I can understand if you're doing a multimillion-dollar capital campaign, you have to have something, but it doesn't need to be fancy. Regardless of audience and presentation, annual reports should include both program and financial data from the previous year, and it should identify those serving on the board. A narrative description of the agency's program goals and specifically how they were accomplished are the foundation of the program portion of an annual report. He also urges nonprofits to avoid anecdotal information. When, for whatever reasons, a nonprofit hasn't met its annual goals, that information should also be included.
Barber points out.
Providing a brief description of program philosophy can be useful to potential donors. Often the board president will include this in an introductory letter. Program data should be presented in the same major categories, and covering the same fiscal period, as financial data. Program descriptions and statistics should point to the year's activities and not the organization's entire program history. People get lost in numbers.