It’s time to reimagine your annual report
As a non-profit professional, does producing the annual report feel like a tiresome chore? “Who is actually going to read this anyway?” you may think to yourself. Or, maybe you lament: “it’s just a necessary evil and a boring recap of everything we’ve done this year.”
We’re here to tell you that your annual report is only a necessary evil and a tiresome chore if you make it so. A well-written, donor-centric annual report is a powerful donor engagement and fundraising tool that can be used to support relationships, and build new ones, all year long. It tells stories, shows the effectiveness and impact of donor dollars and even offers a glimpse into future strategic plans to encourage donors to renew their support.
Long gone are the days of mammoth annual reports that readers just skim over. Here are the days of annual reports that readers can get excited about!
Traditional yearbook reports:
Run 30-60 pages in length
Include a laundry list of every accomplishment of the past fiscal year
Contain jargon, buzzwords, and too many statistics that mean nothing to the reader
Publish full financials, including CPA audit letter
Dedicate multiple pages to recognizing donors by name
Modern impactful reports:
Run 4-20 pages in length
Showcase the impact you’ve made
Infuse a human-centric and friendly voice
Emphasize wise spending at a glance
Make donors feel appreciated
Writing and designing annual reports are one of our areas of expertise. All of our reports include financial data and thank you to donors where needed. But more importantly, the reports we create illustrate each organization’s efforts to fulfill their mission by showcasing their impact on individuals and groups. We also encourage our clients to include a ‘Vision for Tomorrow’ piece, which signals to donors that the annual report is not an end, but a new beginning.
Here’s a look at some of our recent work!
Nellie’s 2021/2022
What they do: Nellie’s shelters women and their children fleeing trauma, violence and homelessness in Toronto. We have been working with Nellie’s for over five years.
What we did: We started by developing a theme—one that would inform donors while inspiring them to continue supporting the organization. We brainstormed ideas and landed on Leading Change, which showcased the organization’s efforts to empower women and children in order to create the social change needed to stem the flow of violence on a systemic level.
The report featured the story of a woman and her two kids who had once lived in the shelter, an in-depth look at their new shelter building, which amongst other things, allows them to offer more programming, and a look at new empowerment programming.
Blu Genes 2021
What they do: Blu Genes Foundation funds research into Tay-Sachs disease, a rare genetic disorder, and other rare diseases. Founded just a few years earlier, this was their first annual report.
What we did: We needed to do more than show impact; we needed this report to announce the organization’s intentions to the larger community as they looked to expand beyond their original donor base. The articles told their origin story and explained the impact of the granting they had done to date on the research community—and by extension those living with (or will one day live with) rare diseases.
Cedar Centre 2021/2022
What they do: Cedar Centre provides free mental health counselling and support services to individuals and families living in York Region.
What we did: The organization had never produced an annual report that could be used to showcase impact to the community. In previous years, the executive director had presented a year-in-review at the AGM, and made the record of it publicly available.
As Cedar Centre offers five different types of counselling programs, we suggested a report that included an article to highlight the impact of each one on the individuals or families supported by them. For privacy reasons, most of the stories featured staff members speaking about the impact of the programs.
Ready to take your annual report to the next level? Give us a shout!