If your org has a foundation and a school or a national office and chapters, you already know this headache.
Report separately and donors can't tell how the pieces fit. Report together and each program's real work gets flattened into a summary line.
Making Waves Education Foundation lives right in the middle of that.
One Mission Spanning Two Organizations
Making Waves is a Bay Area nonprofit closing opportunity gaps through academic coaching, financial literacy, and career support, from middle school all the way through college. Making Waves Academy, its charter school, prepares students for higher education and what comes after.
The plan was separate annual reports for each. Each one had to reflect its own programs while still clearly belonging to the same mission and identity.
The essentials were already in place: strong mission, powerful stories, meaningful results. The challenge was shaping all of it into a system donors and families could connect to immediately.
And the work sat with a small internal team, led by a VP of Marketing and Storytelling responsible for communications across BOTH organizations. Multi-report publications of that scale, on top of campaigns, events, and student-facing comms, is not a capacity question anyone wins.
They needed a partner who could absorb the complexity fast and move without adding friction.
Four Reports Over Two Years
We designed four consecutive annual reports, sharpening the storytelling and the visuals each round.
- Story-forward reports that elevate student voices and make each organization's role in long-term success clear
- Impact data visualization so donors can read outcomes across programs without a decoder ring
- Student-centered layouts that keep lived experience at the center instead of in a sidebar
- A mission-aligned visual identity shared across the Foundation and the Academy
- Print and digital flexibility, because both still matter
- Social and email assets to extend the report past launch week
- A repurposed donor one-pager for fundraising conversations
The multi-year part matters more than it sounds. Year one you build the system. Year two you get to improve it instead of rebuilding it.
Get The Annual Report Checkpoint
Donor Thank You Postcards Templates
Enter your info and we’ll send the postcards straight to your inbox:
What the VP of Marketing and Storytelling Said
"I've had the opportunity to work with Olivia on a variety of design projects - from murals to impact reports to digital ads with lots in between. Olivia takes the time to really understand our nonprofit organization's mission as well as the goal, audience, and style for each project. In addition to being a very talented, thoughtful, and creative designer, she has strong organization and communication skills. I have really enjoyed collaborating with Olivia over the years and would highly recommend working with her if you have the opportunity!"
- Bonnie S., VP of Marketing and Storytelling, Making Waves Education Foundation
A Platform Instead of a Deliverable
Annual reporting became a consistent storytelling platform rather than a thing that happens to the team every fall.
Donors see clearer outcomes. Students and families see themselves on the page. Internal teams have materials they're proud to send.
And the two organizations now share a visual language that connects them while still honoring their distinct roles. A supporter can hold both reports and understand the relationship without anyone explaining it.
If your org spans multiple entities, that's the standard to aim for: different reports, one unmistakable family resemblance.
Reporting Across More Than One Entity?
Two reports that feel like one mission takes a system, not twice the work.
If that's your situation, book a call and let's map it.
See the full project in our portfolio: Making Waves Education Foundation.
