Blog posts are an effective way to highlight your nonprofit organization’s success, build excitement around your fundraising campaigns, and provide a means to encourage dialogue with your community.
Additionally, producing quality content regularly can also improve your search engines rankings.
Two of the most challenging parts of a nonprofit’s blogging process are deciding what you want to write about and actually writing the content.
For content marketers, the worst feeling in the world is feeling uninspired. That’s why we’ve written a list of blog ideas for nonprofit organizations to help give you some inspiration to create the perfect blog content for your nonprofit organization.
Nonprofit Blog Ideas
Use the following 28 ideas to force your mind to get creative and create useful content for your audience. You can either dedicate small blocks of time to think about each idea and write freely, or you can buckle down and blast out your entire post.
Remember, these are just ideas, and this is just an exercise. If you get stuck, you can always revisit and edit your work. If you get stuck on one idea, move on to another topic.
Who knows, you may get inspired later and revisit the initial topic.
Ready? Let’s go! Here are some post ideas for your nonprofit website:
Write About the Time You Were Inspired to Make an Impact
Perhaps you were most inspired when you joined your organization. Maybe it goes beyond your organization’s mission and is based on the passion of your leadership staff.
What moved you to get involved? Was it disgust, sadness, amazement, or disappointment that moved you?
Tell your nonprofit’s story through photos.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Let your images do the talking. Use photos, videos, art, etc., to show the impact of your event, moment, or story.
Photograph a day of volunteering, a fundraising event, your organization’s supporters, the flow of funds from donors to recipients, or anything else you can think of.
Protip: Be sure to write some content to accompany the photos for SEO boosts. Although Google and other search engines can’t crawl images (yet!), they do, however, use the text on your webpages to help rank you in the results pages.
Share about your staff.
Your staff is the backbone of your nonprofit organization. They’re the boots on the ground raising funds and seeing that everything flows smoothly.
Use your blog to highlight them. Write about staff culture, a staff retreat, spotlight individual members.
Show your website’s visitors the faces behind the day-to-day operations to earn trust from potential donors.
Highlight a volunteer/member
Just like highlighting your staff, highlighting your volunteers and members is another way to add faces to your nonprofit. Show your appreciation to those who are giving back to your organization while creating an incentive for others to get involved.
For example, having a “volunteer of the month” or highlight your nonprofit’s donors and supporters and makes them feel valued.
Highlight a Donor / Corporate Partner
One way to make donors feel engaged and involved with your NGO is to meet with them for a blog post.
Whether you interview them, highlight their company, or ask them questions about what got them involved, you can use this as an opportunity to show involvement and appreciation with those who donate to help your mission.
Plus, it gives your corporate partners a little free advertising, and every company loves that right.
Think about it. I bet you can think of numerous corporations known for their support to both local and global nonprofits. Chances are, not only the company name came to mind, but the nonprofit that they support.
Here is an example from the Air Force Aid Society’s website:
Featuring your partners not only gives them a boost in visibility but creates a mutually beneficial relationship.
For example, you may be offered opportunities to write guest posts for the company on their website, positioning your organization in front of a whole new audience.
Write About Your Beneficiaries
Allow your website visitors to see where their donations go and the impact your nonprofit is making on the world. Interview (and show photos) of those who benefit from your organization’s hard work.
Personal stories of those you serve help make them more relatable and boost your donors’ confidence that your organization is legit.
Write About the People Who Inspire You
Everyone has a list of people that they look to for inspiration. Maybe they’re active in your nonprofit’s niche today, or perhaps they’re from generations past.
Now write about what thought leaders you take inspiration from and organizations that you look up to.
The subject of the blog post doesn’t have to be some well-known philanthropist either. Your mom may have been the one to get you inspired in feeding the hungry, or watching a schoolmate suffer from bullying may have pushed you towards social issues.
No matter who inspired you, connecting them to the work you’re doing offers valuable insight into your organization to your readers.
Give Visitors a Behind-the-Scenes Look Into Your Nonprofit
By giving your website’s visitors a behind-the-scenes glimpse into your organization, your website becomes more than just ordinary. It allows potential donors and volunteers a chance to see what goes on backstage at your nonprofit.
