Case study · Design

Purpose in Action

An 8-page Impact Report that turns more than a decade of charitable grant data into a story donors, advisors and charities can read in minutes. It started as copy in a Word document and became the final report in five stages. Delivered in English and French.

Role
Graphic designer: layout, data visualization and production MISSING: Austin to confirm exact role and credits (who wrote copy, who supplied data and photography).
Tools
Adobe InDesign. MISSING: confirm other tools (Illustrator, Photoshop, Excel for charts)
Client
Wealth management foundation (Raymond James Canada Foundation)
Year
2026
Printed spreads of the Purpose in Action impact report fanned out over a deep blue background.
The report as a printed booklet: message from the chair, growth data and regional reach.

The brief

Raymond James Canada Foundation’s Charitable Giving Fund had been granting since 2012 but had never published an impact report. This was the first: a single publication that recognises donors, advisors and charities, and shows where the money goes.

The challenge

The source material was dense: annual grant totals across 14 years, charity categories, regional distribution and a multi-year growth story, plus regulatory context. It had to read as warm and human rather than as a spreadsheet, and work in print and as a PDF.

The process

  1. Shape the story from the copyStarted from two drafts of the Executive Summary and Letter from the Chair, five pages each, to decide the themes, the sections and the numbers worth showing.
  2. Lay it out twiceDesigned a first 8-page version and then an 11-page second version with photographic covers, both titled A Legacy of Giving.
  3. Build the system in InDesignSet up one grid, a restrained navy-and-sky palette and a single type family so every chart, table and callout feels related, with custom node diagrams, an annotated growth chart and ranked category cards.
  4. Finish and presentRenamed the final report Purpose in Action, prepared a print-spread PDF with crop marks and showed it as a printed booklet.

From Word copy to final design

The journey in five stages, from the first copy drafts to the finished booklet.

  1. Stage 1

    The copy

    Two Word drafts of the Executive Summary and Letter from the Chair, five pages each. This is where the themes, the growth story and the sections were worked out, before any layout.

    Draft 1 of the copy: a Word page with key themes, outlook and a long-term growth timeline.
    Draft 1: key themes and outlook
    Draft 1 of the copy: a Word page with a pie chart of grants by cause.
    Draft 1: grants by cause
    Draft 2 of the copy: a Word page with the long-term growth chart on a dark background.
    Draft 2: long-term growth chart
    Draft 2 of the copy: a Word page with a map of Canada and a key trends panel.
    Draft 2: map and key trends

  2. Stage 2

    Version 1: A Legacy of Giving

    The first designed layout, 8 pages, with the growth chart, scale-and-reach and cause-area pages in place.

    Version 1, page 1: A Legacy of Giving title with the first line of the report.
    Opening page
    Version 1, page 3: Grantmaking Overview with a scale-and-reach diagram.
    Grantmaking overview
    Version 1, page 4: Grantmaking in Focus with category tables.
    Grantmaking in focus
    Version 1, page 5: Allocation by Cause Area with a regional map.
    Allocation by cause area

  3. Stage 3

    Version 2: photo covers

    The second layout, 11 pages, adding photographic covers while keeping the title A Legacy of Giving.

    Version 2 cover with a snow-capped mountain range and evergreen forest.
    Cover with a mountain photograph
    Version 2 cover with a coastal lake and a winding road.
    Cover with a lake photograph
    Version 2 cover with a hiker on a boardwalk trail in autumn light.
    Cover with a trail photograph
    Version 2 interior page, Giving in Action: Grants Through the Years, with a growth chart.
    Growth chart page

  4. Stage 4

    The InDesign working file

    The Growing Impact page open in InDesign, with grid guides, text frames and the eight-page panel.

    Adobe InDesign window showing the Growing Impact page of the report: grid guides, the data diagram, text frames and the page panel with eight pages.
    InDesign working file, with grid and guides visible

  5. Stage 5

    Final: Purpose in Action

    The final 8-page report, retitled Purpose in Action, with the message from the chair, the growth story and the data pages.

    Final report, page 2: Message from the Chair.
    Message from the Chair
    Final report, page 3: Giving in Action, Grants Through the Years, with a growth chart and milestones.
    Grants through the years
    Final report, page 4: Growing Impact, a grants overview with a scale and reach diagram.
    Growing impact
    Final report, page 5: Understanding Impact, with grants in focus and top categories by charity type.
    Understanding impact

In the real world

The final report as a printed booklet: closed cover beside an open spread of the growth chart and charity data, on a light grey background.
Printed booklet and open spread mockup

The result

Delivered a complete Impact Report in English and French, including print-ready spreads.

8pages in the final report
5stages from Word copy to final design
1stimpact report for the program
$62.5Min grants since 2012 (as published in the report)
$15.2Mgranted in 2025 (as published in the report)

MISSING: Cover reads “Impact Report 2025” while the working file is named 2026: confirm the correct year for the title.

MISSING: Optional: a short video or PDF flip-through of the final report.

MISSING: Austin: the brief, challenge and process on this page are drafted from the work and your resume. Please correct or add detail.

More work

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