How to Write Content for your Annual Report

Hey nonprofit friends! It's about to be your season: end of year campaigns, fundraising dinners, auctions. Let's do this!

An effective annual report can encourage and celebrate your current donors and become one of your biggest fundraising tools. 

Most annual reports don’t go out until February or March after all the financial information is in. (It depends on your fiscal year.) You’re already ahead of the game just reading this article! BUT. If you're like me, by the time January rolls around, you’ll be ready to work on what’s next, not what’s happened.

Set aside some time now to write the bulk of your content. Your first step to tackling this beast is to write your content outline. Use the following annual report outline as a guide. Don’t worry too much about page order now. Focus on gathering up all this info in one place.

DIY Annual Report Outline:

Front cover:

• Organization name / logo
• 2016 annual report
• Optional: a short statement or tagline, perhaps from your end of year campaign. Ex: Kula Project’s “Invest in a family. Empower a Community.”  

What you do:

• A short statement about what you do. Ex: “Paint Love brings transformational art workshops to Atlanta area youth who face or are at risk of facing poverty or trauma.”

Mission and Vision

• Mission Statement
• Vision Statement

Letter from the executive director or founder:

• A short opening letter to the annual report. You could reflect on the past year or what it was like just starting compared to how your organization runs now.  

Your model and programs:

• You can do a separate page for each program or one page that outlines your model.

Case Studies:

• Gather at least three case studies from your different audiences. Maybe it’s one from a donor, one from a volunteer and one from the group you’re trying to help. This will give the reader a good idea of how your programs impact your community in a personal way. These qualitative stories give us number resistant folks a break from the data.

What you’ve accomplished:

• This is a great time for an infographic!

Year to Year Growth:

• Showing growth from year to year is an excellent way to showcase momentum.

Operations Highlight:

• Team members
• Your office or studio
• Board members

Financial Information:

• Total raised for the past year
• How much you spent
• General breakdown of where the money went: programs, operations, salaries, etc.

Call to Action

• This page should highlight what the reader can do now to join your cause. Popular options include, share on social media, sign up to volunteer, purchase a product, or make a donation.

Closeout Statement:

• This is a good time to leave readers with that warm and fuzzy feeling! Kula Project’s closeout statement, “96% of our farmers will use their income for education,” highlights the power of investing in families and what impact that will make on future generations.

Back Cover:

• Website
• Contact Information

Once your content is mostly together, it is time to contact a designer. The end of the year can be quite a rush for designers too, so we recommend getting in touch sooner rather than later. ;)

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We love annual reports 'round here and would be happy to help you with planning and/or design. You can get more info on annual report design by contacting us!

View the Kula Project's Annual Report Case Study here.
2nd and 3rd photo by Angie Webb.

How Adventure Can Change the Way You Handle Work Stress

We live just 45 minutes away from “hypercoaster” Goliath. It goes 200 feet feet high and has 12 story drops. Dusty really wanted to go to Six Flags this summer. We saw our window of opportunity closing, so we decided to go! My roller coaster experience previous to this looks like: that slow one for kids at American Adventures, Space Mountain, and my classic 2006 panic attack at the front of the line at the Rockin’ Roller Coaster. (Yay me!)

I’d never been to Six Flags. The lady at the gate looked at me like I was nuts. I was terrified, but pretty excited too. I mean I just made it into the park, shattering preconceived notions right from the gate. We started on the Dahlonega Mine Train which was pretty fun and surprising. Next up we did the Looney Tunes one, faster, but definitely a confidence booster.

We headed over to Mind Bender. We’re standing in line. We get buckled in. And Dusty mentions the loops. LOOPS. We take off and I find myself in the fetal position, eyes closed pretty much the whole time. PSA: It physically hurts to ride a roller coaster like that. It hurts to resist all that force.

That sounded very Obi-Wan Kenobi, but I meant it in more of a physics sense.

After that experience, I was sure I was done with roller coasters. I’d failed Dusty’s only dream for me to become a coaster crusher. We decided to take a break on those (terrifying) swings that go around in a circle. I thought about a lot on those swings. Like, suddenly we are super high and I’m just in this little plastic seat with a bar across my lap. And man, that’s kind of a good metaphor for life. We're just here, where we are, doing all we can do. I thought about yoga and the idea that sometimes the best thing to do in moments of stress is to just observe and acknowledge everything that’s going on. I started collecting data like a scientist. What does it feel like when I look away from the swing in front of me? What about when I look down? What’s the sky look like? What are my feet doing? I breathed some really good yoga breaths, was incredibly thankful for my local yoga studio, and eventually relaxed enough to enjoy to ride.

Knowledge is powerful, and calming.

After the swings, I wanted to try the Mind Bender again and experience it instead of wishing it to be over. I sat straight up and blinked maybe twice the whole time. It was still scary, but because I wasn’t resisting all the forces, it didn’t hurt. I got to see a little bit of where I was going, and it was really cool. That second time became more of an experiment in curiosity.

It became an adventure.

I tend to face life and my work with the idea that things will only be good when the bad stuff is over. I miss so much in thinking that way - there’s so much to see and learn in every loop. Tough things are actually easiest to face with your eyes open and back straight.

If we could look at our work with a sense of adventure, I think we’d be a lot less stressed out when things don’t go exactly to plan. The next time things get terrifying, collect all the data you can.

Examine where you are, own it, and take the next step in your adventure.

We can choose to look at our career as a logically planned path to success in which we resist and hurt with every bump and detour. But. I think it would be better to look at our work as an adventure. Those detours will always be surprising, but expected and celebrated as learning opportunities.

So, I didn’t ride Goliath this time, but I rode a bunch of other scary coasters, and I think I crushed them. Here's to the adventure!

5 Songs to Get You Out of a Work Funk

With summer ending and things resuming their busy pace over here, I’m finding myself getting a little funky. Are you finding this too? Maybe you’re in the middle of finishing up a bunch of projects and the deadlines are wreaking havoc on your sense of calm. (Let us be one of the first to let you know - You totally got this!!) When I’m in either scenario, I’ve found that these five songs pull me out of a work funk every time.  

Also, please look at this photo of Murphy. Obviously, even he is susceptible to occasional work funks! 

Heavy - Birdtalkers

There’s just something about this band’s sound and honesty. “The only way to lose that fearful feeling - replace it with love that's healing.” They just launched their first album! Check it out here.

Stand by Me - Cover by Florence and the Machine

Dusty sent me this song a few weeks ago. The cover was originally recorded for a video game (Final Fantasy). I can’t help but listen to this and feel all the feels.

Wake Me Up (Acoustic) - Aloe Blacc

Just a good singable song that speaks to me and where we’re at in this adventure.

Reaper - Sia

Such a good song to celebrate small successes. Find some small successes and keep them in mind when you find yourself fighting the bigger battles.

My Body - Cover by Volbeat

Dusty loves this band and recently got me liking them too. This is one of my favorite songs for getting back in the game… aka every Monday.

Listen to this 19 minute
You Totally Got This playlist on Spotify:

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(Photo of our sweet pup Murphy by Angie Webb)