If you’ve ever taken a passing glimpse at popular websites like Mashable, Huffington Post or TechCrunch, you’ve probably noticed the exponential growth of infographics!
Infographics are a visual representation of numerical data, interesting facts, or other important insights that the designer wants an audience to know about. That’s the concept in a sentence, but I thought I’d whip up an infographic to explain infographics:
Even as the wildly popular trend has been criticized for over-simplifying concepts, or for containing misleading or confusing information, infographics are popular for a few obvious reasons:
- They contain easily digestible pieces of information.
- They’re simple to share on social networks.
- They’re so pretty to look at!
Whether you personally love them or you’re overwhelmed by them – infographics are a fun way to share your organization’s message with your supporters online.
Infographics don’t need a long article to explain how they work. It would be overkill to spend three thousand words describing a visual concept. Instead, let’s look at some infographics used by organizations like yours!
How can your charity or nonprofit use visual techniques like these below to help your supporters understand your mission and goals?
Try them in an annual report
Annual reports are important to every organization, but they also have a reputation for dull or dry content. Progress, the annual report of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, used colourful infographics to explain recruiting for clinical trials. Can your organization use images to neatly summarize some of your quarterly or yearly insights too?
Try making a timeline
If your organization has a proud history you want to share, it’s a great idea to visualize those milestones for your audience. Check out this Royal Mail timeline of important British inventions. Which cultural milestones would be interesting to supporters of your own cause? Do you have an anniversary coming up for either your organization or a signature event? Try using a timeline image to show the impact of your work over the years.
Try them for advocacy outreach
Amnesty USA’s hanging noose image is a blunt and powerful reminder of the long road towards abolition. Do you have startling or unusual information that you want the world to know about? Think about how you can express it in a memorable image.
Try them in your next media release
It’s always refreshing to see multimedia pieces accompanying press releases or newswire items. You may already be including photos or social network handles in your press kits. Have you tried using infographics to summarize the information you’re sharing? Cancer Research UK’s press release used a graphic to show how more than five thousand children have been saved since the 70s thanks to better cancer treatment.
Try them to promote your event
Social media monitoring platform Radian6 created this infographic to celebrate the successes of the Movember campaign. Where many infographics focus on dollars raised or people attending, this graphic concentrates on the social networking side of the popular fundraising event. Have you thought about highlighting interesting segments from the social “conversation” around your cause that you could share?
Try them on your website
Robin Hood Foundation uses interactive infographic elements throughout their website to encourage visitors to click and learn more about the impact of their programs. Do you have places on your website or blog where you can integrate similar visuals to tell visitors about your successes?
Try them to promote awareness
Prostate Cancer Canada’s cheeky “What Every Man Should Know” pamphlet takes a typical flyer about early detection testing from recyclable-to-keepable with the addition of necktie “how-to” illustrations. How can the use of infographics give your print collateral or direct mail a longer shelf life?
The evolution of infographics
Thinking about what’s next for this trend? Why not combine two of the biggest sector buzz-words right now and make an infographic online video?
You wouldn’t be the first to build one. This is the second year that the talented crew at CanadaHelps.com has made a video filled with great information about Canadian charities. Enjoy it below:
Getting started
Wondering how you can explain to your designer why you want to turn your entire annual report into a series of graphics for better shareability on Pinterest? Don’t worry, you may not need to design every page with colourful clipart and big numbers in giant fonts!
Think about the pieces of your marketing collateral where you would typically throw in a pie-chart or something similar. How can you spice up the way you explain your operating costs this year?
Think about the emails you send out after an event. Do you need a “Reflections from the CEO” in the content, or would a fun illustration of the top tweets for your event be a new way to thank and encourage your participants to join you next year?
Craft time: What do you need to make an infographic?
1. Carefully chosen information you want to share: What story do you want your infographic to tell? Which insights resonate most strongly with your supporters? Remember, some facts and figures may only be interesting internally.
For instance, is the raw number of people your organization served this year as “sticky” a piece of information as the dramatic percentage increase in people who came to your organization for help over the holiday period?
2. A design plan: Which colours, shapes and images appeal to you? Which information pieces will you make more prominent? Try sketching it out on paper before you even open your laptop.
3. Somebody to build the thing! (This one is often the stumbling block.)
Don’t have a designer on staff?
Once you’ve plotted out an infographic, think about finding individuals in your network who can help you build it. If you are a small-shop nonprofit, you might not have a talented colleague who is a wizard with typography. You might also lack access to design software like Photoshop (or cost-effective alternatives).
Or, like me, you just might not be brilliant at making images!
No worries – Here’s some suggestions if you are going outside your network for help:
1. Consider partnering with one of your official corporate sponsors to make a “wrap-up infographic” to share your successes after an signature event or campaign.
2. Recruit a digital volunteer through a micro-volunteering network like Koodonation or Sparked.com. Image design is the kind of short-term task that is perfect for online volunteers.
3. Many news outlets, blogs and online magazines (think Good Magazine) love to publish infographic content. Try reaching out to the groups writing about your area of expertise and offering to share new data that could be interesting to their readers.
DIY on the fly
To create a quick infographic related to data from Twitter or Facebook, try Visual.ly’s Visually Create website. The platform pulls information from social network APIs to make templated graphics related to your organization’s Facebook pages, Twitter handles, or special event hashtags.
Want to try plotting specific data? Take a look at Google’s Public Data website. Google allows you to chart information from thousands of publically available data-sets and then export or publish it.
Now that you’ve spent this time reading about infographics, I guarantee you’ll see them everywhere you go!
Don’t forget to collect and save your favourites to inspire you when working on your own in the future. A great place to archive infographics that catch your eye? Pinterest, of course.
Create your own infographic Pinterest board, or follow one like Imagine Canada’s Infographic Love.
Made a great infographic and want to share it? Post it on CharityVillage’s Facebook page!
Claire Kerr is the director of digital philanthropy at Artez Interactive. A nonprofit veteran, Claire has worked for charitable organizations in the economic development, education, and fundraising sectors. Connect with her on Twitter or on LinkedIn, or in person over a double-double at Tim Hortons.
