The Five Essentials of an Annual Report

by Mary Walker
Communications Specialist
St. Mary’s Catholic Center at Texas A&M

After all of the numbers are crunched for the end of our fiscal year, St. Mary’s Catholic Center at Texas A&M takes stock of the spiritual and fiscal state of our ministry. Four years ago we created our first Annual Report as a way to highlight many accomplishments and say “thank you” to our benefactors. Over time, we have discovered that the Annual Report is also an exceptional marketing tool—and have extra copies printed each year!

The following is a brief discussion on the five most important things to consider as you create your annual report.

Essential 1: A Great Cover

Covers DO influence consumers to buy books, and a great cover will entice benefactors to open up your report. Throughout the year we keep our eyes open for the “perfect” cover photograph that conveys who we are and what we do.

If your budget does not allow you to print your entire report in color (and with current print technology, color does not cost THAT much more than B&W and makes a big visual difference), be sure to use color on the cover.

Essential 2: Show How Your Ministry Made a Difference

The Annual Report is not about the money—it’s about the ministry that needs the financial support to make a difference. Photographs, graphic presentations of statistics, brief stories of accomplishments and milestones, etc. tell benefactors how they have partnered with you. Collect information about these features throughout the year, and include them in the annual report. They are a nice way of “breaking up” some of the dryer items of facts and figures that must be included.

Essential 3: An Accounting

Okay—now consider the money. You will need to break down the overall financial information in a way that makes sense for your ministry. For example, St. Mary’s has a number of revenue streams: pew collections, foundations, and gifts of many sizes. Through graphics, we show how each revenue stream is a vital percentage of operations, and even the most modest of gifts are important. Graphics provide a concise summary of this message.

We create a spreadsheet of all benefactors, sorted by total amount given over the year, greatest to least. For example:

Smith, John - $10,000
Brown, Sally - $ 5,000
Campus Ministry Charitable Foundation - $ 2,000
(others) - $$$
Doe, John - $1.00

This list lets us assess our development efforts over the last year. In addition, it allows us to be more effective in the next fiscal year. By studying the list and comparing it to the previous year, we see:

• Who is on the list
• Who is NOT on the list
• Who has made a significant gift and is not on our radar
• Who is approaching the next level of giving
• Whose level of giving has changed when compared to the previous year
• Who is new to the list this year, and who was on the list last year but is not there this year

Essential 4: Recognition of Gifts

Benefactors who have given St. Mary’s at least $100 are sent a copy of the Annual Report and are listed by name, unless they have asked to remain anonymous. Rather than list an exact amount given, we break the benefactors into categories (e.g. Gifts of 10,000 or more; $5,000-$9,999; etc.). With the spreadsheet you created, you can easily see what categories make sense and re-sort the benefactors in alphabetical order by category.

You may also want to recognize those who have made significant gifts by photos and a quotation on why they gave. In our last Annual Report, we included a photo of a benefactor who made a large gift because he loved the focus of St. Mary’s on vocations. He wanted us to use his gift to “make more priests.”

Essential 5: The Remit Envelope

I’d like to say that St. Mary’s carefully considered putting a remit envelop inside our Annual Report because we KNEW it would generate donations. However, the decision was more along the lines of, “why not, let’s try it!” Our initial goal was to cover the cost of adding the envelope as well as some of the cost of producing the Annual Report.

Well—imagine our surprise in discovering that many recipients of the annual report will actually send a gift if an envelope is included. By including the envelope, St. Mary’s more than covers the cost of producing the Annual Report, and realizes enough revenue to consider the Annual Report to be an appeal.

This may not be the case for all organizations, but the minimal financial risk in including a remit envelope with your Annual Report should at least be considered.

A Concluding Note

When I was first assigned the task of creating an Annual Report four years ago, I thought it would be a number crunching bore (and some of it is). However, it is also an opportunity to creatively highlight (and remind ourselves) of the good accomplished at St. Mary’s and how important it is to thank those who make it possible. The act of producing the report also allows St. Mary’s to “take stock” of where the funding comes from and make better decisions about how the financial goals will be reached in the future.

Click here for the St. Mary’s 2009 Annual Report.

Mary Walker is a Communications Specialist in the Development Office at St. Mary Catholic Center in College Station, TX. There she uses her expertise to design, write and edit letters and publications that go to St. Mary’s students, friends and benefactors. Formerly a technical writer, marketing representative and systems engineer for IBM, and managing editor of a technical journal, she has published extensively in both the Catholic and secular press, and regularly writes for the Austin diocesan newspaper, Catholic Spirit.