Acton Circle

Acton Circle is a social impact design studio transforming how purpose-driven organizations share their stories. We create annual reports that transform into evergreen assets working year-round for organizations’ missions.

Annual Report Design Intensive  |  Annual Report Template Kits

Founder + Creative Director

O. Wheeler Design Studio LLC

I provided graphic and web design services for clients ranging from small business owners to major tech companies and Fortune 500 companies.
 
After taking my experience from consulting and forming my first design studio, I shifted my focus and rebranded myself to have a greater impact on the world by partnering with purpose-driven organizations.

Design Consultant

Everlaw

Collaborated with and coached designers through complex design problems, product ideation, and any interpersonal issues that arose. Helped designers expand their expertise and deepen their impact. Took responsibility for quality across product and brand design; this included promoting design guidelines, establishing a design system, and setting a high design bar. Partnered with product, engineering, and other stakeholders to ensure projects were well-defined and successfully executed. Fostered and championed a design culture across the organization.

Design Manager

Developed creative design solutions for Everlaw’s document review platform; took highly complex workflows and created comprehensible user interfaces. Worked closely with cross-functional teams to deliver the best user experiences. Ensured brand consistency throughout Everlaw’s product, systems, and marketing collateral/campaigns.

UI/UX Designer

Accela

Conceptualized, designed, and executed digital and print projects, including websites, landing pages, microsites, advertisements, emails, marketing collateral, presentations, icons, event graphics, and other lead generation assets. Managed multiple workflows in a deadline driven environment. Collaborated with designers, developers, copywriters, and product marketing managers.

Associate Graphic Designer
October 2014-2015

Visual/Graphic Designer

WEBCOR Builders

Designed print and digital marketing collateral including ads, booklets, social media graphics, and powerpoint presentations. Assisted Marketing team with the design of RFPs. Took job-site photographs for use in advertisements, proposals, and other marketing materials.

Graphic Design Intern

AG DESIGN GROUP

Created original design concepts for print, web, and UI design. Proactively managed social media content calendar; generated content, commentary, and posts that were interesting, on-brand, and resonated with core audience.

Junior Designer

Your impact? Incredible. Your visuals? Let’s just say… they ain’t tellin’ the whole storyyy. 😅

I see it all the time:

→ A huge lift for the team and a total headache that ends in a rushed PDF (Worst part? Donors don’t connect.)

→ Three months on the annual report… three minutes of attention. Then poof! (Talk about deflating.)

→ Donor materials get done, but don’t get results. (All that effort? Invisible.)

Sound familiar? Thought so.

After 12+ years helping purpose-driven organizations—from national nonprofits to scrappy teams—I’ve seen it over and over: when design is strategic, it’s not “just decoration,” it’s a tool.

It’s the bridge between “We should support them” and “How do I give more?”—helping donors feel connected, confident, and ready to act.

Now picture this:
✦ A report your board is proud to share with their networks
✦ Visuals so clear and compelling donors instantly get the “why”
✦ Tools your team can reuse without reinventing the wheel

Not a dream. Just our everyday work.

Receipts? Say less…

“We really loved the Annual Report that Acton Circle created… They followed our direction really well and made a beautiful and fun report that highlighted our programs perfectly.” 
— Joanna M., Planet Women

“We’ve heard only praise and accolades for their work – some have said it’s the best-designed materials we’ve had to date!” 
— Marketing Director, Education Access Nonprofit

And then there’s our work with Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, where we brought their risk factor hub to life.
→ 1.9 million people reached // → 220,000+ engagements

BIG impact.

Whether you need a custom-designed report or a plug-and-go template, we’ll make sure your design matches your impact.

☻ Annual Report Design Intensive: 2-3 focused weeks to design your annual report and supporting materials you need to share it well

☻ Premium Template Kits:  For the “in-between” orgs that want more polish than DIY but don’t need a fully custom project

Ready to make your annual report work year-round and stop lettin’ your visuals play small?
Let’s do somethin’ about it:

Book a call → www.actoncircle.co/book-a-call

Shop Canva templates → www.actoncircle.shop

Learn more about the intensive → www.actoncircle.co/services/annual-report-designer

———

When I’m not creating beautiful work for purpose-driven teams, I’m chasing my kids, people-watching with my husband, or lifting in my garage gym (these design muscles aren’t the only ones working 💪).

You’ve got the mission. We’ve got the design chops. Let’s make it happen.

— Olivia

Of all the things I could be thankful for this year as an entrepreneur, one thing keeps rising to the top.

It's not the time freedom. Not the flexibility. 
Not even the being-my-own-boss part. 
(Though yes—THANK YOU GOD for all of that.)

What’s different this year?
The folks on the other side of the Google Meet calls.

The Marketing & Comms VPs.
Directors of Development.
Program Managers.
Founders + EDs out here doing it ALL.

The ones who trust me to bring their vision to life and make it make sense for donors, boards, funders, beneficiaries, and their communities.

