Does Your High School Booster Club Publish and Distribute An Annual Report Each Year?

Does your high school booster club publish and distribute an Annual Report each year? If not, you should, because a good annual report will help you to be accountable and transparent to your volunteers, donors and sponsors. It will help to communicate to them and others how gifts are and have been put to good use. It will serve to acknowledge your volunteers, donors and sponsors and inspire theirs and others' continued generosity and support. It can also help to make the case for new, renewed and increased support in the coming year.
Some of the basic things that can and should be included in your annual report are:

• An attractive cover page, which includes the title of the report and time period that it covers, your group, team or booster club logo, name and slogan or tag line (if you have one), your booster club mailing address, phone number and web address;

• Your mission statement;

• A table of contents;

• Letters from the Board President and your Head Coach or Program Director highlighting the past year's aspirations and accomplishments and thanking volunteers, contributors and sponsors for their support;

• A financial section that provides a precise but concise accounting of your booster groups' financial affairs over the past year. List income by revenue sources (e.g., membership contributions, advertising sponsorships, etc.) and expenses by major categories (e.g., membership and advertising appeal expenses, grants and to whom given and for what). Include comparison figures, where applicable, from the previous year. You do not need to provide a detailed list of all transactions, but instead, a year-long total summary of money that has moved into and out of the account. This section assures current and potential supporters are informed about your revenues, that your expenditures are in line and appropriate, and that your organization is worthy of new or renewed support. In order to make the financial section less confusing for readers, utilize charts and summaries. Showing that your organization is financially responsible and viable will lead to future funding from current and potential supporters. This section is the most important section of the annual report and should be accurate and easy to understand. You want the financial affairs of your booster organization to be transparent and to show how responsible the organization is with funds that are being provided;

• A list of your past year's volunteers, including board officers, board members and others who served on your key committees or assisted with various activities;

• A list of all booster club members or anybody that contributed anything of value financially during the past year. This list should include individuals, businesses and others who made a financial contribution to your cause. List each person or group name alphabetically within their respective giving levels or categories;

• A list of business advertisers and sponsors listed alphabetically;

• You may also wish to list your members or donors by constituency, such as coaches, youth coaches and parents, current coaches, parents listed by class, alumni listed by graduation year, alumni parents, businesses and organizations, and friends;

• A summary section that thanks people again for their support, which has enabled you to achieve all that you have, and an expression of hope for their renewed and improved support in the future, which will help you to improve even further.

Other things to include in your annual report are:

• A listing of the organization's board of directors.

• Testimonials from those who helped and were helped.

• Photos of your program and organization in action, including pictures from performances or games, youth and alumni activities, your Hall of Fame event, etc. Make sure you place captions underneath pictures, so that everyone reading the report will understand the significance of the image.

Here are some final, additional tips for your annual report:

• Look at annual reports from other non-profit groups to get ideas for content and layout.

• Always be open and honest and never falsify or state misleading information in your annual report.

• Double check the report for grammar and/or misspelled words.

• Triple check for errors or omissions in your list(s) of supporters.

• Include a disclaimer at the bottom of the pages wherever you list names that states that you have prepared this/these lists with great care but that sometimes unintended errors or omissions occur. In this same statement, ask people to bring any errors or omissions to your attention and to please accept your sincere apologies and thanks for people's continued support.

• Try to time the report so that people receive it prior to renewal of membership contributions and advertising support each year.

A good Annual Report is an essential and valuable accountability, acknowledgement and motivational tool for continued and increased support in the coming year(s)!

Michael A. Walsh, President and Founder of Better Booster Clubs, is devoted to helping high school booster organizations achieve their potential. Better Booster Clubs provides informational products and a membership based database for booster's groups that will help them to raise more funds and improve the programs they support substantially.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Andrew_Walsh