A Call-To-Action To Revive The Nonprofit And Charity Reporting Regular Task

The annual report is a requirement of many organizations that answer to other people: investors, donors, head honchos. It serves many purposes: to be transparent and to ensure the organization is on mission.

If you've been in the industry long enough, you've likely seen dozens of these reports, and may have even produced a few yourself.

Most reports feature two major elements: the financial reporting that provides the snapshot of the organization's financial health, and the narrative reporting that brings those numbers alive.

Both elements work in concert to make a case for an organization and to ensure its continued success by seeking more funding. There are also organizations that readily admit if they have not met their targets. That's okay too if it's done well. Failure reporting is an art itself.

For most organizations, you'll be wanting to focus on your successes. If you work in the charitable and nonprofit sector, you'll want to cultivate a reputation for effectiveness—for actually doing the good that is in your mandates and missions. Why? Becuase it is what fuels funding from foundations and from individual donors.

The increasing availability of information about organizations, due to a culture of open data, means that a lot of the numbers are already out there. This opens the field to third-party agents who can share, visualize and present the information to prospective donors, the media and other stakeholders, thereby taking ownership of the narrative—whether for good or for bad—before your organization has given context or background information to explain the financial picture as it relates to the mission.

Consider that a signal to lead the charge towards an efficiency awakening, which serves as a nice rejoiner to the term "compassion fatigue."

Suddenly, that annual report becomes the hottest thing to be read and keeps all your audiences engaged.

Need help with your projects? Inbox Communications employs nonprofit marketing masters. We get it.