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Jeffrey Beach: speaking from someone who is a CEO now, I would say the way to handle it is to try to be involved sooner in the process.
Patrick Villemaire: when it comes to annual reports on the board, what does the board care about?
Jeffrey Beach: I think it’s really about again I go back to the word impact because that is what a donor is looking for
Patrick Villemaire: I’m here with Jeff Beach from asthma Canada the CEO and we’re here to talk about digital annual report. So I have this video series and I’m calling it how to avoid the annual crisis. And of course, the annual crisis is the process of creating the annual reports every year and all the fun and challenges that we have. So thanks for joining me Jeff.
Patrick Villemaire: I kind of just want to know, one or two minutes about who Jeff is and what’s the story of Jeff?
Jeffrey Beach: Sure, so Patrick as you know, because you and I worked together at UN many many years ago, but I spent my entire career in the nonprofit sector mostly in health-related causes Health Charities and health service providers. So I’m currently to CEO of Asma Canada. I’ve been with the organization for almost a year and a half now prior to that. I’ve worked with groups such as cystic fibrosis the Canadian spondylolarthritis Association Willow breast and
Jeffrey Beach: Terry cancer support I mentioned a moment ago Von the Victorian ordered nurses where that was actually the longest stint of any organization. I’ve been with in my career about 11 years working in home care and Community Support Services and my rules have varied from managing operations to fund developments fundraising focused roles building donor support for organizations as well as overall management and as a CEO or executive director
Patrick Villemaire: Nice, so you’ve been really kind of throughout the whole gamut which is pretty awesome. So when it comes to annual reports,…
Patrick Villemaire: the one thing that everyone I talk to wants to know is how does it influence the donation side of things right? obviously, they’re creating the annual report for the stakeholders, but what they really want is how do I increase donations? So from your experience. Have you been able to leverage, any reports in terms of the prospecting and solicitating of donations and what is that kind of magic formula that takes someone, on the journey to keeping them engaged throughout the years.
Jeffrey Beach: So what I’ve seen when I think back to the early part of my career, I started in the nonprofit sector in the mid 90s, I guess and in those days I do recall that the annual report which was apprented glossy document. It might be for some organizations the only document
Jeffrey Beach: that you invested that kind of time and money in terms of printing and production, but it was really a showcase piece. I’m showing my age here because this is in the days where we didn’t have websites or they were very crude early websites. So the annual report was really that main marketing material that we had and I think what I’ve seen over the years is as we’ve shifted to have more resources online and where people in an instant have the ability to connect with us in different ways through social media and so on. I think the annual report has become more of an opportunity to really showcase the organization either from a stewardship perspective. So showing our current supporters sponsors donors what we’re doing how we’re having an impact in terms of the communities that we serve and then also for people who are considering supporting the organization. It is a key tool in terms of engaging people and capturing their attention and showing them really again, what the impact is and what
Jeffrey Beach: their dollars can do if they choose to support the organization.
Patrick Villemaire: And how do you balance the priorities of all the different audiences? So, I imagine as a CEO, how involved are you in that process? I know, the comms marketing team tends to handle the process but at what point, do you start thinking about it? And how do you kind of influence the creation of these?
Jeffrey Beach: So I’ll just say this is my second year now 2024 with asthma Canada 2023. We had a bit of a unique situation because our Communications person moved out of the sector to a role in the profit sector and we deliberately took a time time to pause and to reflect on the role and we actually engaged consultant to develop a communication strategy for the organization. So when it came time to do our 2022 annual report, we didn’t have a Communications person in the role in house. And that would normally be the position that would lead the development of the annual report. So working in a small organization like ours working very closely with our directory programs and services myself fund development director but that coordinator piece would be responsibility of the communication staff person and we didn’t have someone so I was more Hands-On I would say last year.
Jeffrey Beach: And certainly our directory programs and services who’s been with the organization for over a decade has been through development of annual reports and other documents throughout her time. She really played a lead role in terms of pulling it together and what we did she and I were really responsible for the content management piece. And then we hired someone to to pull it together to develop it in terms of a graphic design and formatting and putting it into a similar format than what we had in the previous years, but fresh enough so that it was obvious that it was a different annual report not the same one from the year before but I would say traditionally the CEO role is
Jeffrey Beach: more on the content development side and depending on the size of the organization. It could be more on the approval side of things but in the organizations I’ve been with which have been small to medium-sized organizations. The CEO would play more of a Hands-On role in terms of content generation itself.
