Did you see Ben Martin's post on Association Hacks where he's pulling a page out of Life Hack's playbook? Well I don't know if this counts, but I found this nifty little website (paid for by our tax dollars mind you--so use it!) that will make a quick and dirty, yet pretty graph for you. Much easier than Excel if you've just got to throw a graph together w/o proceduralizing anything.
Here's an article from the UK's Design Council talking about how information design is important in public-sector efforts. Of course, it's helpful to everyone, but this is a good example of the universal need for better presentation of information--and more design.