The power of having a theme for your annual report

Creating a non-profit annual report often seems like a daunting task. Thoughts of: ‘so much happened in the past year, how do we truly tell donors about it in a way that they actually want to read it?’ tend to cause some organizations to lose sleep.

Taking the time to develop a theme dramatically transforms and strengthens your focus, and takes your report from a standard text-heavy document to one that informs and inspires donors to continue supporting your organization for years to come.

4 benefits of setting an annual report theme

1) Highlights the significant milestones of the year

Every fiscal year is different—you had different strategic goals and objectives, and faced different challenges. And every donor dollar helped. Choosing a theme allows you to make a bold statement around the significance of the past year, creating impact—and an emotional response—from readers.

2) Helps determine what to include…and more importantly, what to exclude

For some non-profit organizations, there’s often a desire to include every update from every department or program in the annual report. Everyone wants their updates to be included, but doing so probably won’t fit in the desired page count. Having a strong theme makes it easier to decide what to include and what to exclude. If a program update isn’t relevant to the theme; it may be interesting, but it doesn’t make the cut.

3) Creates greater impact

Storytelling is the most powerful tool at your disposal. It allows you to directly show the impact your organization has made on someone’s life. And, it creates context to help your donors better understand your mission, the real challenges you face and the real problems their donations help solve. When each story follows along the same theme, it is truly impactful.

4) Inspires design

Having an annual report theme influences more than just the strength of the language and tone—it also influences design choices, such as colours, graphic elements, and photography (all within brand guidelines, of course). The power of design visually communicates your theme, tying everything together.

Of course, whatever your annual report theme, it’s important to remember that your report needs to do much more than look back on the past year. To effectively be used as a donor communication tool, it needs to not only show impact, but also show future needs by looking ahead towards next year’s strategic goals and objectives.

Curious as to what donors really want to see in an annual report? Read The five key components of a successful annual report to find out.