Annual reports are a great opportunity to give an in-depth account of your achievements from the previous year. Because they are time-consuming to produce, you need to make the most of them.
Unfortunately, most annual reports are published as PDFs, which radically limits their potential impact. PDFs are hard to discover, and they don’t perform well on social media.
They’re also difficult to read on phones, and they’re not accessible to your entire audience.
This is why we’ve put together 10 high-quality free annual report design templates for the web. These reports can all be quickly edited and customised in Shorthand by anyone on your team, with no coding or web design skills needed. You won’t need Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Powerpoint to make your report; and your audience won’t need a printer to read it.
We’ve also included a quick guide on key elements to your annual report layout — but use the table of contents, below, to skip down to our ten templates.
Table of contents
9 elements of an annual report
10 annual report templates:
Non-profit annual report template
Climate non-profit annual report template
An IGO annual report template
Local arts org annual report template
Higher education annual report template
Small business annual report template
A tech company annual report template
Financial institution annual report template
A project annual report template
A listicle report template
9 elements of an annual report
1. Visual brand identity
First and foremost, you need to make sure your modern annual report looks like it comes from your organisation. Work with your graphic designer to ensure consistent use of logos, brand colours, fonts, and other design elements. With tools like Shorthand, you can set a theme to automate this across all your brand’s content, including your annual report.
2. Introduction from the CEO
In the past, your annual report cover page would be the first thing — but we’re living in a digital age, and you don’t need to be constrained by print techniques anymore. Most annual reports start with an opening message from the CEO to set the tone for the report. It's an opportunity to share the company's vision and highlight key achievements from the past year.
3. Financial reports
These often come towards the end of the annual report, but they need to be considered early on in the piece. Clearly present your organisation's financial information, including balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements. This transparency is crucial for building trust with stakeholders.
4. Data visualisations and infographics
Most organisations produce some data on their impact. You’ll want to pull out key metrics and present them using interactive pie charts, graphs, and infographics. These will help tell a story and engage readers with your report. Check out our list of data storytelling examples.
5. Company profile and FAQs
Use this section to provide an overview of your organisation's mission, values, and goals. This section helps readers understand what your company stands for and its purpose.
6. Milestones
This is where narrative becomes most important. Celebrate your organisation's successes by highlighting key milestones from the past year. Showcase project completions, awards, or significant growth to demonstrate progress.
7. Summary of the past year
If not already covered, make sure you offer a comprehensive review of last year's activities, challenges, and accomplishments. This section should provide a clear picture of the company's performance and direction.
8. Fundraising update
This is where you can share fundraising progress and goals for the upcoming year. This section is especially important for non-profits and can help inspire confidence in your organisation's financial stability.
9. Testimonials and case studies
Include testimonials from clients, partners, or employees to showcase the impact of your organisation's work. Case studies can also provide real-world examples of your company's successes.
10 annual report templates
This annual report template is for non-profit organisations and charitable foundations that want to speak more effectively to shareholders, donors, and partners.
It's designed to share a lot of information, easily, with plenty of space for impactful images. We've used a simple, two-colour palette to reflect your brand without becoming a distraction. You can draw out key statistics in dedicated banner slots.
Like all our annual report templates, this template includes detailed tables for you to show financial statements and performance data. And it's rounded off with a farewell paragraph, call to action, and a button to access more information.
With a potential link to the full PDF at the end, you could always treat this template as more of an annual report brochure.
Perfect for telling a powerful story! This template helps climate non-profits, foundations, and other mission-driven companies to reach donors, shareholders, and supporters.
Get readers' attention with plenty of slots for big, eye-catching images. Sum up the situation with short blocks of text, then draw out key quotes and statistics with attention-grabbing text sections that fill the screen.
This simple annual report template opens with space for a mission statement or personal message, and ends with a call to action and link button — so you can convert inspiration into action.
Made for inter-governmental organisations and other major institutions, this template helps you share detailed information in a way that's exciting to read.
We've included long text columns where you can report on your impact and argue your business case — interspersed with powerful images to get readers' attention. You can use colour image filters, like we have here, to assert your branding across the report. And our gallery of links means that you can highlight key achievements and publications from the year.
The template ends with a financial summary, a call to action, and a link button for readers who want even more detail!
Ideal for showcasing your expertise and impact on the ground.
Showcase artwork, creativity, and community in this template!
Bring annual reports for arts organisations to life with bright colours, immersive photographs, and animated illustrations. We've used a vivid, eye-catching colour scheme to represent your brand. Slots for images and quotes mean that your annual report can represent a wide range of voices. And like all our templates, there's space for the official facts and figures, too.
This template is perfect for demonstrating your impact in a way that's accessible to donors, funding sources, partners, and community members alike.
Make an impression on donors, investors, alumnae, and research partners with this professional annual report template for universities and higher education institutions.
From the inspiring banner photos to the opening mission statement, this template is designed to show your institution at its best. You can highlight key facts and statistics to capture readers' attention, then fill in the detail.
Like all our annual report templates, we've included space for a financial summary and a link for readers to download more information.
This minimalist annual report template for business has everything you need to share essential information and speak directly to shareholders.
We've used a two-column design throughout the corporate annual report, so that dense information is always made compelling by a matching image. Starting with a personal message from the founder or CEO, you'll find spaces to share key statistics and illuminating images. You can showcase your key achievements, impact, and investment in easy-to-read tables.
The report ends with a call to action and link button to see more data or visit your website. Perfect for making a strong business case and showing your success to the world.
Got a business that will change the world? Use this annual report template to demonstrate your impact, highlight key figures, and speak directly to investors, shareholders, and partners!
Our template uses pull quotes, images, key statistics, and data tables to bring out the best in your report. Make data come alive with our scrollytelling feature, that shows new animations and information appear in an image as readers scroll through.
Perfect for presenting reports, brochures, or up-to-date analysis.
Show the best of your business with this mostly black-and-white financial annual report template that's specially designed for banks and financial institutions.
Get readers' attention with a GIF or video background that shows your brand is on the move. Then — after a brief message from the CEO — get deep into the data with clear, readable tables. The report ends with a call to action and a link for users to view full financial reports or visit your website.
Perfect for any report with lots of numerical data to share and explain.
Reporting on a big campaign, project, or research? Here's the perfect template to showcase your work.
We've put images front and centre, and brought them to life with Shorthand's scrollytelling feature. As readers journey through the world you've created, they'll see animations and photo elements move around with them.
There's plenty of space for text, laid over images so that you can share information without losing sight of the big picture. And we've included month-by-month sections to show key statistics, images, and achievements over the course of your project. At the end of the report, you can share multiple links to previous reports — or further reading!
If you’re looking to summarise your year-end achievements, you might want to try formats other than the traditional annual report. Here's the perfect template for listicles, comparisons, or presenting detailed information in a way that's fun, readable, and fresh!
We've used bold illustrations and a bright colour scheme to break up sections and hold readers' attention right to the end of the scroll. Quick facts, key statistics, and smaller images break up the text. We've even added some data tables so that you can show essential info or compare different features, products, or studies.
The report finishes with a call to action and a link for readers to discover even more.
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