Nonprofits’ cost cutting needs combined with ubiquitous mobile phone and social media use have caused many nonprofits to re-examine how they approach their annual report.
These reports are not those filed by with your state’s Secretary of State Office, but the reports used to communicate activities and accomplishments to your constituencies.
Four key questions must be answered as you plan your report: What does the report need to accomplish, who is your audience, how can you best reach them and what can you spend?
Your audience is anyone you want to understand what your nonprofit does and what it has accomplished, essentially your donors and the community at large. Recognizing that different generations have different communication preferences, it’s best and not necessarily cost prohibitive to try to accommodate them all.
Some communications consultants suggest doing away with printed annual reports altogether. But many people still prefer to get a printed report, and distributing them only on request and in public places like doctors and dentists offices is an excellent public relations opportunity.
Your engaged donors and supporters can be notified to get the report online and to request a hard copy if desired. If your print budget is modest, go for a short report and provide more expansive details online. Sponsored printing costs by a local partner may also help with the print budget hurdle.
Doing a shorter format will compel ideas on more concise ways to report your information. Easy to read graphs or pie charts in lieu of more verbiage, focusing on impact results rather than activities, a shorter message from the CEO or board chair.
Some nonprofits have evolved their donor acknowledgements from one long list to inclusion by interspersing them among impact results. Action-oriented and appropriate photos of client groups, fundraising events and your staff will add to the interest and human feel of your report.
Stuffiness is out. If you don’t have such photos now, start your file right away. Smartphones have made this an easier, inexpensive process.
Online formats allow for tremendous creativity in annual reports — interactivity, more photos, even videos. Just remember to keep it short.
One caveat is to avoid putting your web-based annual report in a PDF format, as these are unsearchable and longer ones are unpleasant to deal with from Smartphones. Think about your own Smartphone web search experiences and you’ll get the idea. If catering to Smartphone users seems a silly idea, you’re missing out on a major communications outreach trend.
Think short sentences, engaging headings and active photos as opposed to static shots. A quick Internet search will turn up tools you can use to pump up the creative element, and some wonderful examples of engaging, inspiring annual reports by nonprofits.
Whatever format you select, your report should include where your money comes from and how you’ve spent it to meet your mission, your board of directors and staff, donor acknowledgments, a few great testimonials from supporters with photos and your biggest accomplishments of the year.
If you aren’t demonstrating how you’ve used the public’s money to make a difference in your community, your annual report has not fulfilled its key purpose.
Sarah Todd is founder and principal of Change Pioneers, an information resource on effective broad-scale change for social good. She can be reached at 912-224-2120 or changepioneers@gmail.com.
