Six impact reports to inspire you

Impact reports need to have, well, impact. They’re a great way to celebrate your charity’s successes, thank existing donors, and encourage new supporters to join you.

But if your report is stodgy, unengaging, and flat it won’t achieve much. Here are some impact reports, annual reports, and even a strategy report that have caught our eye and might inspire you to do things differently.

1. Greenpeace

The imagery really stood out on Greenpeace’s 2019 and 2020 impact reports. The direct and hard-hitting photographs directly communicate the charity’s mission to “expose environmental abuse and champion solutions that safeguard the long-term health of our planet”.

Even just scrolling through, you get a sense of what they’re about, which is great for communicating messaging to casual readers. The 2019 report also included an ‘In pictures: 2019 highlights’ to powerfully communicate some of their key achievements.

The report is online and easy to navigate, with drop-down menus to jump to different areas of their work. This means you don’t have to wade through loads of copy to understand what they’ve achieved. 

2. Tree Aid

Again, it’s the photography here that makes this report. Tree Aid grows trees to combat both the climate crisis and global poverty and its Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21 is packed full of bright, bold photography showing their farmers in action. Many show people looking directly into the camera, helping to directly engage the reader.

It makes great use of stats – each section includes pull-out stats to give a high-level view of their impact. And as well as being able to download a PDF of the full report, it has a pared down online version. This includes a helpful interactive map to show its impact by country.

3. Girls Who Code

This bright, engaging report is a great example of how you don’t need dense copy to get your message across. The design of both the digital version and downloadable PDF (only 15 pages long) is full of white space. This makes messaging stand out and conveys a real confidence in their mission to close the gender gap in technology.

Scroll through the digital version of their 2020 Annual Report and you’ll be taken neatly through their story, with some breezy illustrations and animated stats. It makes really good use of external links. For example, it uses links to showcase some of its alumni it links to articles in mainstream press, and it includes videos to demonstrate some of the not-for-profit’s achievements. P

resenting the report through mixed media, is both engaging and informative. And it’s very much on brand giving the sense of a positive, bold and focused organisation.

4. Dementia UK

Dementia UK is one of several charities that chose to create a video version of their annual report. This sits alongside with a more traditional annual report (as a comprehensive 98-page PDF) and a tighter 28-page impact report.

Offering these different versions makes messaging accessible to a wider audience. In particular, the three-minute video gets the key achievements across with easy-to-digest animated stats and includes a call to action, asking for donations and support.

5. Nesta

Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation, has done a great job at creating a strategy report that you’ll actually want to read. Firstly, this one-page microsite is designed nicely – with photo collage visuals and a spattering of animation. Secondly, the copy is short and punchy.

Using a less-is-more approach shows confidence and energy, and carries you through the site – it’s easy to flow through and gain a real sense of what they’re about. Thirdly, it gives readers the option to digest as much information as they want to. The site gives high-level, take-out messaging, with sections to click on if you want to dive deeper. And ultimately you can click through to the complete strategy.  

6. Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity

Great Ormond Street Hospital works with seriously ill children, giving them the best chance to fulfil their potential. Their high-level impact report demonstrates the extraordinary work they do, by introducing four children who have received care from the hospital.

Light on copy and strong on visuals, it neatly shows how each child has benefitted from new technology and support services. And each story gives you a flavour of what each child is like – as an individual, not as a generic patient.

This report is also very much focused on thanking its supporters. They’ve brought that upfront with the strapline: ‘The incredible difference you’re making’. This shifts the focus of many reports, which include a thank you as an almost secondary thought.

This report runs alongside an 18-page highlights report, and a comprehensive 100-plus page annual report – giving people the option to choose the level of detail they want to access.