Data Visualization for Non profit and Advocacy Organizations

Visualizing Information for Advocacy

Here are just a few ways you can use information design:

Tell Your Story
• To your constituencies
• To funders
• To government officials
• To the media
• To other organizations
• To the general public

Analyze Your Data
• Discover hidden patterns
• Find trends in changing systems

Make a Plan
• Analyze relationships of power
• Illustrate social networks
• Find out where your issue has the most impact
• Project future trends

Make Information Visible
• Show influence and causality
• Illustrate the consequences of specific choices
• Compare and contrast

Simplify and Clarify
• Illustrate analysis of an abstract idea
• Show the flow of a process or changing system
• Make your conclusions visible and easy to navigate
• Show structure and order in apparently chaotic data

You can download Information for Advocacy here. It includes great tips along with resources for further investigation.

Here is an abundance of tools for organizations to use in visualization. It highlights Gliffy, Flowchart, and Draw Anywhere (Bubble.us, and free mindmapping tools) along with some personal productivity (GTD) and annotation applications.

Any suggestions for visualization resources or mindmapping tools?

Additionally, there are several free resources available at Back of the Napkin and at the Viz Think Conference website.

About these ads