Annual Reports

The Smith Family

The Brief

Proving their effectiveness

We have been collaborating with The Smith Family on their award winning Annual Reports since 2014. It is vital that The Smith Family’s Reports clearly communicate where the charity’s funding comes from, how effectively it is applied, and the tangible results achieved for disadvantaged young Australians. Each year the brief has been expanded, with Wills now designing and producing the printed not-for-profit annual report as well as an interactive suite of materials including the digital AGM presentation and animated videos for sharing on social media.

The Challenge

Growth and Innovation

Each year, the Annual Report profiles The Smith Family’s programs and provides evidence of each program’s success. Alongside the written review of operations, student case studies and a significant amount of program data needs to be displayed throughout. In 2017-18, as with previous reports, the challenge was to tell their annual story in an informative and engaging way. We always approach their annual reports with a longer term theme in mind, however, the 2017-18 Report would set a new standard, structuring future reports around the new Five-Year Strategy, ‘Grow and Innovate’.

The Solution

Refreshing strategy

Wills was responsible for creating the branding for The Smith Family’s Five Year Strategy ‘Grow and Innovate’ and we applied this as a visual framework to refresh the palette of the Annual Report. It was also used to connect the Report with an accompanying case study booklet which we branded the ‘Personal Impact Report’. This is a powerful and useful information piece which can be used separately or as a companion piece to the Report. The individual graphics have also been used extensively by The Smith Family to communicate their value to a variety of stakeholders. In 2020, the charity’s Annual Report again won silver at the Australasian Reporting Awards.