How To Write a Thrift Store Annual Report for Your Board

Written by Kyle Payton | Aug 11, 2026, 3:00:01 PM

For your board members, donors, and volunteers, an engaging annual report demonstrates transparency and builds confidence. For the IRS, your yearly nonprofit tax return keeps you compliant and protects your thrift store’s tax-exempt status. And for grant makers, both documents establish the credibility they need to justify awarding funding.

Balancing donor-focused storytelling with IRS compliance can feel overwhelming, but thoughtful preparation and a specialized point of sale (POS) system make it manageable. In this blog, you’ll learn exactly what to include in your annual report, discover how to use your POS to simplify the reporting process, and get answers to some common FAQs.

What To Include in a Nonprofit Annual Report

There are two types of annual reports for nonprofit thrift stores: one optional report for your board of directors, donors, and volunteers, and one required filing for the IRS.

Your optional annual report is your chance to build trust through financial transparency and showcase everything your thrift store has accomplished in the past year. Since it’s completely voluntary, you can technically include (or leave out) whatever you want. But to make the best impression possible, it’s important to cover:

Core mission and values
High-priority goals and the progress your thrift store has made toward meeting them
Your store’s most notable activities and accomplishments, and how donors’ contributions have made them possible
Key financial details, such as revenue organized by source and expenses organized by category
A high-level plan for the year to come

You’re required to report much of the same information in your nonprofit thrift store’s IRS-mandated filing, but with more of a focus on nitty-gritty financial details. On Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax, you need to provide:

A summary of your thrift store’s activities, including its mission and the number of active volunteers
Revenue and expense information for the prior and current year
A description of your thrift store’s program service accomplishments for each of its three largest program services
Compensation details for your thrift store’s officers, directors, trustees, employees, and contractors
A balance sheet
Information about how your thrift store keeps track of and audits its finances

That’s a lot of information to gather and distill into a single filing, so if you’re having trouble getting started, a nonprofit annual report template can help. Check out the polished templates offered by Venngage and Canva to help you start your draft.

How To Use Your POS To Simplify Reporting

Regardless of the type of annual report you’re creating, a capable, industry-specific POS system like ThriftCart can quickly give you the data you need in an easy-to-understand format.

Depending on the POS you’re using, you can access:

Sales reports
Inventory movement
Donation volume
Employee and volunteer timesheets

Because it’s built specifically for thrift stores, ThriftCart provides all of those, as well as detailed reports on color-tag discount performance, new customers, loyalty program activity, donation pickups, and dropoff donations.

With easy access to these metrics, you can create compelling, evidence-backed narratives for donors and quickly pull the numbers you need to accurately complete IRS Form 990.

For instance, here’s how you can make the most of ThriftCart’s reports and translate hard numbers into community impact:

Use donation dropoff reports to calculate how much waste your thrift store diverted from local landfills.
Use roundup donation reports to explain how lots of small donations came together to make a big difference.
Use loyalty program reports to demonstrate how your thrift store is successfully engaging with the community.

Thrift Store Annual Report FAQs

Get answers to common questions about preparing a thrift store annual report, whether it’s for your board or the IRS.

What’s the Difference Between Form 990 and a Nonprofit Annual Report?

Form 990 is an official government-issued form that most tax-exempt nonprofit organizations are required to file annually with the IRS.

A nonprofit annual report is an optional document that nonprofits can use to tell a compelling story that strengthens relationships with board members and validates donors’ investments.

What Should a Nonprofit Annual Report Include?

If you’re writing an annual report to present to board members, donors, and volunteers, include your thrift store’s:

Mission and values
Progress toward meeting major goals
Noteworthy activities and accomplishments
Essential financial information
Strategy for the year to come

And when you’re filling out Form 990 for the IRS, be ready to report your store’s:

Mission and activities
Revenue and expenses
Program service accomplishments
Executive and contractor compensation
Balance sheet
Accounting and auditing methods

How Can I Use My Annual Report To Write Better Grant Applications?

Your thrift store’s annual report can act as a cheat sheet for future grant applications. So instead of starting every application from scratch, you can simply pull from the data and stories you’ve already compiled in your annual report.

Here’s how you can repackage information from your annual report to create competitive grant applications:

Illustrate your thrift store’s overall activity with high-level sales and donation data.
Prove community support with the total number of volunteer hours logged.
Demonstrate real-world impact by tying data to tangible results.
Show financial stability with detailed expense and revenue breakdowns.

Are Nonprofit Thrift Stores Required To File Annual Reports?

A donor-facing thrift store annual report is not required, although creating one can go a long way toward building trust and nurturing relationships with donors, board members, and volunteers.

However, an annual IRS filing is required for most nonprofit organizations. To fulfill that requirement, submit Form 990 to the IRS by the 15th day of the 5th month following the end of your organization’s taxable year. (Use this handy chart to determine your thrift store’s due date.)

How Do I Present Thrift Store Financials to My Board?

Presenting financial information to your thrift store’s board is as much about weaving a compelling narrative as it is about relaying factual information.

For example, you can use numbers to tell a story by highlighting:

How many donations have been turned into sales

For example: “Our team sorted X donations and turned them into $X in sales.”

The average labor cost of processing and pricing each item

For example: “Each donation costs $X to process, price, display, and sell.”

How your store’s profits are tied to real mission outcomes

For example: “With $X in net profits, we were able to help X people in our community.”

Jobs created

For example: “We employed X people from our community and added X new jobs to the local economy.”

Volunteer hours clocked

For example: “X volunteers clocked more than X hours supporting our mission.”

To make your presentation as memorable as possible, try using a free graphic design tool like Canva to create eye-catching visuals that drive each point home.

Remember: While it may be tempting to simply copy and paste a spreadsheet directly into your donor-facing report, a visual representation of the same data will always be easier to digest and far more compelling. So whenever you can, choose pie charts and bar graphs over raw data.

Take the Stress Out of Annual Reporting With ThriftCart

Manually compiling data to use in your annual report takes hours of work. A POS built specifically for thrift stores automates that process, so you can stop formatting spreadsheets and focus on telling your thrift store’s story.

After all, a generic POS might give you reports on overall sales or basic inventory counts, but ThriftCart gathers and compiles the data that’s actually important to you. From detailed donation reports to sales data that you can sort by donor, cashier, and square footage, you’ll always have the information you need to inspire donors, preserve your tax-compliance efforts, and show grant makers that your thrift store is worth funding.

And when you’re ready to convince your board to make the switch to ThriftCart, we can help with that, too.

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