Public Safety Insights Newsletter: How to Write a Compelling Annual Report

How to Write a Compelling Annual Report
Public Safety Insight:	You can create an annual report that demonstrates the true value your agency provides the community if you follow a few simple suggestions.

Does your agency’s annual report enable your stakeholders to see clearly the tremendous value you provide? Or does it make their eyes glaze over and put them to sleep? You can make readers sit up and take notice by following some simple, no-cost guidelines.

Here are 10 techniques you can apply today to increase significantly the impact of your annual report:

1. Focus on outcomes, not activities or behaviors.
   For example, instead of listing the number of training hours, explain how the community is safer, healthier, and/or more economically viable as a result of the training.

2. Lead with outcomes.
   Begin sentences with the result, then – if necessary – add the methods, training, or activities that enabled it.

3. Make the report about the community, not the agency.
   This tactic engages people right away: who doesn’t want to read about themselves? Use language, stories, and photographs to show that stakeholders are the stars of this report.

4. Tell readers what they need to know, not everything you know.
   While it may be faster and easier to do a data dump than it is to select only relevant information of interest to stakeholders, the payoff is a report that readers find educational and compelling.

5. Provide relevant contexts for your data.
   To get the full impact of numbers and information, readers need a point of comparison. For example, use percentages and/or trends for numbers; explain why an ISO rating is important to the community.

6. Forsake all acronyms and technical terms.
   If you really must use them, explain them in language that readers can understand easily.

7. Provide information in formats that are stakeholder-friendly.
   For example, simple graphs with explanatory legends are much easier to read and understand than a narrative littered with statistics.

8. Win political points and educate stakeholders by giving credit where credit is due.
   For example, instead of just thanking city leaders for providing needed resources, say, “City leaders significantly enhanced the level of safety in our community by allocating funds to purchase a new engine.”

9. Include third party testimonials.
   Let others tell your story for you. Reporting achievements or awards bestowed on the agency by credible third parties highlights the value you provide the community.

10. Use photographs throughout the report.
    Photographs can help you tell a compelling story, educate your readers, and paint the community into your picture. By breaking up the text, they make the report much easier to read.

The bottom line: if you’re going to provide an annual report, why not create one that stakeholders can understand and appreciate?

If you’d like more information about the above techniques and specific examples of how they may be used, please join me on February 12th for an IAFC-sponsored webinar called “How to Write a Compelling Annual Report.” Click here to obtain the details and register on the IAFC website.  

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To find articles and resources that may be of value to you, I invite you to visit my web site at www.PublicSafetyInsights.net.

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©2015 Pat Lynch | Public Safety Insights