How & Why to Showcase Donors in Your Annual Report – Yearly

Donors (and donations) are essential for any nonprofit organization. If you’re a veteran in the industry or even a newcomer, this isn’t the most shocking idea.

Because nonprofits rely on donations, it’s imperative that every nonprofit handles its donors with care. Plus, championing your donors can be beneficial to your organization, even aside from donations.

Why you should showcase your donors in your annual report:

It builds connection

Aside from the more clerical need for an annual report, your “year in review” is also the perfect place to build a connection with supporters. With a better, increased connection, you position your nonprofit to receive more donations and support throughout the year.

By showcasing donors, these stakeholders will not only feel more connected to you—the people behind the scenes of the organization—but the mission, too.

It breeds transparency

Any stakeholder or supporter should be able to see and understand where most of your revenue came from in any given year. If, for example, a good part of your revenue comes from individual donations, it’s important to showcase that.

By giving your community the context needed to understand your operations, you’ll build trust through transparency. That trust can often lead to more contributions and a stronger connection between your community and your organization.

It helps your organization’s legitimacy

One of the lesser-known benefits of showcasing donors in an annual report is the opportunity for increased legitimacy.

When you include donor information in your reporting, it shows stakeholders that people care about your organization. It provides social proof, or the idea that the visibility of others donating to your cause inspires them to do the same. If supporters see that you have consistent, enthusiastic contributors, they might join in too.

How to showcase donors in your annual report

 Though lists of donor names are better than none at all, it’s much more effective to engage in storytelling to help showcase your donors.

• Include photos of them (either headshots or photos from events, fundraisers, etc.)
• Contextualize their giving using easy-to-understand metrics and charts
• Provide testimonials and quotes from donors
• Individually spotlight one (or many!) of them in a standalone section in your report