Positioning Your Nonprofit: Impact Reports
In the nonprofit world, raising funding is the equivalent to sales in the for-profit world. It includes the same steps:
Know your target audience
Attract attention
Build interest
Answer questions
Address hurdles to buying
Ask the to “buy” (or fund you, in this case)
Deliver what you say you’re going to deliver
Reengage
When persuading funders to invest into a nonprofit, materials or tools that can help you do that are those that can convince funders that your organization is credible, capable, and has the capacity to do what you say it will do/does. Leveraging impact reports provides one tool for doing this.
What is the purpose of an impact report?
As with any communication tool – it’s critical to understand the purpose for which you are developing an impact report. Impact reports can be used to thank funders, thank event or program participants, and show off your impact to both those existing and future audiences.
When you develop an impact report, it’s positioning and messaging both should do the following (and this is from a pure “marketing” lens):
Demonstrate that your claims are credible. Are you claiming that you provide a useful service? How does the content of your impact report show that?
Shows your capabilities off. This can often be done by providing an overview of the service or product you offer, as well as possibly other details about “impact” such as how many individuals for whom you provided support last year (as is the case for annual reports), for a specific program or event you’re reporting on, etc.
Exemplifies your capacity to succeed. Ideally your entire impact report does this! This doesn’t mean you don’t have failures or challenges to acknowledge in something you have done. It just means you are using your impact report as a marketing tool, pocketing failures and challenges as things to address and do differently next time!
How long should a nonprofit impact report be?
As short as you can get it while accomplishing your communication intent. One page is great. It may be a few pages. It just depends on what you’re trying to show off!
About the author: Marty Mundy
Marty’s work captures her diverse background and experience leading engineering design teams, launching her own businesses, operating as chief executive in the nonprofit space, and coaching leaders. Her clients have included nonprofit, public, and for profit entities. She has provided strategic communications and organizational development support across industries from aerospace, materials and engineering to health and human services, community development, agriculture and food.