We had a great discussion with a group of 18 directors to talk about their annual report-building process - or lack thereof! A few directors shared samples of their report that we walked through, which you can find here. From that discussion, here is a proposed skeleton that you can use for your own report as appropriate.
The following is written assuming that this report will be shared with your supervisor or campus leadership to communicate the impact that you are having. It is positioned as an annual report but could be used for a semesterly cadence as well.
Report Outline
Summary
What do you really want the reader to know about your center? This may be the only part they read, so choose your bullets wisely! Consider:
- 1-2 sentence summary of what your center does, who it serves, and what its goals are.
- Total metrics - students served visits, etc.
- Successes and highlights: grew traffic by X, grew engagement in the following important classes by Y, grew tutor count by Z, etc.
- Challenges that you experienced or are working through.
- Goals for the upcoming 12 months
Mission, Goals, Values
Not an essential part of the report, but if you haven’t defined these items for your center, consider doing so with your team this year. Stacey from Rutgers discusses this in her recent interview with Penji.
Programs and Services
Help the reader understand what you offer. Keep it as simple as possible. This can be reused with some tweaks in future years’ reports.
Organizational structure
If you are a larger center, you might want the reader to understand what your team looks like.
Data and Assessment
The meat and potatoes. Data should be used to answer questions that the reader has. Getting this data isn’t always easy - check out our five excel tips and tricks for help on pulling some of the data below. Charts / data to consider:
- Overall usage
Unique students, total visits, throughout the year. - Growth rates
- Is usage growing or shrinking? Year-over-year or semester-over-semester comparison?
- Specific student segments
Are SPECIFIC students using this service, i.e. ones that are at higher risk of dropping out? Break down usage by demographics, year in school, - Departments and Courses
Considering highlighting high DFW courses, course type (e.g. BIOL), and department - Online vs. in person?
- Popular days of week and times of day
- Qualitative or quantitative student feedback?
- Persistence rate of users of your service vs. non-users? This isn’t black and white proof that your services help with retention, but it is compelling nonetheless.
Student Employees
Your tutors are a big part of your story. The investment in your program is going right into students’ hands. This job makes these top students even more successful, strengthening their chances to have successful careers that reflect well on your college over time (in the form of alumni donations, as well). Consider:
- Number of tutors (this year vs. last, if that looks good)
- Highly engaged tutors , e.g. a table with your top five tutors, their hours tutored, and a few items like their major, year in school, and a note on their career plans to add a human element
Goals for the next 12 months
This is great for internal and external purposes. Internally, the process of setting goals, reviewing them, and taking learning on how to execute better in the future is a cornerstone of effective organizations. We do this quarterly at Penji. Externally, leadership will have more confidence in your unit if the unit they are reviewing is taking the initiative to set their own thoughtful goals. Consider:
- Current challenges and how you’ll solve them
- Successes that you’d like to double down on
- Other things you’re excited about working on
Conclusion
Building this report will be hard the first time around, but don’t be discouraged. Start small, just get something published that you can share. Once you’ve done it once, you can duplicate the draft and follow the same process next year. The charts you pull will get easier and easier. One tip for future years: once you’ve figured out how to run a tough report, record a screen share of that process using something like Loom or Vimeo Record and save the recording for next time around. What you prepare might not feel impressive to your own critical eye, but leadership will appreciate it, I assure you, and you’ll get better over time. Good luck!
