This small UK-based charity provides interactive theatre and community support for children and young people with profound and multiple learning difficulties, brain injuries, and sensory impairments. Their programmes aim to build confidence, independence, and connection for young people often excluded from typical learning and social environments.
Redacted and anonymised for confidentiality.
The charity approached me to redesign their annual impact report for the year ending April 2024.
The original layout was dense and text-heavy, making it difficult for readers, especially prospective funders, donors, and partners, to engage with the content effectively. The report also didn't reflect the organisation's vibrant, inclusive brand or values.
The charity is primarily volunteer-run with limited tech resources. They needed a report that not only looked professional and accessible, but could also be edited internally after the end of my volunteering period.
In total, I dedicated 12 hours to this project over a two week period.
Redesign the full report in a format that aligns with the charity's visual identity and tone of voice while making the content easier to navigate and absorb. The redesign needed to serve both as a communication tool for external stakeholders and a practical, maintainable asset for the internal team.
Toolkit:
To ensure accessibility and sustainability, I rebuilt the entire impact report using Microsoft Word, a tool that was familiar to the charity team. I followed their provided brand guidelines to integrate their colour palette, fonts, and tone of voice into a new, more engaging layout.
Over a two-week period, I worked closely with the pro bono CEO, incorporating ongoing feedback and discussing layout decisions, content hierarchy, and the use of imagery and callouts. I focused on improving readability through consistent visual structure, simplified page layouts, and strong typographic contrast.
Key design decisions included:
The redesigned report was received with enthusiasm. The CEO praised the result as a "brilliant layout" and noted that it would significantly help with communicating the charity's work, building trust, and improving accountability with funders, donors, and beneficiaries.
You gave such good advice and your patience and skills were very much appreciated… The report will help us demonstrate our effectiveness and build trust with our supporters.
The final draft is now pending board approval and is expected to be published shortly.