Top Tips for your best Annual Report yet
Don’t shy away from sharing your impact.
Annual reports are your opportunity to reflect on the past year, share your accomplishments, and give a glimpse into the great plans you have set for the year ahead. To put it simply, they’re a place where it’s okay - encouraged even - to brag a bit. And ultimately, "impact drives income", so make sure to show off the amazing work that you do.
Yet annual reports can feel daunting - capturing an entire year of work in one place is no small task. And because of this they often get delayed. Yes, annual reports take time and thought, but they don’t have to be overly complicated and lengthy (in fact, try to avoid that!). They also don’t have to be a traditional ‘report.’
This year, we encourage you to start on your 2020 annual report now so you can share your organization’s achievements and work with those who care, are invested, and want to know - your donors, partners, and most importantly, the people you work alongside and support.
Get Started: The Basics →
Know your audience.
Before you invest time into developing your report, the most important first step is to understand who it is you are “reporting” (communicating) to. Once you’ve determined your main audiences, it will help you know what information to include and what language to use - it will also help you know what information you can leave out.
Team participation and ownership.
Start with getting input and contributions from your team. This will not only provide the best content for the report, but it will also ensure that your team develops a sense of ownership and pride in the report. Use these questions to guide your discussion:
What were your top achievements from last year?
What impact stood out for you as a team?
What captivating stories of transformation does your team have?
Create a plan.
It may sound obvious, but this is a critical step to ensuring that you produce an effective and timely report. Your plan should contain the roles and responsibilities within the team, an outline of the content, and a timeline.
People remember stories.
We all love good stories. One of the best ways to distinguish your report and to pull people in is to make sure it includes stories of transformation and impact. Use real people and tell (or even better, have them tell) their stories to show how you work and why. Use quotes whenever possible!
Quantify your impact.
Use facts and figures - people want to see results. Whenever possible, give numbers and provide concrete facts related to your results.
Honesty is the best policy.
Failure and challenges can be just as interesting to donors and other stakeholders as successes are. In fact, you will probably build more trust and credibility with your supporters if you are honest about the challenges and failures you’ve faced. However, remember to be strategic about this – talk about the lessons learned and the approaches you’ve adopted to avoid such failures in the future.
Get Noticed →
Invest in quality pictures, visuals, graphics and design.
As the saying goes, ‘pictures are worth 1,000 words’ so as you try to limit your annual report word count, think about how you can use visual images to help tell your story and show your impact.
Similar to using pictures, great design which includes creative layouts and graphics such as tables, charts and infographics, will elevate your annual report and will draw a reader’s attention.
Translate your report for social media.
Using effective online tools, you can convert your static annual report PDF to social media content such as Facebook posts, Instagram stories and social graphics. Platforms such as Canva (which has a great free account) make it possible to upload your content and convert it to cool graphics that communicate effectively to a social audience.
Get Creative →
Where possible, create a one-page summary.
Attention spans are narrowing, and your audiences’ time is limited. Creating a one page summary report - especially single page scrolls on your website - helps to ensure that you communicate your impact to anyone who has two minutes to spare. An example is our 2020 highlights here. Whatever platform you choose, ensure it is mobile friendly.
Consider a video annual report.
A short video annual report - providing a summary of achievements, good narration and impact stories - is a fantastic asset to have that would complement your detailed document. Here's an example from Honeyguide, Tanzania.
Research examples and get inspired.
It's always a good idea to look at what others are doing and get inspired by organisations producing creative and effective reports. Here are some examples of reports we like:
Lewa Wildlife Conservancy's 2017 Report.
SORALO: 2017 Report
Grevy's Zebra Trust: 2019 Report
Oceana: 2019-2020 Report
The Nature Conservancy Alaska 2020 Report
Read the full newsletter here: Maliasili Reader Issue 16
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