Easy ways to spice up your next report

When I worked at UNICEF Kenya, the communications office had a reports officer whose primary responsibility was to provide donors with regular progress reports on all our projects. That was my role. I worked hand-in-hand with programme officers to ensure that our funding partners understood the impact of their hard-earned dollars.

Though they are often seen as a necessary chore, donor reports are as important as the project activities they cover. Good reporting not only shows donors the impact their funding has achieved, it also holds up a mirror to the organization itself. Unfortunately, not many non-profits can afford a dedicated reports officer, and the task of reporting falls to overburdened project/programme officers. Luckily, following a reporting template is a pretty straightforward affair. You craft an executive summary, include a case study, outline the financials, thank your donors, and wrap up your narrative with a call to action. As I said, it’s pretty straightforward. 

What can be a little tricky, however, is getting your report to have the right tone and pitch so you don’t bore or upset your audience. You don’t want it to read like a technical manual and it shouldn’t sound like a marketing proposal either. What you want is a document that is interesting, engaging and clearly shows the impact of your organisation’s work.  Here are some tips that may help.

Less is more

If it’s not essential to your key message, leave it out. Gather all the relevant case studies, statistics and quotes and pick out only the most important among these for your report. Help busy readers with short attention spans and wandering eyes stay focused. Keep your paragraphs short and use bullet lists whenever you can. 

Simplify

Read your report aloud as though for the first time. If you were a member of your target audience would you understand your report? Is there an easier way to explain what you mean without using technical terms? If you must use jargon or an unfamiliar acronym, then make the meaning clear and understandable to readers. Analogies and examples are a good way to do this.

Don’t write the way you speak

Some experts advise one to write the way s/he talks to his audience. I wouldn’t recommend this. Listen to yourself the next time you speak in conversation and you’ll understand what I mean. Our dialogues are full of unnecessary words and we rarely speak in complete sentences. I would suggest that you take the middle way. Don’t write like a robot. Use short, simple words. Be clear.

Show don’t tell

This is one of the first lessons my journalism professors taught me. What this means is that you write in a way that helps your readers “see” what you mean. Instead of using meaningless phrases like “one of the poorest villages in the country” or “the tragic failure of governance structures” or “the sad state of affairs” etc, use your words to paint an honest picture of the situation on the ground. Let the poverty, tragedy or sadness emerge from what you write. 

Make it readable

Use colour, plenty of white space and sub-headers to  make your report easy to read. Remember, some of your readers may be viewing the document on mobile devices. 

Revise, revise and revise

Always make sure to edit and proofread your reports several times. Have you said what you needed to say without repeating yourself? Have you proved your points? Is your report clear, factual and engaging? If so, congratulations on a job well done!