I DON'T take their trust lightly.

They go from a campaign meeting to 1:1s, squeeze in a short sesh to tweak the budget spreadsheet, prep for the staff off-site, grab a quick lunch…

And STILL show up, choosin' excellence and belief-building design.

They invite me into their mission, their story, their work—and say:
“Help us show up like who we reallyyy are.”

THAT’S what I’m thankful for.

Not justtt the creative work.
But the trust. The collaboration. The ROLE I get to play in all of it.

To every purpose-driven leader + team that brought me in this year:
Thank you x INFINITY.

Now go enjoy your people + your holiday plate of choice.
(I’m team mac & cheese, greens, and candied yams foreverrrr.)

#thanksgiving #nonprofitleadership #gratitude #beliefbuildingdesign #nonprofitlife

Olivia Lopez-Wheeler

Graphic designer for nonprofits | Annual reports intentionally designed to build belief • Donor Materials • Canva Templates | Founder + Creative Director @ Acton Circle

Happy Thanksgiving to all nonprofit leaders and champions!

Why cheap design keeps backfiring (and why YOU keep getting stuck fixing it)

Hiring the cheapest designer isn't the mistake.
The mistake is thinking design skills are what you actually need.

They're not.

At this point, design skills are the BARE MINIMUM. AI can follow a brand guide.
What you actually need? Someone who speaks nonprofit. Fluentlyyy.

Because here's what actually matters:

➩ Can they navigate internal politics, donor expectations, and brand baggage + translate all of that into materials donors instantly get?
➩ Can they bridge the gap between the brand your team is comfortable with and the brand you're growing into?
➩ Can they sort real feedback from someone just wanting to leave their mark?

Your materials aren't being created in a vacuum.
They're being shaped by scattered inputs, shifting timelines, approval layers, and about 13 different opinions.

Cheap design doesn't account for that reality.

So yes, my team and I at Acton Circle design annual reports.

But the actual work is understanding your world.
The delays, the politics, the donors, the bottlenecks—
and turning all of that into a report you're proud to hand to someone investing $100K+ in your mission.

That's the difference between a designer and a partner.
And that's why our clients' reports don't end up in the "fix it later" pile.

#nonprofitdesign #nonprofitlife #socialimpact #nonprofitdesigner #nonprofitannualreport

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Talks about #branding, #webdesign, #designforgood, #graphicdesign, and #nonprofitbranding

Nonprofit rebrand in 2026!? 
Here's the part no branding agency will tell you, but every team finds out the HARD way anyway.

Your brand guidelines can look gorgeous…
but actually applying them to donor-facing materials?
That's a completelyyy different skill.

And without a designer on staff or ongoing agency support, most teams end up realizing the same thing:

You can't maintain your pretty new brand well if you've nevaaa seen it work with real content.
(Shocking, I know 🙃)

After being on the inside of multiple nonprofit refreshes + rebrands, here’s what I see every 👏 single 👏 time:

The rebrand strategy falls apart the moment the team has to apply it to real content.

Which is why I always say:
START WITH YOUR ANNUAL REPORT.

It’s the one asset deep enough to reveal how your brand's rules actually hold up with the messy, real-world content your team deals with every day.

(And trust me, I’ve seen it ALL.)

Most nonprofit brand guidelines don’t show you what to do when you have:
→ A 5-paragraph program description that really can’t be shortened
→ Data so table-dense it feels like there’s NO other way to show it
→ Donor testimonials in 6 different formats
→ Photos that are… let’s just say not brand-shoot quality

Your annual report forces you to solve for ALLA that, beforeee your team has to do it 20 more times across campaigns, board decks, and weekly emails.

You'll go from:

❌ “Our brand guidelines say use these colors.”
✅ “Our annual report showed us EXACTLY which colors work for data, stories, and impact highlights.”

❌ “We have font rules in the brand guidelines.”
✅ “We finally saw how headers, pull quotes, & captions flow when there's an actual narrative (not just lorem ipsum).”

❌ “We’ll figure out our visual style as we go.”
✅ “LOL no. Designing the report forced us to refine image treatment, iconography, and layout rhythm, so every asset follows the same system.”

One complete example with real content becomes:
🪩 a LIVING style guide your team actually uses
🪩 a reusable design library that saves you $$$ on one-off design requests
🪩 a brand system your entire team can confidently apply

Sooo if your rebrand is rolling out in 2026, your annual report ain’t just another asset to update.

It’s the bridge between the pretty brand book you paid $50K+ for AND the brand your team actually knows how to implement without losing ya minds (or budget, hello!!).

This is the work I do inside my Annual Report Design Intensives at @Acton Circle.
We help teams build a USABLE brand, not just beautiful rules.

So chew on that for a sec… and then start with your annual report ☺️

#nonprofitdesign #rebrand #annualreport #nonprofitlife #nonprofitdesigner

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