Patrick Villemaire: In terms of the process what do you find is the biggest challenge?
Jeffrey Beach: The biggest challenge is it’s a big project and in the midst of other priorities we typically for asthma Canada are fiscal year is the calendar year. So our AGM is held in June and we try to have the annual report ready so that once the financial statements are approved by the membership at the AGM. We can immediately launch the Ann.
Jeffrey Beach: after that. So in order to do that, there’s just a lot of work during this time of year in the springtime sort of leading up to the annual meeting and there is that pressure of the deadline of having it ready for the AGM or ready to launch right after the AGM. So just again, it’s an important document. It’s a big document and it’s one that requires input from multiple pieces of the organization. Obviously the financial pieces, tied into this as So we’re just currently ready to share draft financial statements in the next couple of weeks with our audit and finance committee and then those will go to the board and ultimately approve by the AGM, but all this kind of feeds together. So when I think about an annual report, it’s not just the annual report. It’s all those pieces around the AGM having the audit completed because the annual report would not be done without those other pieces happening.
Patrick Villemaire: It sounds like it might be hard to sleep sometimes because there’s so much going on that.
Jeffrey Beach: yeah, I mean, I’ve been at this for a long time. So I’m pretty good at cart mentalizing things. So, it doesn’t necessarily keep me up at night, but it’s definitely something that is on my mind and it’s something that we need to really be on top of in Terms of our team now this year. We do have a new Communications person that we’ve just brought on board. So he will be responsible for pulling this together. He’s starting to do. That work now, but like I said last year wasn’t even bigger challenge because we didn’t have someone in house in that role and we had to work with. A graphic designer who was great, but didn’t know us so that was there that was part of it too was that new relationship? And so there’s a bit of feeling out in terms of what we wanted and what actually resonated with us. And so it just took up it was a bit more work than it would have been otherwise, I guess.
Patrick Villemaire: And in terms of the approval process, so the biggest thing that I hear when I’m talking to people is what’s one of the biggest challenges this is to be honest. It’s the CEO right? everything is done, everything’s format, especially when it’s comes to print if they’re still doing PDFs, the pages are all laid out and then the CEO says, we really need to add this. Right and it’s the 11th hour and then when you’re working with, print documents now you’re like page breaks and where can we fit it in so…
Jeffrey Beach: Yeah.
Patrick Villemaire: but from your perspective, how do you handle this process? You kind of avoid those situations?
Jeffrey Beach: While speaking from someone who is a CEO now, I would say the way to handle it is to try to be involved sooner in the process. So, the thought of in my role at least being able to just be that final approval not having seen anything that’s not going to work because that’s where you run into situations where the CEO is going to say. let’s move this around let’s not include this and we really need to have something else there. that kind of input which should be earlier in the process as opposed to that final approval. And that’s one of the things I’ve seen so with different organizations over the years where it gets stopped up at that senior executive level because they haven’t had enough exposure to it throughout the process. So it’s always a balance, you don’t want the CEO spending their time.
Jeffrey Beach: Doing a lot of the writing and so you should have a team that helps to pull that together. But at least having some sort a framework for it and a skeleton to understand. These are the elements that we’re working on. This is the kind of content that we’re producing bringing the CEO along early in the process is really important.
Patrick Villemaire: That makes sense. And one of the things that I think is interesting as I talk to different people is typically I find me, when you get to the comms manager level that’s maybe doing most of the writing work, they tend to care less about the actual report right there. There’s more to something that they have to do and then you’re kind of like when you’re at the director of comms marketing they’re a little bit more engaged a little bit more excited about, the impact that it can have. how can you use differently then I find that there’s that Clear Vision of it’s obviously for the stakeholders as for the donors. It’s for your perspective in existing donors, right and keeping everyone engaged and kind of like telling the stories and leading into next year. So how do you kind of get that messaging down to the team that important. There’s actually value there. It’s not just another task that needs to be done.
Jeffrey Beach: I think we try to be deliberate about agreeing to our priorities and that we’re very transparent. So everyone knows. Throughout the organization what we’re working on what each of us are doing not down to the granular detail, but at least understanding what our priorities are and how we’re focusing our time and what the most important priorities are. So for something like this, it would really be up to me and the director of programs and services which I work very closely with we would be the two that for our organization would set the tone basically to ensure that everyone understands that this is a priority and why that is the case. It’s also I think depending on the annual reports in some organizations have become.
