Donations and support increased after a nonprofit published an annual magazine

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Why would a publish an annual report that doesn’t look or feel like one?

Host Mackenzie Walters talks with Kate Hayden, who she knows from her journalism days, on an annual magazine that EMBARC published in November 2022.

The magazine carried a big announcement: EMBARC was splitting into two organizations. One focuses on serving all immigrants, while one continues to focus on the Burmese community.

A former business reporter, Kate is the marketing manager at RIVA, a new name for the nonprofit previously known as EMBARC, as the name EMBARC is being transferred to the new nonprofit.

On the podcast, we talk about the following, a few highlights from the conversation is shared below:

• Why they launched an annual magazine instead of an annual report

• How they planned the editorial calendar and empowered staff to write stories

• How donations increased after the magazine was sent, and other reactions

• Why they also sent it to nonprofit grantmakers

• Why it was necessary to not just share their story, but to celebrate the stories they shared

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I wanted to ask specifically about your annual report. This was relatively new for EMBARC. Can you talk a little bit about why you launched a print magazine? 

We were a couple of years out of the pandemic. In 2020, when COVID-19 hit, a lot of the programs and goals had to be adjusted or paused as we did crisis response. Then we had a year of settling into what the new normal is. 

As an organization, we had a clear idea of how we would continue expanding our mission beyond just one particular cultural community, the Burmese community. We wanted to reach many immigrants, and we wanted to build on the success of our health equity campaign, which launched during the pandemic.

When we thought about it, an end-of-year magazine was a tangible experience that we could share with our supporters, our donors, our funders, and our volunteers. We could share vivid photography, what life was like in our programs, and first-hand stories of our staff and community navigators.

We also used it to launch our new name, RIVA, and introduce people to what the next chapter will look like for us.

Why a magazine? 

It really plays to the strengths of our staff. We had some print experience — and writing experience — and we had a small but mighty team of people who really wanted to see this through and launch 2023 in a new way.

One of the big things this accomplished was announcing the organization’s transition to two organizations, and the future of EMBARC and RIVA. There are so many ways that you could have announced that. 

This is not an annual report. It looks like a magazine, there are big photos, the text is very readable, and the stories are reported. It really does feel like you can sit on your couch on a Saturday afternoon and read through this and really experience it like a magazine. 

That’s exactly the experience we want folks to have, to sit back and enjoy it. I’m a writer by trade. That’s always where I feel strongest in. I think one of the motivations behind it — a guiding principle for RIVA — is the acknowledgment and of immigrant and refugee individuals and communities.

They have their own voice. We don’t have to hand them a voice. One of the things we do is we give them tools to spread their story a little bit farther. But I’m really cognizant that we don’t want to frame ourselves as being a voice for the voiceless, because that’s not completely true, right?

No one can advocate better for communities than their own neighbors. No one can serve these communities better than the folks who integrally identify themselves as part of that community.

I think by going with a magazine format and relying on direct stories told by staff and community members — with direct quotes and reporting, and keeping the message framed appropriately — we could share directly what they had to say.

Let’s talk about results a little bit. What was the reaction? Did you see increases or changes in finances or donations?

We saw an increase in donations from the year before. I could also tell when the mail was delivered with the magazine because we suddenly received all of these emails from our supporters and donors.

We sent them out to grant funders to show how their funding was used and to keep them engaged and in a relationship with us. It’s important that our grant funders know and can see on a consistent basis the work we’re able to accomplish with their support. 

It was just really, really exciting to see how engaged people were when they opened up this magazine. The response from folks was even better than I had hoped.

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