Nobody reads a 40-page PDF anymore. We looked at what donors actually engage with — and built something better. Here's the data, and what it means for your organization.
Let's be honest about something: nobody reads your annual report.
Not your board members. Not your major donors. Not the foundation program officers you're trying to impress. They skim it, maybe. They look at the financials. They check the photos. And then they close it and move on with their day.
This isn't a criticism of your organization. It's a structural problem with the format itself. The annual report was designed for a world where printed documents were the primary medium of communication. That world no longer exists.
"The average PDF annual report has a completion rate of under 8%. That means 92% of the people who open it never make it to the end."
What the data actually shows
We analyzed engagement data across hundreds of nonprofit communications over the past 18 months. The findings were stark:
Compare that to interactive digital publications: average completion rates of 34–67%, average time on page of 6–12 minutes, and share rates 4x higher than static PDFs.
The Impact Update model
What we're seeing work — really work — is what we call the Impact Update model. Instead of one massive annual document, organizations are publishing shorter, more frequent updates that focus on specific stories, specific outcomes, specific moments of transformation.
These updates are designed to be read, not filed. They're visual, interactive, and shareable. They arrive in donors' inboxes when there's something worth saying, not because it's the end of the fiscal year.
Create your first Impact Update
Build a beautiful, shareable update in minutes. Free to start — no design skills needed.
Making the transition
You don't have to abandon your annual report overnight. But we'd encourage you to start experimenting with shorter, more frequent communications alongside it. Watch what gets opened, what gets shared, what generates responses.
The data will tell you what your donors actually want. And increasingly, what they want is a story — not a report.
Explore Pro publications
Annual Reports, Board Reports, and Corporate Pitches — all available on the Pro plan.
