5 Canva Teams features for government agencies

Contributed blog by Angie Ramirez, Freelance Writer at Government Social Media

Let's start with a confession: I'm not a professional graphic designer. Nope, not even close. But what I lack in formal training, I make up for in scrappiness—and a healthy dose of Canva addiction. I had the fortune to work under an incredibly talented graphic designer for many years who instilled in me a deep love and appreciation for design. He taught me that white space is not my enemy, showed me how to balance composition, and taught me other key things necessary to have an eye for design.

The problem was I simply didn't have the bandwidth to tackle the steep learning curve of some of the Adobe design programs. My job was to manage social media, and it happens that graphics are a big part of what we do. It also happens that many government agencies have tiny teams, and if they're lucky enough to have a graphic designer... they're likely swamped.

That's where Canva comes in.

Canva is an incredibly powerful and user-friendly tool that can help teams of all sizes and skill levels create beautiful and impactful designs. Social media graphics are often simple, and—with the right tools—I believe all teams can do it!

But empowering non-designers to design can be a little… scary. It's essential for government agencies to maintain a consistent brand identity.

If you are a graphic designer yourself and your blood pressure is spiking just reading this... don't worry! Hopefully, by the end of this article you will see that you can still ensure quality control with the right collaboration and settings.

And if you're a social media manager who's terrified of designing anything… I got you! You'll be amazed at what you can create in Canva with the right tools, templates, and practice.

What is Canva Teams?

Canva Teams is a subscription plan offered by Canva that includes five licenses (and you can add additional licenses for a fee). It allows teams of all sizes to collaborate on projects, access premium features (like content in Canva's stock photo and video library), and work seamlessly in real-time remotely. Canva Teams also includes a Brand Kit where agencies can store branding assets like logos, brand colors, and fonts, ensuring brand consistency across all designs. Customizable approval workflows also allow designated members to review and approve designs before publication. Overall, Canva Teams streamlines the design process, empowers teams to create high-quality designs efficiently, and maintains brand consistency across all communications.

5 Canva Teams features for government agencies

1. Brand Kit: With Canva Teams, you can create a Brand Kit that houses all your brand assets, including logos, colors, and fonts. This ensures that everyone on your team can access the latest branding materials and easily maintain brand consistency in all their designs. You can also set up multiple brand kits; for example, you could set up a brand kit for your police department, fire department, parks and rec department, and more if each department has its own brand colors, fonts, logos, etc.
2. Brand Templates: Canva Teams also allows you to create and save custom templates tailored to your brand's style and messaging. Team members can use these templates to quickly produce on-brand designs for various purposes, saving time and ensuring uniformity across all communications. For example, you could create templates for social media graphics, event flyers, posters, website graphics, newsletters, and more. Certain features on these templates (for example, the location of your logo) can also be locked to ensure they are not accidentally or purposefully moved. In settings, you can also limit the use of colors and fonts to just your brand colors and fonts, further safeguarding designs from accidentally straying away from the brand book.
3. Real-Time Collaboration: One of the coolest things about Canva Teams is that multiple people can access and edit a design together in real time. For example, let's say your intern creates a graphic for a social media campaign, and they would like your feedback. You can log in to the same team even if you are working remotely and move things around and make edits. This is great for talking through design and content choices together, as both team members will see elements move and text change in real time. Team members can also leave comments on specific elements in the design and "assign" the comment to someone on the team, who will then receive a notification.
4. Content Approvals Workflow: Canva Teams allows you to set up customizable design approval workflows. This feature ensures that all designs undergo thorough review and approval from designated team members (like a graphic designer or someone in leadership) before the graphic can be finalized and downloaded. Through content approvals, teams can ensure designs meet quality and grand standards.
5. Public View Links: But Angie.. what about if I need to share a design with someone who is not on my Canva Team for their approval? Have no fear! Canva has an option to create a "public view link" for any design, which you can share with non-Canva users. This is great for sharing content with department directors or agency leadership before the design is finalized.

Canva Design School

If all of those features weren't great enough, Canva also has an incredible library of resources in its free Canva Design School. Everything from Canva for Beginners to Canva Pro for Nonprofits and specific courses about Canva Teams, like Brand Management in Canva Teams and Managing your Team in Canva Teams—there are so many fantastic resources at your fingertips. Canva Create also recently hosted an event to showcase the latest changes and launches. 

Final Thoughts

For the record—this is totally NOT sponsored. I'm just a huge Canva fan! I'd like to think I've reached pro-level Canva status, but I'm always learning new tips and tricks… especially when I attend GSMCON! If you attended GMSCON2024, then you may have seen the Canva Queen herself, Anndrea Harris, and her amazing talk about Canva's AI tools. If you missed it, it's not too late for attendees to see the recording!

Canva is a popular tool among socialgovs and received multiple mentions during a text-based discussion in the free GSM Network about Mastering Graphic Design for SocialGov Accounts. Once you join the network, you can read the full recap here! 

Does your team use Canva Teams? I'd love to know! No gatekeeping here, let's share all the Canva tips and tricks to empower agencies with efficiency and creativity. 

Meet the author

Angela Ramirez (Pitts)

Freelance Writer - Government Social Media LLC

Angela is an award-winning government communicator who is passionate about leveraging social media to build strong relationships between government agencies and the people they serve. During her tenure with the City of Tampa, Angela proudly maintained a dynamic social media presence for the City, telling Tampa’s story through historic events, including the Super Bowl, the COVID-19 pandemic, major hurricanes, and more. She also helped establish a community-centric social media following for the City, growing the @cityoftampa Instagram profile from less than 1k followers to over 100k in under five years.

She has recently moved to the beautiful state of Colorado and now serves as Communications Manger for the City of Lakewood, the 5th largest city in the state. Her passion for government social media continues as she strives to be a thought leader in the field. She takes immense pride in the connections she’s made with social media professionals across the nation.

Angela earned her bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida and is currently completing her master's degree in Digital Strategy from the University of Florida. In her free time, you can find her scrolling Instagram Reels, spending time with her husband and dog, or planning her next big adventure.

Government Social Media empowers government professionals to achieve mastery in social media through conferences, online training, and professional association membership.

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