images have a variety of sizes which is helpful for website purposes.
Pixabay
Has over 1.6 million images to choose from. You can search by type, orientation, and colors.
Disabled And Here Collection
This collection is a disability-led effort to provide free and inclusive stock photos shot from our own perspective, featuring disabled Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) across the Pacific Northwest. Themes include LGBTQ+, Lifestyle, Social, and Work. This resource was created by a nonprofit organization that works with a fiscal sponsor, Allied Media Projects. Please consider supporting them with a donation.
Gratisography
This website provides free high-resolution pictures that are free of copyright restrictions. The images on Gratisography can be pretty quirky, which is helpful for some organizations. They have fewer images than other sites but add new pictures each week.
Flickr – WOCinTech Chat
This image collection was created to help address the problem of not having visible representations of women of color engaging in technical tasks in stock images. It’s a great collection that focuses on tech and work.
StockSnap
StockSnap curates their photos from a pool of submissions. The pictures are free to download and help feature the photographer. When you search for photos, the first eight entries are from Shutterstock and link to their paid site. The images below those are free to download through StockSnap.
Pexels
All photos on Pexels are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, which means you can use them for free for any personal and commercial purpose. Pexels has fewer options available but has very high-quality photos. The search functionality is more limited than other options. Attribution is not required, but they do make it easy to attribute photos.
New Old Stock
These are historical photos that are free of known copyright restrictions. There are great photos here, but you have to scroll through them to find pictures.
Justin (he, him) is a Principal and Co-Founder of Social Change Consulting. He has over fifteen years of nonprofit experience, with expertise in online fundraising, digital communications, and data management. Justin helps organizations connect their communication strategy to their income development needs. When he’s not on the clock, Justin is exploring Berlin, running, listening to too many podcasts, and drinking too much coffee.