Doing the Most Good, Digitally

The site features four incredibly moving videos of a handful of beneficiaries of Salvation Army support telling their stories of how the organization helped them, demonstrating where donor dollars go.

Hood says the annual report has been well received and, in some cases, transformative. Without revealing the name of the institution, he told of a group of folks in the communications department at a major national university who watched the annual report as a team to determine if it was something they wanted to do at the school. After watching the video on the youth-intervention program at the Salvation Army chapter in Hilo, Hawaii, a member of the team who was a proclaimed atheist told his colleagues that the annual report might make him a believer again.

Hood says it's an impact the organization wasn't expecting, but it shows the power of video to tell the stories of the work organizations are doing.

The annual report also features videos of the Salvation Army's commissioner, Israel L. Gaither, and chairman, Rob Pace, speaking to the vision of the organization. At the end of each video, viewers are given the option to share the video via MySpace, Facebook or YouTube, and videos also feature a button visitors can click to read the contents of the video in story or letter form. The entire annual report also is available as a printable PDF with the click of a button.

Offering choices
Hood said these features were all included to offer flexibility.

"When we started talking about creating the virtual annual report, I had people say to me, 'But, you know, there's always those people who like to have the print copy, hard copy in their hand.'

The instant solution was that it’s downloadable. Visitors can print out any and all of the content.