By Sally Pritchett
CEO
If your impact report doesn’t connect with your audience, you’re missing the chance to build trust and support.
Annual impact reports are meant to show progress, inspire trust and make the case for continued support. But too often, they turn into a long list of activities – everything you’ve done, said or funded – without focusing on what really matters: what changed, and for who?
If you’re in charge of your charity’s yearly impact report, you already know the pressure. Multiple audiences. Competing priorities. A year’s worth of achievements. And just enough time to gather, write, design and publish. It’s no wonder so many reports end up as busy PDFs that few people truly engage with.
But a list of good things done isn’t the same as a story well told.
Data doesn’t speak for itself – but great report design can bring it to life
Strong report design helps visualise the numbers and pair them with human stories, so readers quickly see why your work matters.
Across the year, your charity might have delivered 36 workshops, supported 2,400 service users and trained 112 volunteers. But readers don’t just want to know the output. They want context, connection and a clear sense of how those activities made a difference.
That means:
- Highlighting the outcomes that matter most
- Pairing data or statistics with real human stories
- Stripping back anything that takes away from the story you want to tell
Put simply: don’t make people work to find the so what?
See your report as a communication tool
At its best, your impact report is an invitation for readers to better understand your mission, see the difference you’re making and feel part of the journey. It builds trust with funders, shows accountability to your community and helps stakeholders feel confident in where you’re headed.
That takes more than strong writing. Your report needs a structure that flows, visual hierarchy and inclusive, accessible language. A tone that’s confident but relatable. And a design that doesn’t just look good but also guides the reader through your achievements of the previous year.
When it’s done well, your impact report can:
- Strengthen future funding bids
- Unite teams around a shared purpose
- Turn complex work into compelling public stories
- Become something your CEO shares with pride – not just signs off
So how do you get there?
It starts by asking one simple question: “What do we want people to understand, feel and do when they read this report?” And then shaping the report around that – from the structure and copy to the design and visuals.
At Something Big, we help charities turn reports into stories worth telling. Whether you need help crafting the narrative, developing a meaningful visual concept or designing something people want to read, we’re here to help. Let’s talk about your next impact report.