Accessibility

Creating content in multiple formats and mediums to reach multiple audiences is nothing new, but the Cornwall Museums Partnership has integrated audio recordings of its text into its annual reports to make them more accessible. They also engage locals with playful Cornish headings.

Dementia UK, engages supporters with a video version of their impact reports, making it accessible to a broader base.

Accountability

As mentioned earlier and in Adept’s case study, accountability for goals set the previous year builds trust and credibility with engaged supporters. Kidney Research UK has outlined their goals and whether they have met them, with a helpful but short reason for why or how they may or may not have met the goal.

Also, in a simple move, leaving a library of previous years reports accessible, enables donors and supporters to see how your mission, your work or key issues have changed over time.

Standing out and reflecting your brand

Fun, playful infographics help draw attention to key points, even better if the playful style reflects the brand of your organisation, like Bookmark Reading. If your brand values are different, you can still create pages that stand out, just in your own branding, helping readers understand what you’re about through the design, narrative and transparency.

TreeAid uses bright photographs, in its impact reports as a reflection of its brand.

Readability

You will need to consider who will be reading your impact report. Often people skim information, so make key statistics stand out.

SeeAbility uses big and bold infographics to make the key impact measures they want to show, ‘impactful’.

Storytelling

What are the key pieces of information you want readers to understand or interact with? Are you trying to convey the outcomes of your work, or draw attention to the continued or changing needs.

Macmillan Cancer Support turned the narrative around in one of their impact reports, as written about by Richard Berks, which put the focus on how cancer landscape had changed, rather than just what the charity had done.