Changing Your Nonprofit’s Annual Report Format

by Kivi Leroux Miller on August 22, 2012

in Annual Reports,Nonprofit Communications

Yesterday I taught a webinar with our training partner CharityHowTo.com called “How to Create a Nonprofit Annual Report People Will Actually Read.” At the beginning of the webinar I surveyed the participants (about 80 people) about the format of their last annual report.

 

I teach this webinar several times a year and these are pretty typical results. If your nonprofit is doing an annual report (and a good portion aren’t), it’s likely that it’s a longer print document.  There were a few people on this webinar who were producing really, really long reports — in the 40-80 page range.

Do you really think your donors are reading that? And does your organization get a real bang for the buck out of a document like that, given the amount of time and cash that goes into producing it? My answer would be probably not.

It’s 2012 . . . I think it’s time to convert that book-length annual report into something that’s faster, more convenient, and more enjoyable to read. That’s why I advocate formats like 2- or 4-page annual reports and oversized postcards for those of you who do want a print version. You can couple those shorter print pieces with longer information online (for those real die-hard supporters), or go online entirely with something like a mini-site or a video.

Anytime I speak on this subject, I invariably get backlash from people who say they

  • can’t give up the long donor lists
  • can’t cut back on what financials they report
  • have to cover every single program they operate

and therefore need all those pages. But when I start showing them how other nonprofits have successfully communicated results to their donors in a 2- or 4-page annual report, or on an oversized postcard, or through a video, they begin to understand that they really can communicate more effectively in a shorter document. They realize that sticking with the same format just because that’s the way it’s always been done isn’t a good enough excuse anymore. You can see some of the examples I use on our Nonprofit Annual Reports Wiki.

Here is what participants said they would be willing to try by the end of the webinar:

 

What about you? Are you ready to reinvent your annual report?

I will be presenting “How to Create a Nonprofit Annual Report People Will Actually Read” again at CharityHowTo.com on October 22nd. As part of that webinar, you receive a bonus, my e-book, How to Write a Nonprofit Annual Report.

Or if you can’t wait that long, you can buy How to Write a Nonprofit Annual Report now.

For additional resources on annual reports, including more articles and examples, check out our Nonprofit Annual Reports section at NonprofitMarketingGuide.com.

  • Neal

    We actually went the other direction — added length and content depth to the report — and enjoyed an overwhelmingly positive response. I feel like this oversimplifies reasons for going (or staying) longer; it’s not all reactionary resistance to change. Our rationale was that people who weren’t going to spend time reading the report weren’t going to spend time reading it regardless of the size, so rather than talking down to our entire audience, why not reward those with an interest an attention span with content that tells our story? Based on that positive response, I don’t think anyone here regrets the decision either.

  • http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog Kivi Leroux Miller

    Ultimately it’s all about the content, and if you can engage your supporters with a longer report, good for you! Most nonprofit reports, however, are not that engaging, and are written more to please board members and grantmakers, and that kind of reporting tends to bore individual donors stiff.

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