You should liken your annual report to a report card. You expect your children to come home from school with something to show for all their time -- proof they have done something, and well. So it’s not unusual that a donor -- or prospective donor -- would want proof of what you accomplished, too.
All benefit corporations & Bcorps must publish a public report of overall social and environmental performance assessed against a third party standard. Our reports cover that and then some.
Your annual report is more than a legal requirement. It’s an opportunity to be transparent about your financial health and make a bold statement about your brand. It’s also an opportunity to engage with many different audiences, including:
"Many nonprofits are realizing that it’s time to remake the traditional annual report into something that works better for today – a communications piece that’s shorter, more personal, and more timely for readers, while also taking less work to produce. These online reports can either supplement or entirely replace print reports, depending on how the report fits into your larger donor communications strategy."
“If you aren’t doing your annual report online, even in a small way, you aren’t meeting people where they are today, and you’re handicapping yourself."
“Think of your annual report as a once-a-year golden opportunity to deeply connect with your customers’ (i.e., donors’) feelings, dreams, aspirations, hidden and sometimes even embarrassing needs — like the need to be liked; or the need to do something good in the world, a need as common as the air in our lungs.”