Nonprofits tend to be more approachable and hands-on than traditional businesses. Leverage this opportunity and share photos, videos, and highlights of events from a behind-the-scenes perspective.
Although donors may be more focused on your organization’s causes, by emphasizing the hard work and dedication behind the scenes, you can boost support for your nonprofit.
Write About Day-to-Day Operations
Each day comes with new challenges. Look around your organization’s office. What’s new or unique about the day? Did you all hire a new fundraising coordinator? Adopt a new strategy? Fall short on a campaign?
Share interesting organizational updates to keep donors and volunteers informed and interested in your organization.
Announce Company News
Your blog is a great place to post news stories about your organization. Have you reached a fundraising goal? Need to announce a new campaign? Create a post to broadcast your news items.
Protip: Use a service such as EINpresswire to send out an accompanying press release to news aggregators to help spread your news story. Sending our press releases is an excellent way to share information and gain backlinks to your news article to boost your SEO.
Give Updates From The Field
Appeal to your supporters’ curiosity by providing regular updates on what’s happening in the field.
If at all possible, give them a real-time update to show your impact. Real-time updates help legitimize your work in your donor’s eyes and can reengage anyone whose interests may have fallen off.
Have a Staff Member Write About Their Favorite Part of Their Job
Professionals from small nonprofits to global powerhouses are at the forefront of some of the most inspiring work being performed across the world.
Even if you’re not boots-on-the-ground with the people you serve, there is something about your job that brings you joy and satisfaction. How can your blot’s readers relate?
Explain why your cause is essential.
Why does your cause matter, and why should your readers care? Often, these simple questions go unanswered by nonprofit leaders.
Tell your readers and website visitors in detail why your mission is important and why they should invest in it.
Call Your Audience to Action
Give your audience and supporters simple ways to drive change within their circle of influence and community. Provide a list and challenge them to accomplish all of the items on that list.
Doing so connects your blog’s readers to your organization and allows them to get involved and donate their time and energy to your nonprofit – all the while having fun.
Protip: Turn this challenge into a social media campaign or encourage peer-to-peer fundraising either on a third-party platform or your website. Do you need help with your social media marketing? We’re here to help.People love a good competition. Prod them to compete among their social media platforms to reach a fundraising goal. (Not sure how to do it? Contact us, we can help.).
Write About Challenges Your Nonprofit Faces
What challenges does your nonprofit face as you advance your mission? Whether they’re big or small, consider writing about some of the obstacles that stand in your way to help your readers understand what you’re doing to overcome them.
Write About Your Programs
Your blog is a great place to share any recent developments of news about your programs. Showing your supporters tangible events and milestones can help them see the impact of their contributions and encourage them to continue their support.
Create a Blog Post About Upcoming Campaigns
Give community members a sneak peek into your next campaign.
When your campaign launches, create a blog post inviting them to participate.
You can describe the need for the campaign, how it came to fruition, or just an overview of the logistics, goals, and ways to get involved.
Reflect on Campaign Milestones
Milestones are an essential part of any goal-setting process.
Creating milestones allows a nonprofit to measure its success and motivates them to continue moving forward. Let your website’s visitors know about these milestones.
Are you close to reaching a campaign fundraising goal?
Posting about campaign milestones will help develop a sense of urgency and let your visitors know you need just a little more support.
Answer Frequently Asked Questions
Do you keep getting the same (or similar) questions from your supporters or would-be supporters?
Create a frequently asked questions (FAQ) post to answer them.
Provide in-depth answers to common questions. Then, the next time you’re asked them, you can refer people to your blog to find the answers.
Protip: Make sure to have your website developer add FAQ schema to your frequently asked questions blog post to let search engines know what the page content is, and help you gain a much-coveted rich snippet in Google search engines results pages.
Learn more about Schema and SEO For Nonprofits and Small Businesses in our recent blog post.
Show Where Donations Go
Nonprofit supporters love transparency. Show them where their donations go. Create a blog post explaining how funds and material donations are dispersed. Consider attaching appropriate nonprofit financials to show administrative expenses to donation disbursement amounts.
