What Design Software Should I Use for My Not-for-Profit Annual Report?

What Design Software Should I Use for My Not-for-Profit Annual Report?

Not sure which design software to use for your charity’s annual report? We compare Canva, Adobe Express, Adobe InDesign, and Affinity to help Australian NFPs make the right choice.

You’ve gathered your impact data, drafted your CEO message, and finally wrangled your financials into something readable. Now comes the part that trips up a lot of Australian not-for-profits: making it look good.

Choosing the right design software for your annual report isn’t just a technical decision – it affects how long the whole process takes, how professional the final product looks, and whether your team can realistically produce it in-house. With so many options available, it’s worth understanding what each tool actually offers before you commit.

This guide walks through what to look for when choosing design software, then compares four of the most common options used by Australian charities and Not-for-Profits.

What to Look for in Annual Report Design Software

Before comparing tools, it helps to know what you’re actually evaluating. Here are the key factors for an Not for Profit annual report specifically:

Ease of use If your team doesn’t include a trained designer, you need software that doesn’t require one. Look for drag-and-drop interfaces, intuitive templates, and accessible help-guides.

Templates Starting from a blank page is rarely the best use of time. Good annual report templates give you a professional structure to work from – ideally with multi-page layouts, financial summary sections, and space for images and impact stats. Generic social media templates won’t cut it here.

Brand consistency Your annual report should look like it came from your organisation, not a template factory. Look for software that lets you lock in your brand colours, fonts, and logos so everything stays consistent across the whole document.

Multi-page document handling Annual reports are long. Some tools that work beautifully for one-page graphics fall apart on a 20-page document. Check how the software handles page numbers, master pages, and large file exports.

Output quality For print and professional PDF export, you need clean, high-resolution output. Not all tools handle this equally- especially when it comes to fonts, image quality, and colour accuracy.

Collaboration If multiple people need to review, comment on, or edit the report, web-based tools with real-time collaboration save significant back-and-forth.

Cost For many Australian Not for Profits  working with tight budgets, this is a real constraint. Some tools offer free or heavily discounted NFP plans – worth checking before you pay.

The Four Main Options Compared

Canva

Canva is by far the most widely used design tool in the Australian NFP sector, and for good reason. It’s browser-based, intuitive, and has an enormous template library. Eligible Australian charities can apply for the Canva for Nonprofits plan, which gives access to Canva Pro features for free.

For annual reports, Canva works well for organisations without a dedicated designer who need a polished result without a steep learning curve. The main limitation is that multi-page documents can feel unwieldy, and templates are so widely used that reports can start to look generic without significant customisation.

Adobe Express

Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark) sits in a similar space to Canva – a browser-based tool aimed at non-professional designers – but with tighter integration into the Adobe ecosystem. If your organisation uses Adobe tools elsewhere, Express connects seamlessly with Adobe Fonts and Adobe Stock. It also has a NFP pricing tier.

It’s generally considered slightly less beginner-friendly than Canva, but produces a cleaner, more minimal aesthetic out of the box. Like Canva, it’s better suited to shorter documents than complex multi-page layouts.

Adobe InDesign

InDesign is the industry standard for professional publishing and document design – the tool used by graphic designers, publishers, and communications agencies worldwide. For organisations producing a high-quality annual report intended for donors, government funders, or wide public distribution, InDesign gives you the most control and the best output.

The trade-off is cost and complexity. InDesign requires a design background to use effectively, and the Australian subscription price sits at around $30–$40 AUD/month for the single app (or significantly more for the full Creative Cloud suite, which has seen notable price increases in Australia in recent years). It’s not a realistic option for most small NFPs without access to a professional designer – but if you’re working with one, it’s the tool they’ll almost certainly use.

Affinity (formerly Affinity Publisher)

Affinity was acquired by Canva in 2024 and, as of October 2025, the full suite – which combines vector design, photo editing, and page layout tools – is now completely free. This is a significant development. Affinity offers professional-grade layout capabilities comparable to InDesign, at no cost.

The catch is that it still requires more design experience than Canva or Adobe Express. It’s not a beginner tool. But for NFPs with a staff member or volunteer who has design experience, it’s now an exceptionally good option – particularly for organisations that have historically avoided InDesign because of the subscription cost.

Comparison at a Glance

So Which One Should You Use?

The honest answer depends on your team and your report’s purpose:

• No designer, tight budget: Start with Canva. Apply for the nonprofit plan, use a solid annual report template, and invest the time in proper brand customisation.
• Some design experience, Adobe user: Adobe Express is worth exploring – particularly if you want tighter brand control or already use Adobe tools.
• Working with a professional designer: They will almost certainly use InDesign. That’s the right call for reports going to major funders or printed at scale.
• Experienced designer, no budget: Affinity is now free and professionally capable. It’s the most significant change in the design software landscape for budget-conscious NFPs in recent years.

Before you settle on a tool, it’s worth asking one more question: should you be doing this in-house at all?

Your annual report is likely the single most important communication piece your organisation produces each year. It goes to donors, funders, government partners, and community stakeholders. It’s referenced in grant applications. It shapes how people perceive your organisation long after it’s published. Getting it right isn’t just a design exercise – it’s a strategic one.

A professionally designed report reinforces trust, strengthens your brand, and makes it easier for the people reading it to say yes – to donating again, to funding your next program, to recommending you to others. Done well, it also builds a template and visual system your team can carry forward into future years, so the investment compounds over time rather than starting from scratch each annual cycle.

If your report goes to a handful of internal stakeholders, a well-customised Canva template may be all you need. But if it’s a document that represents your organisation to the outside world – and for most Australian charities, it is – it deserves the same care and intention you put into the work it’s describing.

At The Breakthrough Office, we design annual reports for Australian not-for-profits and charities at competitive rates – built around your brand, your story, and your community. We work closely with our clients to understand their impact and translate it into a document that donors and funders actually want to read. Get in touch to find out more, or read our guide on what to include in your not-for-profit annual report.