Annual Reports
Year Round Marketing Tool

Annual Reports may be required to report your financial information for the year. The government doesn’t require any pictures or even color; black and white photocopied pages will do. But, if you want your Annual to work for you all year long, you may want to invest in a great one.

Typical Elements:

1. A letter from the President or Executive Director, or both

2. Highlights of the Year – these can be as simple as a list or as showy as a two-page spread with photographs for each event or program.

3. Financials – usually a minimum of pie charts or tables showing income and expenses

4. Donor list – this can end up being half or more of the total book, they are usually at the end.

Some suggestions for success:

• Start with a theme. Follow the theme through using the best photography, copywriting and design talent you can afford.

• An annual report used as a marketing tool is not a do-it-yourself project (unless you are an organization of graphic designers).

• Your annual will be an important tool to use when you approach major donors.

• You’ll want to strike a balance between being impressive and NOT looking like you spent the whole budget on producing the book.

• Printing is expensive, look for discounts or donations.

• Collect reports that you like from other nonprofits and from corporations. The ideas will be useful.

Here's more on Annual Reports from Merle's blog