Digital Annual Reports Lure Readers—and May Save Some Cash

The Salvation Army discovered that nobody opened about half the printed annual reports it sent every year. So it decided to scrap the hard-copy version, moving to an all-digital one in 2009.

Because the digital content can be used in so many ways, it makes some of the high initial costs more cost effective.

More and more charities are doing what the Salvation Army has done, creating all-digital editions of their yearly reports. The new versions make liberal use of audio, animation, and video (watchable even on smartphones), rather than long, text-heavy articles.