Inject life into your annual review

Charity Writing and Publications Training Day24 October 2013

What we’ll cover

1. The minimum requirements for annual reports

2. Six essentials of a great annual review

3. How to make your annual review stand out

4. Good process for annual reviews

Aim: To get you to thoroughly question everything about your organisation’s approach to its annual review –so it’s the most effective publication possible

Minimum requirements

• Legally, every charity has to produce a trustees’ annual report and accounts to show the Charity Commission and your funders how your organisation is raising and allocating your income

• The Charity Commission’s Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) for this is at http://tinyurl.com/qfmhk6q

But of course, most charities go much further…

Six essentials of a great AR

1. Know your audience, know your aims

• Who is your audience? Trusts? Volunteers? Individual donors? Commissioners?

• What do you want them to do when they’ve read your annual review? Give money? Give time? Buy your services? Continue to give?

• Build a profile, go in depth

Six essentials of a great AR

Controversial…

• The fewer audiences and purposes you have, the more effective your annual review will be

• Example: BTCV annual review – selling services to commissioners http://tinyurl.com/nfnzghk

• Do you need to produce an annual review? Could you spend your budget better on other publications?

Six essentials of a great AR

2. Include essential content

• Case studies and quotes (most important)

• Statistics

• Information about your impact (not every last thing your charity has done this year!). Always ask ‘so what?’

• ‘Who we are’ at beginning

• Call to action

Six essentials of a great AR

…and decide what optional content to include

• Chair/chief executive statement

• Thank yous

• Fundraising successes

• Internal developments

• Financials

Six essentials of a great AR3. Develop your format, theme and key messages

• So many choices! But if you’re looking to simply convey you message clearly and powerfully…

• Who we are• Chair’s introduction• Area of impact 1, 2, 3

• Introduction• 3-4 key achievements this year, bullet points• Case study• Pull out stat• Future plans • Call to action

Six essentials of a great AR

Examples

• Fire Fighters Charity annual review

http://tinyurl.com/n9tmrly

• British Lung Foundation annual review

http://tinyurl.com/pusp65d

Six essentials of a great AR

• Simple theme: what sums your year? Can you come up with a strapline?

• What are your key messages/achievements? Use them as sections

• Example: Alzheimer’s Research UK annual review http://tinyurl.com/oz34964

• How are you going to lay out each section? Keep them uniform

Six essentials of a great AR

4. Write about impact well – start where the action is

• Impact first, always. In your description of your achievements, headers, annual review title, case studies, stats…you are trying to impress your reader

• ‘So what?’ is your key question

• Annual reviews should be impact reports

Weekend at Lewis House

This year a weekend at Lewis House in Cumbria was provided for sick children with cancer and their families by the Children’s Cancer Trust. The weekend was run in conjunction with the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, PinderfieldsHospital, the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool and Sheffield Children’s Hospital, who all did fundraising and gave donations of money to make the weekend possible.

Families were able to enjoy visits to local attractions in Cumbria, including very exciting places like Walby Farm Park and Wetheriggs Animal Sanctuary, as well as visits from local entertainers including a circus group and a magician.

The children without a doubt really enjoyed themselves and felt less worried and happier for the weekend, as did their parents, they said on the evaluation forms they filled out. 91% of attendees felt it reduced their stress levels. 100 people attended.

Prior to leaving, the children were able to utilise the pool at Lewis House and the parents took time out with expert, qualified professionals to discuss how they could best give support to and meet the requirements of their children.

The weekend proved to be a great success and therefore it goes without saying that planning is already underway for the next group to attend in November.

Children and parents benefit from weekend at Lewis House

100 children with cancer and their families felt less worried and happier after a fun weekend we put on for them at Lewis House in Cumbria.

91% of attendees felt the weekend made them less stressed. The children enjoyed visits to exciting places like Walby Farm Park and Wetheriggs Animal Sanctuary, as well as visits from entertainers, including a circus group and magician.

They also had fun in the pool at Lewis House, while their parents talked to professionals about how they could best support their children.

We put on the event thanks to donations and fundraising from the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Pinderfields Hospital, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Alder Hey Children's Hospital and Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

The weekend was a great success, and we’re already planning for the next one in November.

Six essentials of a great AR

• We sent out more than 900,000 leaflets, booklets and factsheets this year.

• We now have 237 MS support groups in every corner of the UK, with 16,500 members.

Six essentials of a great AR

• We sent out more than 900,000 leaflets, booklets and factsheets this year, giving people the first-class information they need to handle their illness.

