5 Ways Maps Can Help People Find Your Mission

For hundreds of years, maps have helped people find their way. Today, they’re a popular tool for organizations to show their impact, highlight their reach, enable content discovery, and connect with audiences in an engaging, visual way. 

Maps can be a great visualization tool for nonprofits and an engaging way for supporters to connect with the causes they care about. This is important as more organizations are vying for your audience’s attention. 

Tools like Google Maps and Google Earth provide a free (or nearly free) way to create unique maps and embed them on your website. Mapbox is just one of the more customizable tools to amplify your mission. 

Advanced map technology has streamlined the creation process, so the sky really is the limit when it comes to how you can use maps to help make an impact. Here are five ways nonprofits use maps to support their cause. 

1. Maps That Show a Need 

This is one of the most common ways nonprofits are using maps. From the Malala Fund’s Global Country Score map to the Partnership for a Healthier America’s Food Equity Opportunity Map, nonprofits are using these mapping tools to illustrate their impact and drive support.  

The benefit of using a map to help show the need is that there is often a lot of third-party data you can tap into. As your nonprofit progresses toward its goals, these maps can also easily shift focus to show your nonprofit’s impact. 

2. Maps Can Show Where You Work

Many organizations use maps to highlight where they are doing work. Partners of the Americas and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) are just two examples. 

Both organizations use color to show their global impact while graying out areas where they are inactive. This allows users to see the nonprofit's impact and location visually without having to read a lot of text. 

An added benefit of this type of map is that it can provide choice for people drawn to a specific location instead of a specific program or topic. CSCE and Partners of the Americas sort and tag their content by issue and country to allow people to discover the content most relevant to their interests. 

3. Maps That Power Content Discovery 

For nonprofits with a lot of stories, documents or data, maps can organize that information and help audiences discover new information. (Think of it almost as a navigation or site search in map form.) 

ADL’s Global A.T.L.A.S. does this using data and policies to show both the need for work and its impact. 

4. Maps That Drive Donations

Using stories to drive donations is key, and organizations are always looking for new ways to use the impact stories they’ve collected. With this in mind, I was interested in exploring this donation appeal from TechnoServe, inviting me to explore the stories of their work. 

Creating donation asks related to the story a person is engaging with helps amplify the impact of your work. TechnoServe did a great job of this in the map experience it provided as part of its appeal. 

5. Maps That Show Scale

While maps can show scale or lack thereof due to their visual nature, I can see organizations with large networks of volunteers or local offices creating maps to showcase their reach and serve as a directory for local contacts.

Lutheran Services in America's Network map is just one example that emphasizes the scale it has to support those in need throughout the country. This interactive map allows users to see the size of their network and easily access local resources. NHPCO’s Find a Provider experience is another example of an organization using a map as a resource for audiences to find local support. 

Have You Considered Adding a Map to Your Digital Ecosystem?

While maps often have multiple benefits and will likely be used for more than just one of the above reasons, it’s important to ensure that your map is usable across devices. 

Will maps replace site search, navigation or more text-based websites in the future? I highly doubt it, but they can be an important part of your digital ecosystem. They create active experiences for audiences to engage with and provide an easy-to-understand interface. 

The preceding blog was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.