Jeffrey Beach: Less of a focus as opposed to impact reports, but when I think about an organization a small to medium sized charity. I want to have one that reflects both. So it’s an annual report. it’s sort of taken care of checking the boxes like you want to have some sort of a financial statement or some summary of your finances. You want to have some sort of a message from the board of directors and the board chair the CEO all those Essential Elements, but also really using it to Showcase impact so that we put a lot of resources into this production of this document because it is a key tool. It’s not just something that we send to people after the AGM to check a box and say that we’ve done it it’s something that we’re going to use throughout the year. We’re going to use it as a marketing tool. We’re going to use it as a donor engagement tool and one to really demonstrate what we’re doing as an organization and why it’s important that people support us.
Patrick Villemaire: That makes sense. And I know that you’re also, a board member so when it comes to annual reports on the board, what does the board care about? how obviously it’s a little bit different Because the board has, more of I guess a lens into the organization throughout the year, right? But it kind of like, looking at who cares and what is the perspective, from the CEO, presenting to the board and then as a board member, what are you looking for in terms of the reports?
Jeffrey Beach: so I think from the CEOs perspective with the board, it’s really, again, encouraging them to own this and to share it to see it as that marketing tool that it is it’s not just something that we want to
Jeffrey Beach: sit on a virtual or real shelf, somewhere that it’s something that should be a document that really helps to showcase the organization as a board member. I think what I look for is it really is a way to demonstrate accountability, there’s a lot of pieces of an annual report that are about accountability like the financial reports the impact the progress on a strategic plan all those things can be touched on in an annual report sharing stories of people clients patients, whatever that we’re impacting and so as a board member, I think I would look to the annual report is something that can help me understand especially as a newer board member which I am for one organization understanding the impact really getting to know the people that we serve through those stories that are in yet the annual report. it’s a really important document that I think we need to Showcase and continue to refer to
Patrick Villemaire: And when it comes to the reports, obviously we’re talking annually, but I know some organizations do quarterly impact reports. what is your thought on those?
Jeffrey Beach: I think they’re great. If you have the resources to be able to do them. We don’t as a relatively small organization. I’ve been with some organizations that do a lot of those kind of regular quarterly reports or formally published impact documents like that kind of thing. I think most organizations have shifted. We try to do that in a sense through our e newsletter that we send out which goes out. Approximately on a monthly basis sometimes every other month depending on how busy we are and what’s going on within the organization and the time of year, but I don’t think it’s realistic to think that we’d be able to put together that sort of an impact report on a regular basis throughout the year. So that’s why again, the annual report is a really key document for us in terms of demonstrating that impact.
Patrick Villemaire: That makes sense. And when it comes to the donor perspective, how much does a donor care I’m assuming that they want to see where’s the money going? But what engages the donor and then when it comes to prospective donors, what kind of draws them in what’s that process of trying to take someone that’s in the final, you send them the report do your touch base. How do you convert them into supporting the organization?
Jeffrey Beach: I think it’s really about again I go back to the word impact because that is what a donor is looking for. So through the end report, if you can tell the story of the organization and included in that are stories about real people that are being affected. So, in our case, we’re Asthma Canada. We’re helping people better lives with asthma. We’re investing in research to help drive a better understanding better treatments for asthma and ultimately a cure we’re advocating for things that are important like access to medication. So being able to show someone through this report what it is that we’re doing how we’ve made progress and I think probably the most important thing is telling that story and helping them see the real people. It’s not just a template document that has a
Jeffrey Beach: a message from the CEO and the board chair and a financial statement and a quick eyegraph to show how the money was spent like that kind of thing. that’s part of it. But to me, what most donors would be looking for is why should I support this organization? who’s gonna be better off because of this? How’s it going to help me or my family or the person that I love that is suffering from whatever disease it is that the organizations representing or whatever social issue. They’re trying to solve it all comes back to impact for me.
Patrick Villemaire: And when it comes to the final of taking a prospective donor and converting them into supporter. How does the annual report come into play because that traditionally through the end reports. You don’t necessarily see donate, buttons all over the place right because it’s more about showing the impact which is
Jeffrey Beach: Yeah.
Patrick Villemaire: maybe not as active of a document as maybe it could be but how do you use leverage it to kind of, do that persuasion.
