Whether you are a large corporation, a small nonprofit, or somewhere in between, impact or sustainability reports play a key role in understanding the progress your organization makes year over year, highlighting stories that stand out, and reporting on financial results and operating impact.
Impact reports serve as regulatory documents, sources for marketing materials, and help build a brand’s story by outlining how they reach their communities. They deliver a consolidated, transparent channel for communication to attract investors, donors, employees, volunteers and customers, providing a holistic view of a company without requiring investigators to search through months of press releases and “About” pages to find what they are looking for.
Creating an impact report can be daunting for companies and nonprofits alike. However, with an understanding of their purpose, what’s included, and common frameworks used, creating an impact report is achievable for any organization.
Corporate Reports vs. Nonprofit Reports
I’ve worked on and read through my share of corporate and nonprofit reports, and they can vary somewhat significantly in content and purpose.
For nonprofits, an impact report’s main purpose is to give a holistic view of the organization’s achievements, operations, success stories, and ultimately, how they manage their resources to make an impact to strengthen their mission. An impact report for nonprofits has the power to outline its programs while illustrating their effectiveness, foster support through donors and volunteers, and provide a channel to show transparency.
Meanwhile, corporate impact reports is a channel for mandatory reporting at its worst, and an in-depth look at a company’s goals, longevity, community and environmental impact, and company culture at its best. For-profit companies are driven by the long-term profitability for their shareholders, and financial statements hold a heavy weight in their reporting in general.
Many organizations take reporting–even mandatory reporting–as an opportunity to truly showcase their impact, and to display their successes as well as their shortcomings. To communicate the facets of their organizations effectively, companies often break their report into three sections: Environmental, Social, and Governance–or some version of this. This helps direct reporting objectives into key areas to report on the environmental impact of their operations, their people and culture and how they impact communities, and the ethics of how their business is operated.
Where to Start
Of the reports I’ve read, there are commonalities I see in them that can help you know if you’re on the right track. There is no wrong answer in how you structure your report as long as you are transparent, honest, and earnest in your organization’s mission and goals (and take into account the reader’s perspective).
What to include:
- Your organization’s vision, mission, and core values
- A note from a CEO and/or Chairperson
- Any key highlights and statistics from the year
- Data on your emissions, energy, waste, water, and materials
- Staff and community welbeing
- Ethics and how decisions are made by leadership
- Future goals and how they are to be achieved
- Key programs and stories to illustrate them
- Lots of photos of your real worksites, people, and operations that make and impact
Using Frameworks As Your Guide
Impact report frameworks serve as a checklist for organizations to use to make sure the content relevant to its audience. Depending on the industry and type of business, organizations often decide to use specific frameworks, or a mix. Frameworks help identify and track your goals, communicate your goals, and help readers evaluate an organization’s reporting depth. Some of the most common frameworks used are:
- United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)
- United Nations Compal Compact (UNGC)
- Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)
- Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)
- Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) / International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)
- Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
- EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)
- Environmental. Social, and Governance (ESG)
Tips to Stay Ahead When Report Season Comes Around
Reports can be extremely robust, which can be overwhelming for many organizations. A few tips I’ve learned to make reporting season go more smoothly include:
- Save all company/organization photos from the year in one designated folder or drive. Bonus points if you label your photos and folders appropriately.
- Create a running list of stories whether it’s volunteer initiatives or interesting highlights
- Note all awards and accomplishments as they happen throughout the year.
- Create a reusable outline that you can utilize at the beginning of every reporting season so you aren’t starting from scratch and so readers can compare your progress year over year.
- Have a clear process for signoffs so there is no question of who owns what data, story, or section.
- Keep your years straight. It can take a while to create an impact report, so make sure you keep a clear head of what year you’re creating for.
A Note on Greenwashing
One other note to take into consideration when creating and reading impact reports is to be aware of greenwashing, or overstating your true impact.
When learning about the development of a corporate impact report I was working on, I had a great mentor who was able to weed out my naive and overexcited phrasing of our impact and make the report more neutral so readers could come to their own conclusions based on the data we presented. Keeping a neutral voice when it comes to impact and data helps maintain your credibility with readers, especially when they are reading your report with a critical eye.
Some Reports I Admire:
- Dazzle Africa (I’m biased, I helped do the graphic design on the 2025 report coming out soon!)
- Avnet (I helped create this one too!)
- Discount Tire
- Project Coyote
- onsemi
Impact reports are an amazing resource that truly help tell an organization’s story, and whether you work for a corporation or nonprofit, they benefit the whole by delivering transparency, driving accountability, and encouraging change.
This article was created without the help of AI.