Making the most of your annual report

Anyone who’s worked on producing an annual report knows just how much work goes into it.

There’s the gathering of information from across the organisation, the number crunching, the wordsmithing, the rounds of edits, the design work, and the delicate task of balancing everyone’s priorities and perspectives.

By the time it’s finally approved by the Board and ready to publish, there’s often a collective sigh of relief.

For comms professionals, the temptation at the end of a busy year might be to whack a post up about it on LinkedIn, mention it in the next newsletter, and then move on to the next thing on the list.

If that’s you, I totally get it, and have been there!

But at its best, an annual report is so much more than a record of activities, financial statements and governance obligations. It’s a snapshot of your organisation at a particular point in its journey
towards achieving its vision.

It can help people understand:

• Who you are: Your purpose, values, culture and the people who make your work possible.
• Where you’re at: The progress you’re making towards your vision, including the challenges
  you’re navigating and what you’re learning along the way.
• The difference you’re making: The changes you’re contributing to in people’s lives, communities, systems and policies.
• Where you’re heading: Your ambitions, priorities and opportunities for the future.

A great annual report brings these elements together to tell a compelling and authentic story about your organisation. Importantly, it’s a story that can be valuable to a much broader audience than
your Board, members or inner circle.

It can help potential funders understand the impact of investing in your work. It can show government decision-makers how you’re contributing to shared priorities. It can help partners and collaborators see opportunities to work together.

It can also help your team, volunteers and supporters feel proud of what they’ve achieved and connected to the bigger picture.

One of the things I encourage comms teams to do is think about the annual report as a rich source of content that can be repurposed throughout the year.

After all, you’ve already done the hard work of gathering the stories, evidence, insights and information. Why not make the most of it? In practice, this could look like:

• Turning your impact into bite-sized stories: Pull out a handful of compelling outcomes, statistics or achievements and turn them into social media posts, infographics or short videos.
• Putting people at the centre: Share the experiences and perspectives of the people and communities you work alongside, with their consent and involvement in how their stories
  are told.
• Celebrating your people and partnerships: Use the report as an opportunity to recognise the contributions of your team, volunteers, partners and supporters.
• Creating content for different audiences: A funder might be interested in your outcomes and impact. A prospective partner might want to understand your approach and capabilities. A policymaker might be interested in what your work reveals about opportunities for systems
  change.
• Keeping the stories alive: There’s no reason annual report content needs to be shared only during reporting season. A story, insight or achievement might be just as relevant three or six months later, particularly when it connects to an emerging issue, event or organisational priority.

An annual report also provides a natural reason to reconnect with people who have an interest in your organisation’s work.

Imagine your CEO sending a short email to a government decision-maker they’ve met with during the year, sharing the report and highlighting a particular outcome that relates to their policy
priorities.

Or a Board member forwarding the report to a potential philanthropic supporter, with a personal note about why they believe in the organisation’s work.

Perhaps your team could use the report to reconnect with an organisation you’ve been hoping to collaborate with, highlighting a shared interest or an opportunity to work together?

If your team is attending conferences, hosting events, meeting with stakeholders or presenting to potential partners, think about how the report, or a shorter summary of it, could support those conversations.

To support these activities, you could develop a simple engagement plan that identifies:

• Priority audiences: Who would benefit from reading the report, and who do you want to
  build or strengthen relationships with?
• Key messages: What are the most important things you want people to understand about
  your organisation and its impact?
• Content opportunities: Which stories, insights and achievements could you adapt into other
  formats?
• Engagement opportunities: Who could share the report personally, and what existing
  meetings, events or communications could you use?
• Action plan: Who is responsible for each activity you’ve identified in your plan?

Working in the for purpose sector, I know how much care and energy goes into communicating the work our organisations do.

We want to do justice to the people and communities we serve, recognise the contributions of those who support us, and demonstrate that we’re making meaningful progress towards our vision.

So next time you’re planning for the development and release of your organisation’s annual report, ask yourself: How can we make the most of this story we’re working so hard to tell?

Joanna Le is a strategic communicator and purpose-driven leader, on a mission to create positive social change. She is also a Collaborator at For Purpose.

19 October 2026