4 Tips for Creating a Winning Non-Profit Blog

If you work for a non-profit and are looking for ways to create traffic to your website, you might have considered creating a blog. In fact, you may have checked out some of our own blog posts to get ideas. To help you feel more confident in your blogging efforts we’ve gathered a few non-profit blog tips to get you started.

Non-Profit Blog Tip #1: Understand How Your Blog Supports Your Organization

Before launching a blog for your non-profit, it’s important to have a clear vision for what your blog is going to do to help your organization. How will it support other efforts your organization has engaged in, such as social media marketing and event planning? How will it support your website? Or other marketing endeavors?

Ilma Ibrisevic at Donor Box gives a great example of how to align a blog with a non-profit’s goals:

For example, if increasing your donor retention rate is a current priority for your nonprofit, a blogging goal might be to build relationships with current donors, and so most of your blog posts should aim for that.

You want your blog’s content to get your audience interested in reading about your organization, and if you’re able to determine how your audience can play a role in forwarding the goals of your organization, your blog can do double-duty. You can inform your audience about your non-profit and help advance your organization’s mission. Thus, understanding how your blog supports your organization should be a priority before you ever publish your first post.

Non-Profit Blog Tip #2: Create Content That Is Reusable

Another tip for creating a winning non-profit blog is to create content that you can reuse.

Since writing blog posts takes time, being able to repost older blog posts to channels like social media can help save time and provide content to push to your audience on a regular basis. Creating this kind of “evergreen” content can be tricky, but a great place to start is to think about the frequently asked questions you hear repeatedly when people first hear about your organization.

These are the questions to which you probably already have stock answers. Instead of creating an FAQ page for your website, create blog posts that answer these questions. You can also create posts that explain terms used in your industry or list other resources, bloggers, or experts.

It’s okay if some of this content covers things that you feel you’ve explained constantly to newcomers to your non-profit, in other words. This can be your chance to reach a wider audience all at once and can save you time in the future since you won’t have to explain this information to new volunteers or donors. This content can also serve internal purposes as members of your organization can access it any time they are searching for answers to questions about your organization. This can also make training staff and volunteers much easier.

Non-Profit Blog Tip #3: Write About Your Behind-the-Scenes

Another tip for creating awesome content for your non-profit blog is to let your audience see a little bit of the behind-the-scenes work that makes your organization run. We mentioned this in our post about Facebook marketing for non-profits. A great way to build rapport with your audience is to show them all of the work necessary for your organization to do what it does best: help other people.

You can develop behind-the-scenes content by taking pictures of the setup process for an event or can describe all the planning and teamwork that goes into a successful event. Giving your audience insight into their favorite cause can help get them more invested in your organization. It can also give them a sense of appreciation for all of the hard work that you are doing that they might not know about otherwise.

What’s great about this kind of content is that it does not require much research to create: it’s all about you and your organization and the experiences you’ve been a part of.

Non-Profit Blog Tip #4: Be Consistent in Your Posting

Our last tip is one of the most important to keep in mind when you are focused on developing a successful non-profit blog: be consistent in your posting. This means figuring out what is realistic for you and your organization in terms of developing ideas and writing posts on an ongoing basis. You don’t need a new blog post every day, but you should strive to publish at least once a week if you can. If that isn’t feasible, figure out what works for you. Every other week? Once a month? Even if you need to start small, being consistent is more important than posting a bunch of content and then going silent for weeks or months.

You also want to think about quality over quantity when it comes to blog posts. One way to maintain quality while staying consistent is to keep a folder for ideas so that when they occur to you they aren’t forgotten. You can also create a posting calendar to keep yourself on schedule.

There are many different ways to go about developing a successful blog for a non-profit. If you take these simple tips to heart, however, you will greatly increase the likelihood of success as you share your organization’s stories with the world.

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