| go public. Create an annual report on your own terms. You might think annual reports are always dry booklets filled with charts and legalese—something just for big corporations and their investors. Instead, it helps to think of them more as showpiece documents that serve many functions. Non-profits and small businesses benefit from annual reports, too. And even though they’re called annual reports, that doesn’t mean a new one has to be created each year. |
Your annual report can be used to broadcast your accomplishments and proclaim your goals. Or you can put it out there as a media kit. Let it define your direction and reinforce your brand. For a business, your audience is your employees, your clients, your suppliers, and the community at large. If needed, a well-produced report will also impress bankers and help with loans.
Meanwhile, non-profits use annual reports to create positive impressions of their organizations. Annual reports allow sponsors to see funding at work, and they can create goodwill by thanking donors, volunteers, and other supporters in print. When anyone new inquires about your non-profit, you can hand out your report to tell the story.
Annual reports don’t have to break a marketing budget either. Smart design will keep page-length in check and other costs down. You can also save on printing and storage with small, on-demand print runs or electronic versions. Pockets built into a piece can hold sheets of fast-changing information, so your “annual” report will be relevant for years and years.
NHS uses the annual report as a press packet, a fundraising aid, and a handout to its current and prospective clients. A pocket in the back is designed to hold timely inserts aimed at different audiences.
“NHS’ Annual Report came off the presses one month before Katrina. Thankfully, despite four feet of water in our offices, the fresh supply of reports survived intact. The Annual Report has become the gift that keeps on giving. Creative Zumo’s design was so classic that even with a major intervening event like Katrina; we remain comfortable using it to represent our work. This is largely due to Creative Zumo’s brilliant idea of having a pocket in the back of the report that is intended to provide the space for current information.”
Lauren Anderson - CEO
Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans
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