The digital world demands digital documents, and annual reports are no exception. With the rise of digital economy, more and more organizations and departments are now preparing and filing annual reports electronically. Therefore, it’s no surprise that digital annual reports have quickly become the new normal.
Besides being more user-friendly than their paper-based counterparts, digital annual reports help NGO’s reduce their environmental impact, convey a modern image, and attract more donors, CSR partners and volunteers.
This article highlights the main benefits of digital annual reports and the opportunities they create for NGO’s of all sizes.
1. Global reach
Digital annual reports are readily available to donors, CSR partners, volunteers, analysts, and other stakeholders across the globe.
When you publish your annual report online, anyone with an internet connection can find it, read it, and share it. By making it easier for donors, CSR partners, volunteers, analysts, and other stakeholders to access relevant information, digital annual reports open up new funding opportunities for NGO’s.
Furthermore, online media outlets can easily share or link to your digital annual report, which increases its exposure.
Last but not least, a digital annual report has the potential to help NGO’s increase their donor and CSR partner base. People everywhere can find the document online, feel inspired by your NGO’s story, mission, or vision, and choose to become your donor, CSR partner or volunteer.
With a digital annual report, you can reach a broader audience and significantly grow your NGO.
2. Valuable marketing tool
Organizations can also use their digital annual report to communicate their achievements, highlight their competitive advantages, and share their future Social impact goals.
Thanks to its digital format, stakeholders can easily share the report via social media, email, and other online channels. Social sharing increases the NGO’s visibility and raises brand awareness.
3. Increased reader engagement
Conventional annual reports only contain text and static images. Therefore, they are rather dull to read.
On the other hand, digital annual reports can include videos, animations, gifs, or links. Interactive elements grab the attention of your readers and keep them engaged.
Youtube videos are a great way to add interest to your digital annual report. You can use them to show off your NGO culture, highlight key achievements, or even take viewers on a tour of your facilities.
Some NGOs make use of digital technology by creating eye-catching movies or commercials that promote their services. These videos can be shared on social media platforms or on NGO website, and they are often more effective at getting stakeholders’ attention than traditional methods such as print ads.
Not only are digital annual reports an exciting read compared to paper-based ones, but they are also more user-friendly. It’s significantly easier to find the information you’re looking for within an electronic document. You don’t have to read the entire document to get to the specific parts that interest you. All you have to do is use the search function, and you can get the data you need in a matter of seconds.
4. Lower costs
Even though the initial cost of a digital annual report might be slightly higher, the investment will most likely save you time and money in the long run.
5. Easy to edit and correct mistakes
All humans make mistakes. However, correcting those mistakes is much more difficult when dealing with paper-based annual reports.
Digital annual reports, however, allow you to edit and correct them as many times as necessary. You can fix typos and other mistakes, save the correct version, and upload it on your website/GMB.
6. Reduced environmental impact
Digital annual reports are also better for the environment. By preparing and filing annual reports electronically, you reduce your environmental impact.
As NGO stakeholders become more and more concerned with corporate sustainability, NGOs need to reduce their reliance on paper and find more environmental friendly alternatives.
7. Better tracking and monitoring
NGOs that publish their annual reports on their website can use digital solutions to track how many people accessed them. They can also measure user engagement and see what links, videos, and buttons the readers clicked within the report.
This type of data provides organizations with valuable insights that they can use to create even better annual reports in the future.
8. Compliance with legal obligations
The Transparency Directive requires all NGOs registered on CSR-1 platform of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India to prepare their annual reports digitally in the prescribed Format.
Therefore, preparing digital annual reports in PF (Prescribed Format) is a must for NGOs Registered on CSR-1 to ensure compliance.
9. Easier comparison
When all the digital annual reports of NGOs are readily available online, donors, CSR partners, volunteers, analysts and other stakeholders can easily access them and compare the current social impact/financial results with those from past years.
As a result, stakeholders can get a comprehensive overview of the NGO’s performance and analyze trends without the hassle of finding or storing copies of paper-based annual reports from past years.
10. Additional value
When preparing a digital annual report, NGO’s relevant departments can leverage automation tools to reduce time-consuming tasks such as manually gathering financial data from multiple sources.
By automating the preparation of annual reports, digital accounting solutions allow finance departments to focus on the story behind the numbers and provide more valuable insights to stakeholders.
Curated by-
Team,
The Law Planet
(Effective. Efficient. Expeditious)