By Candace Higginbotham | April 10, 2025
Regions associates often contribute their subject-matter expertise outside the bank on a volunteer basis – a kind of community side hustle.
The Regions Making Life Better Institute® (MLBI) hosts a few programs that take advantage of the vast in-house knowledge and experience at the bank. One example is the Regions Skills in Service® volunteer program, which matches the talents of associates with specific needs of community partners to provide assistance where it’s needed most.
Another important program is the MLBI’s Important Insights for Nonprofits webinar series. In this series, Regions associates with background and experience in specific areas participate in informational seminars, addressing topics that are important for nonprofit leaders as they fulfill their mission.
“It’s important to us to listen to our community partners and understand their challenges and opportunities.”
Leroy Abrahams, Regions head of Community Engagement
“It’s important to us to listen to our community partners and understand their challenges and opportunities,” said Leroy Abrahams, head of Community Engagement at Regions. “Then we can help with solutions, whether that’s financial, or providing volunteer support or technical assistance. Making smart investments that will directly benefit people in our communities is a great use of our resources.”
The most recent Important Insights webinar featured Miguel Encarnação, head of Data Visualization at Regions, which is part of the Technology, Operations, Digital and Data division.
Encarnação has spent more than 25 years in technology and innovation roles across corporate, nonprofit and academic fields.
He currently leads a team of Regions data visualization developers that work to design and develop visual front-ends of data products that help stakeholders detect, explore, and understand trends and patterns.
For this webinar, Encarnação presented information about data storytelling – taking data and creating a visually compelling story for greater understanding and impact. Though this particular presentation was targeted to nonprofits, Encarnação said that everyone, in any industry or role, can benefit from learning how to better utilize data to communicate to their stakeholders.
What is Data Storytelling?
Data is everywhere, it’s at the core of every business, according to Encarnação, and that’s a good thing. “Data driven companies make better decisions, increase margins, reach goals quicker,” he said. “It’s important to create value from all the data we have to justify the investment in its collection, management, and governance.”
Data storytelling gives visual form to information and numbers to communicate complex narratives more effectively.
Humans process visual information quicker and easier, with greater retention. By incorporating graphics and other visual tools and techniques, data can be reimagined to help people understand and trust complex concepts and encourage them to take action.
“Data storytelling can be fun and engaging when you do it right,” Encarnação said. “But it’s based on a thoughtful and complex process of translating data into understandable terms to inform a business decision, action or to engage an audience.”
Why Data Storytelling is Important for Nonprofits
Data is especially critical for nonprofits. Communicating performance and outlining how they execute their mission is key for these organizations. No matter their size or scope, community organizations produce reports, create websites and generate materials targeted to their boards, donors, community members, corporate partners, government agencies, grant makers and funders.
Numbers and statistics are a big part of those materials. But numbers on a page don’t tell a story. To effectively engage with the audience and communicate a message that inspires action, data storytelling can be a helpful tool.
Nearly 240 people from more than 160 community organizations across the Regions footprint attended the virtual meeting to learn more how to bring numbers and data to life to tell an accurate, well-researched story.
“In today’s world where we are surrounded by so much information, sifting through it to find what is meaningful, truthful and actionable is a challenge,” said Gina Sian, head of the Regions Making Life Better Institute. “At the webinar, we were excited to learn alongside our community leaders about ways that each of our organizations can be intentional and thoughtful in leveraging data to affect change.”
“At the webinar, we were excited to learn alongside our community leaders about ways that each of our organizations can be intentional and thoughtful in leveraging data to affect change.”
Gina Sian, head of the Regions Making Life Better Institute
How to Tell Your Story Using Data
For effective visual presentations of data, Encarnação encouraged the webinar participants to first think through the message they want to convey, understand the audience and their interests and values, and then determine the relevant data to communicate.
Data enables you to base actions on facts, and trust and credibility are vital. It’s very important to present truthful information that does not mislead. Encarnação encouraged the audience to be vigilant about “graphical integrity” — using the right graphic in the right situation and showing what really matters. He cautioned about omitting or reducing certain information to make your point.
Then think through the appropriate way to communicate the information. Some key takeaways:
- Convey insight, not data. Make sure you’re explaining the information, not forcing your audience to analyze and interpret. Action items or summaries are helpful tools.
- Focus on the message and select graphics that best communicate what’s important.
- Combine multiple perspectives for clarity, so the audience can easily consume and understand your recommendation.
- Drive action, not speculation. Reducing data to what’s important and interpreting it for the audience enables them to take action.
- Design for consumability and comprehension. Simplify the information when possible.
- Avoid meaningless visuals. Decode complex information for your audience and tell them what should be done about this data. Encarnação recommends this tactic to shorten meetings!
Encarnação outlined different genres or design patterns, such as flow charts, video, slide shows, charts and comic strips. Each of these formats communicate experiences using data and can be used effectively for different messages and audiences.
As a wrap-up, Encarnação introduced some best practices with a quote from expert Stephen Few: “Numbers have an important story to tell, and they rely on you to give them a clear and convincing voice.”
- Avoid distractions: Don’t obstruct effective decision making by drawing attention to the wrong data, skewing visual perception, introducing bias or distracting from data and message.
- Support the focus and avoid TMI: “Information abundance might work for analysis, but not for communicating insight,” according to Encarnação.
- Avoid inappropriate visuals: Make sure graphics are the right fit for what you’re communicating.
- Eliminate poorly designed dashboards and analytical displays: Bad design makes for difficult decision-making. More is not necessarily better!
- Misleading visuals introduce risk and undermine credibility.
- Use color thoughtfully: Overcoding can be confusing, don’t be afraid to limit to one color. Poor color choice and use can create more confusion than clarity.
Based on feedback from nonprofit leaders, this was a topic they’re very interested in, and the tips and best practices will be put to good use. Yvonne Kilama, development manager for IndyGo Foundation, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that helps connect people to accessible public transportation solutions, said the webinar exceeded her expectations.
“The techniques and best practices shared will directly influence how we communicate complex information within our organization,” Kilama said. “The skills and knowledge gained from the training will be invaluable in shaping how we present data-driven insights across teams and to external stakeholders.”
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