How to write a donor impact report for the web

By Dionna Dash

So you’ve decided to create a digital donor impact report? First, let me congratulate you on making a good choice. 

In today’s increasingly digitized age, an online report allows you to meet donors wherever they are and use some of the most creative avenues to engage them: videos, photo carousels, interactive timelines, dynamic infographics. These elements and so many others can only be featured in a digital piece, not a printed one.

Your goal is to make sure these fun additions complement the written words you use in your report. (Yes, don’t forget about those.) The language you choose can help augment the clarity of your mission, showcase the personality of your brand and enhance the quality of your report overall.

Donors are busy people, often only able to give communication pieces a few minutes of their time. You have to catch their attention and keep them engaged by hooking them with visuals and written copy that’s intriguing but not overwhelming.

Keep reading the tips below to discover four tried and true ways to make your donor impact report professional and effective.

1. Include the right sections

Structuring your impact report with identifiable sections will both help you to make sure that each key element of your report is accounted for and will help your donors to easily digest that report. These sections lend a more organized feel to the piece and allow your nonprofit to tell a step-by-step narrative of your donors’ impact that ends with a logical call to action.

Your impact report should have the following sections, all of which require the right words:

• An introduction that reiterates your nonprofit’s mission
• A summary of activities that shows how your organization spent its dollars
• Impact stories that demonstrate the difference your donors’ dollars make in the lives of real people
• Next steps that tell donors how they can stay involved by making another gift, signing up for a newsletter or other ways

2. Say thank you

The goal of a donor impact report is to prove to your donors how much their support means and to encourage them to continue that support. One of the best ways to do that is to thank them with genuine, meaningful words. You can put this acknowledgement in the introduction or include it somewhere else in the report, but its inclusion is imperative.

When crafting this thank you, be sure to approach it with sincerity and use strong verbs instead of flowery adjectives. For example, don’t write, “We are immensely grateful for your unending support. Because of your selfless generosity, we are able to irrevocably change the lives of so many people in need.” Instead, try, “Thank you for your commitment to our mission. Because of your generosity, we are able to uplift so many people in need.”

3. When storytelling, less is more

Donors are often too busy to comb through paragraphs of text, so concision is key when crafting copy. Luckily, writing an impactful story isn’t about your word count, it’s about making each word count. A story’s impact is found in how powerful or touching it is, not in how long it is. And stories don’t necessarily have to be written – you can tell a moving narrative through a picture or with a video. Any accompanying words should enhance and reinforce what donors are already seeing in the visual elements of your report.

Keep in mind that in these stories, your nonprofit isn’t the main character. Your organization functions as a supporting character, helping the protagonist — your beneficiaries — get to where they need to be. You’re a helping hand along the way, not the final destination.

4. Make it actionable

After reading through your report, donors might be tempted to make another gift or learn more about a particular impact story. With a digital report, capitalizing on these wants is easier than ever. By including donate buttons at the end of your report and linking to longer blogs and videos throughout, you can create an easy, user-friendly way for donors to instantly increase their impact. No more tedious website searching or URL typing — everything they need is simply a click away.