3 Benefits of Blogging for Non-Profits

Given limited staff and volunteers, many nonprofit organizations think that they do not have the time and energy to commit to blogging. Blogging does require time, energy, planning, talent, and coordination. However, the potential rewards of blogging far outweigh the extra workload required to make a compelling blog a reality.

Here are three benefits of blogging for non-profits to consider.

Benefit #1: Blogging Drives Traffic to Your Non-Profit Website

One of the main benefits of blogging for non-profits is that each blog post acts as an individual page on your website. Search engines are more likely to find blog posts with optimized keywords and credible links on an established website and assign them a higher rank than posts on social media, where content is more short-lived and often considered less credible. This means that people who are searching for keywords that are associated with your non-profit but are found outside of your main pages will have a better chance of finding your website. Consider having a fundraising page that is optimized for the keyword “fundraising,” for example, vs a blog post optimized for the phrase “fundraising to help end homelessness.” If someone searches for “fundraising homelessness” or a similar combination, they are more likely to find a website with both those pages, instead of just one.

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Blogs can also become a feature of your website that is dynamic and keeps visitors coming back for more. For example, you can encourage visitors to subscribe to an email list and receive notifications every time you publish a new post. As a rule, you should also publish all of your blog posts to your social media accounts as well.

Benefit #2: Blogging Enhances Your Ability To Market Your Non-Profit

Unless you were a successful salesperson in a past incarnation of your work life, you may find it challenging to find the right words to recruit a steady stream of diverse volunteers and donors to your non-profit. Blogging can be a solid venue to hone your pitches to the different audiences you want to attract. While many successful marketing strategies (such as practicing elevator pitches with colleagues) require you to be succinct when delivering your message, blog posts allow you to provide details, evidence, and a rationale that reinforce the main strengths of your organization. Engaging in these deep dives into particular topics (i.e. how your main cause affects everyone in our society) may enable your organization to continually refine your marketing over time.

Benefit #3: Blogging Can Promote Your Non-Profit’s Long-term Plan

While non-profits can inspire the commitment of staff members and volunteers, they often experience a high turnover rate that can make it difficult to sustain the organization. Although quality blog posts can be demanding to produce, they can also provide a record of accomplishments and examples of what makes your organization great. Newcomers to your organization need to know these points of pride and should be able to speak about them convincingly to supporters. In this way, past blog posts can serve as a training tool so new staff and volunteers learn how to publicize the organization. Additionally, producing new blog posts can be a way for staff members and volunteers to find their own connections to your non-profit, which makes them more likely to stick around.

Crafting a blog that actually serves your organization can be difficult, but the benefits far outweigh the associated costs, which mostly equal the time and effort of dedicated staff and volunteers. A blog is a great way to promote your organization and to improve its searchability over popular channels like Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

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