Jeffrey Beach: there’s a couple of different ways. I would say one is when you’re dealing with a existing or previous donors. it’s a way to hopefully engage them and Inspire them to continue to give more to the organization. It could be also part of the formal having a meeting with a donor stewardship meeting or if you’re actually actively soliciting them having it as part of that lead behind I think is really important so that they can See the accountability of the organization they can clearly see what it is that they’re supporting and why it’s important that they invest in that work from a perspective of new donors. I think. The shift to everything being online is really important in that respect. So if you go back years ago before we were
Jeffrey Beach: before we had everything online the new donor unless they were someone that was tagged for some reason as having a close affiliation or linkage to the cause probably wouldn’t see any annual report. we wouldn’t be sending out annual reports, in huge numbers. We’d be using Direct Mail appeals to try to bring in new donors that sort of thing and whereas I think now even for traditional Direct Mail donors, a lot of them are online they are going to the website they will see the annual report and so it will have an impact on them regardless of where they are but I think it’s just one of the tools that we have and our toolbox to be able to engage donors work regardless of where they are in that process to tell those stories to demonstrate the impact of the organization and to help them understand what it is that we’re trying to do why it’s important that they be involved.
Patrick Villemaire: I have one more question for you. And that is in terms of going for kind of grants and these kind of more traditionally government-funded, kind of like, bags of money that you can get for your organization. What do they care about when it comes to report is are they strictly looking at the financials do they care about the impact as much or does it really just depend on what the grant is?
Jeffrey Beach: I think it does depend but I would say there if they’re just caring about financials. They would just ask us for a copy of our audited financial statements, which most Formal funders like a foundation. So on a lot of them do want to have at least a summary of the annual financial statements if not the full statement so that they can get a whole picture of the organization what our financial history might look like. If we have Reserve funds, what our asset position is that sort of thing. The average donor is not going to go into that sort of detail, but those type of granting organizations will and certainly when it comes to if it’s something like Government funding, they’re going to require a much more detail level of reporting than what you would see in So annual report might be used
Jeffrey Beach: really as sort of a marketing tool with funders that are more formal, but I don’t think it’s something that like I said if they’re really just looking to get a financial picture of the organization and if that’s one of the requirements in order to review an application then They’re not going to pay too much attention to the rest of it. But if it’s compelling if it’s something that can tell the story it may help your cause if you will in terms of getting the support you’re looking for.
Patrick Villemaire: Not perfect. Thank you. So I have one final tradition that we’ve been doing as part of this video series. So what I’ve been doing is I’ve been here queuing up chat GPT with a few prompts and to generate, a question for you. And so the question I have is in terms of analytics when you’re looking at engaging, people through email or through your different software. How are you tracking, who’s accessing it what they care about and if not then how can you deliver leverage analytics better to provide more insights for your organization?
Jeffrey Beach: So for us, we’re really looking at Google analytics and reports along those lines because we want to see what people are coming to what they’re searching for how they’re ending up with us. It’s important for us to understand that so that we can position ourselves in the market. It’s just dealing with a disease like asthma which is so prevalent. They’re over four million Canadians that have been diagnosed with asthma there are probably
Jeffrey Beach: Lot more than that that have asthma that aren’t formally diagnosed with it. So people come to us through, a variety of meats. So we want to have a statistics that help us understand what that looks like the data in terms of how they’re coming to us what pages they’re visiting what sort of actions they might be taking once they get to us if they’re following us on social media. What sort of interactions are we having with them? What resonates what doesn’t those are some of the immediate things that come to mind that are important to me at least in my role.
Patrick Villemaire: And then do you use that to influence the content creation? if these three articles are the most popular will you leverage those within your annual reports when you’re creating the content?
Jeffrey Beach: we would look to. They’re basically what we think resonates with people exactly. And so that the annual report is to me. It’s sort of a balance between what we have to do in it it’s almost like this require a table Stakes required document that has certain pieces of it to show accountability that we have to show as a nonprofit charitable organization, but it’s also if we know that people are really paying attention to Are asthma action plan for example, which is one of the reasons why people come to our website then we might mention that in the reporter have an image that shows what that looks like, that type of thing because we know that that’s something that resonates with people.
Patrick Villemaire: amazing just thank you so much for your time today. Really appreciate it. And look forward to following you and seeing what’s going on. Right. Thank you.
Jeffrey Beach: Great. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.