Blogging is one of the best ways to build a strong brand. It helps you to raise awareness about your cause and the work that your organisation does, and gets others talking and thinking about how they can help.

Blogging helps you to build a strong brand. It can be a great way to establish your authority, build your reputation, and increase trust in your organisation. Paired with social media outreach, it can help you engage more meaningfully with your supporters.

Despite all of the benefits offered by blogging, many nonprofits fail to use this tool to their best advantage. Some start off their blogs with great posts, made on a regular basis, only to find that they get busy with other important activities and begin to neglect their blog. Others find that over time, the wellspring of inspiration simply runs dry.

To be effective, nonprofits must update their blogs regularly with new content that interests their supporters. The following are some blogging ideas to help you get motivated to write, even when you are very busy and don’t feel like writing.

Write About What You Know – Talk About Your Projects

Why does your organisation exist? How does your organisation’s specific projects actually help your community? Writing about the services that your NFP provides to others is a great way to illustrate your organisation’s values and enables your supporters to understand exactly why they should continue contributing to your cause.

Interviews Offer an Insider’s Perspective

Nearly everyone appreciates being offered a sneak peek into what goes on behind the scenes of an organisation. Give your supporters a front row seat into the actions that your organisation takes to create positive change. Create a Q & A post that allows some of your NFP’s key stakeholders to talk about a typical day at your organisation.

Conduct interviews with staff, volunteers, board members, donors, and especially the beneficiaries of your work and allow the “voice” and unique perspective offered by each to shine through in your post. This technique allows others closely connected to your nonprofit to explain just how much your mission and your work truly matter to your service community!

Alert Your Supporters About Upcoming Events

How well do you keep your supporters updated about special events that will be happening soon? Your next fundraising drive or awards ceremony are great topics to blog about. Hosting a training or conference? These are also occasions where a blog post is a great way to alert others of your event, and, provide them with the details that they need to register or otherwise be able to attend!

Shake Things Up with a Slideshow

Don’t have time to write, or, having a hard time coming up with the right words to say just what you mean? If you have several photos of a specific campaign or other event, consider creating a photo essay in place of your regular posts. The change will do both you, and your supporters good. Make sure to begin with an introductory paragraph so that others understand the reason for the series of photos. Use short, but meaningful captions for each photo, so that others that were not present understand the action depicted in each shot. Conclude the post with a closing paragraph that includes a call to action, and buttons that make it easy for others to act.

Videos and Podcasts

The important thing to remember is that you don’t have to personally create every single post yourself. You also don’t have to be confined to just text to get your message across. In addition to photo essays, look for unique, and surprising ways to inform your supporters. Consider using short videos and podcasts for some of your posts. Using these types of media in your storytelling is really helpful if you want others to see, and hear, just how meaningful a specific project or event happens to be.

Guest Posts

Industry news and trends can be great topics for a post. If you have connections with special expertise on a specific nonprofit topic, you can invite your contacts= to create the content about this subject for you! Guest posting is not only a great way to save some time, but it can also increase the reach of your message as it enables you to temporarily “borrow” the attention of another organisation’s supporters, allowing you reach new potential supporters.

Answer Questions

Does your organisation receive questions about your services and other aspects of your mission and work? Why not use this as inspiration to create a post that answers some of your NFP’s most frequently asked questions?

Funny Fundraising Stories

Over time, nearly everyone in the not-for-profit sector acquires stories about some of the most strange, or humorous ways that they’ve raised money for their organisation. While you want your supporters to take you seriously, and to trust you, that doesn’t mean that all of your posts have to be so serious. A lighthearted, amusing tale about some of the funny things that happen during events or other occasions can be the perfect topic for a great post. Just make sure that the humour in your story is genuinely a funny moment, and doesn’t occur at anyone else’s expense.

Express Gratitude

Have you thanked all of your supporters lately? Does everyone genuinely understand the impact their donations make to your work? Creating a post that expresses gratitude, and illustrates the true importance of each of your supporters will almost always be well received by everyone!

A final tip to keep in mind is that regardless of what topic you choose to blog about, always invite your readers and viewers to leave feedback in your comments section. This can help you to get a conversation started with your readers and encourage them to engage more directly with you and your NFP. It also provides you with vital intel about what types of content they find useful and want to see and enjoy on your site.