The Process Of Non-Profits Designing Their Data Reports

Non-Profit designers from Human Rights Campaign, Pencils of Promise, and DoSomething.org discuss how they employ visuals and typography to create award-winning reports. Non-profits have proven that reports can be entertaining and engaging. It's true that data sets, financial records, and survey findings are difficult to hold people's interest. However, it is a necessary task for non-profits, which must keep donors informed about their funds and progress. That is why organizations rely on design to provide the most appealing and user-friendly reports possible. Many people have discovered that by using the correct typeface, color palettes, and visuals, they can break up information in a way that is easy to digest and, dare we say, entertaining to read.

Here's a closer look at how four NGOs put out their annual reports or design report:

DoSomething.org

DoSomething.org is a non-profit organization that encourages young people all around the world to get engaged in something greater than themselves, both online and off, and to make a difference. The charity creates Quarterly Dashboards for older audiences of partners and funders who want to remain up to speed on the non-profit's work and effect, while also creating social visuals to reach youthful participants.

"We're always creating material for certain groups," said Keri Goff, DoSomething.org's Creative Director. "We recognize that young people don't consume information in the same manner that older people do (and we're not offended—at DoSomething, anyone over 25 is considered an old person)." "We know we have more time with their attention spans before they decide to go on to anything else when we design for 'aged folks'," Goff added. "We usually develop content for this group in the form of bi-annual dashboards that analyze all of our successes, advisory board materials, and events like our annual gala or summit." With a bold color palette, creative images, and an intuitive structure, this information takes longer to digest, yet it still captures readers' interest.

Campaign for Human Rights

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) does more than rally support for LGBTQ communities and launch campaigns to address pressing concerns. In addition, the non-profit performs its own research. This is part of the HRCF branch, which seeks to "raise knowledge and advocate the adoption of LGBTQ-inclusive policies and practices." The organization publishes a variety of studies, including the Healthcare Equality Index, Corporate Equality Index, and Municipal Equality Index, in an effort to educate people about LGBTQ problems. They assess how welcoming each industry is to members of the LGBTQ community. The HRC, for example, evaluated Fortune 500 corporations' employment procedures and ranked them according to how LGBTQ-friendly they are in the Corporate Equality Index.

"We saw early on that business America was well ahead of political America," stated HRC Senior Design Director Robert Villaflor. "They realized that adopting these robust, LGBTQ-friendly environments was in their best interest in order to employ the best and brightest." Still, figuring out how to transmit all of this information in an appealing manner was a struggle. That's when design entered the picture. The readability of these design reports is improved by Villaflor and his team's use of visuals, sharp text, and bursts of color.

"There's a lot of data in the papers," Villaflor added. "And our foundation recognized the importance of design and began collaborating with my team to make them more accessible and user-friendly." This kind of achievement also aids the HRC's designers in gaining support from management and executives. "At NGOs, funds are tight, and entering these competitions involves money and time, and there are no guarantees," Villaflor added. "And it's simple for people to link the value and get behind it when they see our annual report in the same competition as Vanity Fair, TIME, and other large commercial magazines."

Pencils of Promise

Pencils of Promise debuted its live Impact Data Hub last year, which uses an appealing design to offer the most up-to-date data and results from its initiatives. The goal of this dashboard, as the name implies, is to lift the veil on the organization and be entirely open about its progress in establishing schools and giving excellent education to children all around the world. Even yet, statistics about a non-profit's effect, community, employees, and finances might be tough to comprehend. Pencils of Promise takes advantage of visuals and data visualization approaches to make their measurements relatable and understandable which is a great answer to how do you make an attractive report?

Goldhirsh Foundation

It’s one thing to claim you'll make your city a better place to study, create, play, connect, and live, but it's another to really do it. It's another thing entirely to maintain track of progress toward those objectives and to provide original research and reporting to keep your community informed. With its LA2050 reports, the Goldhirsh Foundation accomplishes this. These studies are intended to assess the city's quality of life and review the activities of LA2050 grantees as they strive to address challenges.

Megan Park, the Goldhirsh Foundation's Social Innovation and Design Coordinator remarked, "Reports are my favorite thing to work on." "However, we recognize that a lot of the data we collect and wish to share is dense. People will not reply to a PDF or report format unless they are completely sold in. "Having this social media arm when I'm generating material has been extremely helpful," she added. "The more aesthetically pleasing each component is, the easier it will be to adapt it for another social networking platform." So it's been a lot of work for us to figure out how to be as clear and short as possible.

Especially for non-profits that have to create impact reports every year to continue to fundraise and seek out philanthropic funders, this is just another way to prove that, “Hey, we're an organization that can communicate the work we're doing and tell stories more thoughtfully.” Create templates like them with the best report design tools - IM photo editor and share your experience!