Between you and me, I am probably the one who loves annual reporting more. I know that.
But I will always keep trying to help others see the beauty in an annual reporting process. It is a process that brings everything in your organisation together.
- Your numbers.
- Your data.
- Your work.
- Your impact.
- Your stories.
The more you develop your operational processes, the more easily you will have all this at hand.
And then you can shift your focus. You can go from working hard to collect everything to careful analysis. And prioritisation of what you want to share with whom – how and when.
Some data is useful for some audiences
In that moment you’ll see that some of your data is super useful – for yourself and the board.
(Do we have enough money in the bank at the end of the year to pay our bills?)
(Are there enough projects in the pipeline to keep going with our current activities?)
And that other data you have might be suited for a Facebook post to engage your supporters.
(Who can guess how many … we have in stock today? Closest call wins a tour of our storage room and can join us when we deliver some goodies).
(Can you guess where we are today?)
While some other data is a great match for your message in your annual report and really helps you get that message across powerfully.
(We are in need of in-cash donations to help us process all the many generous in-kind donations we received so that we can efficiently support all the mums in need.)
(The past year, we’ve used our own resources to keep serving our community in between grants and now we are almost broke. We are looking for unearmarked donations to keep going).
Find focus and prioritise
So as you reach the stage of having easy access to numbers and data, you need to reserve time to find your stories and see which one goes where, so to say.
For your annual report, it’s best to pick only one (or two) of them to focus on.
But don’t worry, as you see, you can share the other stories in other ways, too. So you don’t have to “kill your darlings” – you just need to prioritise them!
How I can help
Here is how I can help:
- With my Checklist you can make sure your report is complete: https://www.changingtides.eu/checklistannualreport
- If you have created an annual report and would like to hear my professional opinion, I can create a personal video review for you: https://www.changingtides.eu/reviewdonationssops
- If you would like a clear process with easy steps and guidance by me, you can join my Course Annual Reporting for nonprofits here: https://www.changingtides.eu/COURSEAnnualReporting
Check out my video Why your nonprofit annual report is a powerful marketing tool.
Want to know more and ask questions?
If you want to discuss this more – jump into my nonprofit support community and get input from a wide range of peers and from myself!
Here is how you can join my free nonprofit support community
You can join my free nonprofit support community on the Heartbeat platform here. This group is a safe space for open exchange and discussion on potentially sensitive topics like boards, nonprofit management, fundraising, etc.
You can visit the community via a browser or via an app. Here is the link to download the Heartbeat chat app in the Google Play store.
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