Volunteer Graphic Design & Visual Communications Team

Remote skilled-volunteer opportunity | Social, web, print, presentation, campaign, and template design

Location

Remote - United States

Commitment

Approximately 3-6 hours per week; project-based assignments

Initial term

90-day introductory period; renewable by mutual agreement

Team model

Multiple designers and production volunteers with complementary tools and styles

Reports to

Founder/authorized creative or campaign lead

Organization Description

The Animal Cause, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) Christian animal-welfare organization working to save shelter animals, support efforts to reduce shelter overpopulation, preserve life, and strengthen the systems that help vulnerable animals move from crisis toward safety, care, and responsible placement. We support and collaborate with shelters, rescues, fosters, volunteers, receiving organizations, veterinary providers, donors, businesses, churches, and communities through volunteer, transport, rescue-support, consulting, foster-partnership, visibility, and infrastructure-building efforts.

Through The Shepherd's Ark Program, we are developing mobile animal-care, transport, logistics, field-support, and visibility capacity. The organization is also building broader infrastructure intended to improve coordination, public engagement, resource access, and lifesaving pathways across Texas and beyond.

The Animal Cause is entirely volunteer-led and supported through donations, grants, fundraising, and in-kind support. No representative currently receives a salary.

Opportunity Summary

The Animal Cause is recruiting a graphic-design and visual-communications team to create consistent, accessible, editable, and mission-aligned materials across social media, websites, fundraising, volunteer recruitment, foster recruitment, animal visibility, partner outreach, presentations, documents, and The Shepherd's Ark. Designers will work from approved briefs and may contribute ideas, but final messaging, program claims, and priorities remain subject to organizational approval.

This opportunity is being recruited as part of a team. No single volunteer is expected to own the entire function, carry every assignment, or determine organizational priorities alone. Work will be divided into defined projects based on skill, availability, current readiness, and approved organizational priorities.

Primary Responsibilities

• Create approved social graphics, banners, campaign images, presentations, brochures, reports, infographics, thumbnails, flyers, and website assets.
• Develop reusable branded templates for multiple programs, campaigns, teams, and platforms.
• Translate complex animal-welfare, program, donor, volunteer, partner, and operational information into clear visual communication.
• Prepare correct dimensions, file types, compression levels, accessibility features, and export versions for each channel.
• Maintain organized editable source files, linked assets, licenses, version history, and final exports in approved folders.
• Coordinate with marketing, website, video, content, and program volunteers.
• Apply consistent typography, layout, image treatment, logo use, tone, and calls to action.
• Review assets for accuracy, readability, copyright, privacy, animal dignity, and potential public misunderstanding.

Possible Initial Assignments

• Create or refine a core Canva brand and template library.
• Develop coordinated asset sets for Mercy Stage, The Shepherd's Ark, foster recruitment, volunteer recruitment, and fundraising.
• Create LinkedIn and Facebook banners, square posts, story/reel covers, event graphics, and partner spotlight templates.
• Design one-page partner briefs, donor consideration documents, presentations, and case-study layouts.
• Build editable animal-profile and shelter-visibility templates that can scale beyond one animal.
• Compress and export images to platform limits without materially reducing quality.
• Create a visual asset inventory and document where editable files, fonts, logos, photographs, and licenses are stored.

Minimum Qualifications

• At least 21 years old and based in the United States.
• Demonstrated graphic-design, visual-communications, layout, presentation, branding, or digital-production capability.
• Ability to work from an approved brief, accept revisions, meet specifications, and maintain organized source files.
• Understanding of composition, typography, hierarchy, readability, platform dimensions, and file preparation.
• Ability to verify asset rights and avoid unauthorized use of photographs, logos, fonts, illustrations, or other protected materials.
• Respect for confidentiality, intellectual property, organizational ownership, and the Christian mission.

Preferred Experience

• Canva, Adobe Creative Cloud, Affinity, Figma, or comparable design tools.
• Social-media, nonprofit, fundraising, animal-welfare, presentation, document, web, or campaign design experience.
• Video thumbnails, short-form video graphics, basic motion, photo editing, accessibility, or print-production skills.
• Experience creating brand systems and reusable templates for distributed teams.
• Understanding of ethical and controlled use of generative AI in visual communication.

Operating Boundaries

• Designers may not alter the logo, create a new brand identity, publish materials, or represent a program as active without approval.
• Animal facts, medical or behavioral claims, urgency, placement status, partnerships, and fundraising statements must come from approved source information.
• AI-generated or altered animal imagery may be used only when specifically approved and must not misrepresent an actual animal or outcome.
• All editable source files and final exports created for the assignment must remain available to The Animal Cause.
• Personal portfolio use, public sharing, or reuse of unpublished organizational work requires written permission.

Volunteer Service Terms

• This is an unpaid volunteer position and does not create an employment relationship.
• Applicants must be at least 21 years old and currently based in the United States.
• Applicants must be able to work respectfully within a Christian animal-welfare mission.
• A 90-day introductory period may be used to evaluate reliability, communication, judgment, and assignment fit.
• Volunteers may be asked to sign the Volunteer Service Agreement and applicable confidentiality, intellectual-property, and public-communications documents.
• Volunteers may not speak, publish, contact organizations, make commitments, or otherwise represent The Animal Cause without written authorization for the specific role, channel, and activity.
• Officially published organizational content may be shared as directed; independent statements on behalf of the organization are prohibited unless authorized.
• Organizational files, source files, credentials, research, work product, and records must remain in approved organizational systems and be returned or transferred at the end of service.
• AI tools may be used only within approved boundaries. Confidential information may not be entered into external AI systems, and AI-generated content must be reviewed for accuracy, rights, safety, and mission alignment before use.
• At this time, The Animal Cause does not accept or verify court-ordered, probation, parole, diversion, judgment-related, school-required, or employer-required community-service hours.