Write About the Impact of Donations
Give your audience examples of what their donation means for your cause. Show your readers what a $10 donation would do for your beneficiaries. What impact would $100 have? What impact would a recurring gift of $20 per month?
Provide detailed examples to empower readers to give.
Write to Say Thanks
Brainstorm some creative ways to thank your donors on your blog. Thanking your donors is an often-overlooked common courtesy. However, it’s an essential part of your donor stewardship strategy.
Create a thank you video, letter, or another fun way to express your gratitude.
Create a Video or Podcast
While we’re on the topic of videos, consider creating and using alternative media forms for your posts.
Outline a short script and create a video thanking your donors, volunteers, and/or advocates.
Here’s an example from Afya Foundation‘s blog post to recruit volunteers.
You can use this video in individual blog posts, or make it its very own post.
Consider creating a Podcast or Vodcast to allow subscribers to stay up-to-date with your organization.
Protip: Much like FAQ posts, make sure that your web developer adds Video Schema to posts that contain videos. Include a video sitemap for your website to let web crawlers know the location of all of the video elements on your website to increase your chance of landing a Rich Snippet in the SERPs.
Highlight NGO Industry News
Write a blog article about current news in the nonprofit industry. If there are events that directly impact your industry or organization, share news articles describing the impact they will have on your organization.
Keeping your audience informed on news that impacts your organization can reinforce the need to support your programs and increase donations.
Write About Nonprofit Industry Trends
What current trends impact your nonprofit’s daily operations? How is your organization continuing to be innovative? Are you new technologies and methods being created that could help your nonprofit streamline its processes?
Use a blog post as an opportunity to inform your readers about hot topics across the NGO sectors.
Write About Your Events
What events are coming up for your organization? Are you hosting a fundraising gala? An upcoming workday for volunteers at your warehouse?
Before the event, outline it in your blog. Explain the details of the event by creating a post for your blog.
After the event, provide a recap of the event, what was accomplished, and its impacts on your organization and its mission.
How did the event go? What did people miss out on if they didn’t attend?
Events are an easy source of content because they are often fun and quick to write about while remaining interesting for website visitors.
Write to Create a Dialogue
Write a blog post to encourage discussions. Ask your readers direct questions about events, fundraising, your events, or anything you think may be of value and allow them to provide feedback in the post’s comments section.
Protip: Consider adding these questions to your Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) blog posts or pages to save you time answering them later on.
Invite a Guest Blogger
Invite industry professionals, volunteers, donors, or any other author to submit entries to provide your audience with a fresh perspective. Some of the other benefits of having guest blog posts on your website are:
- Diverse content – New authors can provide fresh perspectives and ideas. Another author (or authors) can breathe life into an otherwise stale blog.
- Access new audiences – Guest posters will bring a new audience with them. While it may not be a new audience, every new reader is a potential donor or volunteer.
- Increased networking – Perhaps your guest authors are up and coming NGO professionals. New professionals trying to create a name for themself will almost always submit articles to gain exposure and build their authority in the nonprofit world.
- More experts on board – Although you may already be considered an expert in your field, it never hurts to add more. Every expert who writes an article for your blog adds to your authority with readers (and search engines).
- The feel of a professional publication – By having a stream of guest posters, your blog will appear more official. A rotation of authors on your blog will make it seem less like a blog and more like a magazine.
- Easy content creation – Frequently updated content is a cornerstone of any content marketing strategy. By having guest bloggers on your nonprofit’s website, you save time crafting content. Sure, you’ll have to proofread it for typos and grammar, but the hard work is already done.
Conclusion
Use this list of nonprofit blog post ideas to help generate new and engaging content for your blog. You don’t have to use just one idea per post. Feel free to combine any of the list items mentioned above to craft the perfect blog for your nonprofit.
We’d love to hear (and read) any posts that use this article to craft. Drop us a link in the comments below.
If your nonprofit needs help with their digital marketing, content marketing, website development, or SEO, feel free to drop complete the form below, and let’s increase your donors and volunteers today.