Two different approaches to a charity's annual report

Howard Lake | 7 March 2012 | Blogs

Annual reports, that trusty mainstay of so many applications to and reports back to funders, used to come in one standard format – printed A4, and probably Foolscap before that.

But there is of course no need to stick to that format, for reasons of cost, and more importantly, to increase the likelihood that the intended audience is actually going to read or digest some of its content. So, here are two variations on the annual report.

Pocket sized annual review

NB Studio have shrunk the British Heart Foundation’s (BHF) Annual Report from an already compact A5 document to one that fits in a travel card wallet. The agency produced the 10cm by 6cm 50-page booklet after being tasked to deliver something that was “shorter and smaller but [which would] tell big stories about the charity’s work and impact”. It features stories of individuals who have benefited from BHF’s work.

The agency even managed to squeeze in the annual review from the Chief Executive and details on where the money goes in a fold-out section.

The report is also available online, with a different look to the wallet-size report, but which sticks to the concept of telling stories of individuals based all around the country.

Video of annual report stories

The Football Foundation has chosen to create a video to bring to life some of the stories featured in its 2011 annual report, calling it Annual Report +. The 2 min 23 sec video supplements the printed Annual Report. The Chief Executive Paul Thorogood introduces and narrates the video.

The Annual Report is available as a PDF and in an interactive version, enabling the reader to flick through each page on-screen.

Other creative annual reports?

There are plenty of other charities who have used creative ways to present their annual reports and accounts, or their impact statements. Do share good examples you know of in the comments below.

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.