Data visualization and infographics can be super effective tools for sharing nonprofit fundraising insights and make for beautiful additions to your annual report and fundraising materials — but only if they’re done right.

At their best, these tools can tell a compelling story about your organization’s impact that motivates your audience (donors, board members, etc.) to take action and support your mission. At their worst, they can confuse your audience and even misrepresent information, thus diluting your organization’s legitimacy and decreasing your audience’s trust.

So how can your organization do data storytelling the right way? Our second Tech in the Commons bootcamp for place-based nonprofits, supported by the Knight Foundation and organized by Generocity, will be held next Tuesday, May 2, and will cover tips for keeping your data visuals accurate and inspiring.

This event is sold out, but we have a few spots open for our final two bootcamps, focusing on best practices for live video and social communication. Register for those here.

For those lucky enough to have snagged a ticket to the data storytelling event, scheduled for 5 p.m. at Benjamin’s Desk (601 Walnut St.), check out the details below.

The agenda:

• 5 p.m. — Food and networking
• 5:30 p.m. — Speakers; check ’em out below
• 6:30 p.m. — The nonprofit winners of OpenDataVote will be announced (you can vote ’til May 1!)
• 7 p.m. — Breakout sessions led by data viz experts
• 8 p.m. — Tech in the Commons wraps

Speakers: 

Nicholas Whitaker is a training and development manager at Google. Before joining the multinational tech company in 2010, Nicholas spent the prior decade creating videos and still images for news, commercial, entertainment and advocacy media. He was also a professor at Eugene Lang College – The New School for Liberal Arts and Marymount Manhattan College teaching courses in video production, new media and media theory.

One local data viz organization will be present for a hands-on learning experience, too.

Experts:

Patrick Han, is a Cicero and data analytics product specialist on the data analytics team at mapping firm Azavea, where he focuses on developing marketing strategies, building inbound marketing channels, and running outbound marketing campaigns.

Dan Ford is the community ambassador at Azavea, where he coordinates content production and business development activities, organizes tech events, manages Azavea’s community space, promotes Azavea’s Summer of Maps fellowship program, and advocates for Open Data/Open Source projects like OpenDataPhilly.

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We encourage you to attend all four Tech in the Commons sessions to get the complete tech tools experience. Find registration for the last two events here. Please note that RSVP doesn’t guarantee entry because space is limited.

Also, save the date for our second annual jobs and engagement fair, INTER/VIEW. The event makes its return on Tuesday, May 23.