• We now have 237 MS support groups in every corner of the UK, where 16,500 people go to make friends, chat about their problems and hear from local medical experts.

Six essentials of a great AR

• Set up the problem

Feeling alone can be one of the worst things about living with cancer or caring for someone who does. Sometimes family and friends don’t quite get what it’s like.

Our web community connects people going through similar experiences…

Six essentials of a great AR

• Features and benefits

Feature: We organise trips to university open days for young people from poor inner city areas…

Benefit:…which makes them believe in themselves and see university, and a better future, is within their reach

Six essentials of a great AR

• Remember: you don’t need to cram everything into your annual review

• If you can’t link it to your impact, it shouldn’t be there

Six essentials of a great AR

Exercise

Think of three things your organisation does.

What is their impact?

Six essentials of a great AR

5. Include great case studies

• Case studies show you impact, rather than your copy just telling your reader about it

• Case studies should focus on your impact: how your help has changed the interviewee’s life

• Could your case studies lead the publication?

Six essentials of a great AR

6. Get the basics of design right

• Have beautiful pictures

• Break up the text – lots of box outs, bullet points, pull quotes and stats

• Don’t have too much text – white space is your friend

• Use infographics

• Example: NSPCC’s annual review, page three http://tinyurl.com/ocnkp2q

Make your annual review stand out

1. Go small, go short

• Some of the best annual reviews are short

• Could you cut your publication in half?

• A5/A6, square or DL format?

• Put it on postcards?

• Example: Cardboard Citizens’ annual review http://www.cardboardcitizens.org.uk/p155.html

Make your annual review stand out

• Could you produce a summary publication?

• Example: Cancer Research UK’s annual review fold out http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/prod_consump/groups/cr_common/@abt/@gen/documents/image/cr_111526.pdf

Make your annual review stand out

2. Make you annual review useful

• How can you make you annual review stay on your audience’s desk all year?

• Example: Nacro’s calendar annual review http://www.ngomedia.org.uk/NacroCalendar08.pdf

Make your annual review stand out

3. Let your case studies lead

• Could a case study write your foreword? • Example: Teach First’s annual review

http://www.teachfirst.org.uk/about/annual-review

• Could case studies tell your whole story?• Example: Blue Cross’s annual review

http://www.bluecross.org.uk/files/Blue-Cross-2012-Annual-Review.pdf

Make your annual review stand out

4. Do something out-of-the-box

• Example: The Wallich’s annual reviews

http://www.140voices.com/

http://www.thewallich.com/downloads/reports/annualreview10.pdf

• Example: Borderline’s annual reviews

Not online: please email jennifer@jennifer-campbell.co.uk if you’d like copies

Make your annual review stand out

5. Go digital

Digital advantages:

• Can be cheaper• Readers can take action instantly

Print advantages:

• More difficult to ignore• Certain audiences prefer print• Something tangible to take to meetings

Make your annual review stand outWays to put your annual review online

• PDF• Website section

Example: Alzheimer’s Research UKhttp://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/2011-12-annual-review/

• Full mini-site

Example: British Heart Foundationhttp://team.bhf.org.uk/

Make your annual review stand out

Other interesting digital annual reviews

• Airbnb’s annual review https://www.airbnb.com/annual/

• Calgary Zoo’s Instagram annual review http://instagram.com/calgaryzoo2012ar

• The Brandon Trust’s Prezi annual review http://www.brandontrust.org/stories--videos/weathering-the-storm-annual-report-2012.aspx

Annual review process

1. Put systems in place to gather information

• The Code of Good Impact Practice, Inspiring Impact http://inspiringimpact.org/

• Start right after your previous annual review is published. Let people know what you’ll need from them in a year’s time.

Annual review process

• You five key achievements this year

• Up to three statistics showing your impact

• Up to three quotes from stakeholders showing your impact

• Case study suggestions

• A list of people to thank

• Plans for next year and beyond

• What do you do?

Annual review process

2. Get all stakeholders together

• Have a lunch so everyone can give their ideas

• Then narrow the loop

Annual review process

3. Brief and timetable

• Get everyone to feed in, then sign off

• Work backwards on the time line

• Brief could include: Audience/purpose, tone of voice, content plan, flatplan…

• You will have less time than you think!

More information

• Advice on my website, www.jennifer-campbell.co.uk

• CharityComms, A Year in the life: best practice guide to annual publications, download free from http://www.charitycomms.org.uk/articles/a-year-in-the-life

• How to produce inspiring annual reports, Ken Burnett and Karen Weatherup, available from DSC bookshop