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Should Your Nonprofit Blog Speak with One Voice?

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Our Executive Director wants us to start writing all our nonprofit’s blog posts in her voice, and address them all to our donors. Do you think this is a good idea?

That’s the question Sarah asked when she attended my webinar on Blogging for Change, part of the course “Your Donor Engagement System” that Pamela Grow and I taught together.

Here’s how I answered her:

Sarah, you’ve actually asked two questions.

Should you write in one person’s voice? Probably, yes. Your readers will feel like they’re getting to know the Executive Director personally, and that will certainly make them feel closer to the organization.

But note: They’ll only feel that way if the writing is actually personal. Just signing the blog with your ED’s name and saying “I” instead of “we” won’t make any difference. You’ll need to put some of your ED’s personality into it: write in her style, tell stories from her point of view. That will take practice.

So, tell your ED you will need to spend more time together on each blog entry if you’re truly going to write in her voice. As you get more practiced at it, you will be able to do more of it on your own–but take the time right now to get it right.

All this is assuming your ED is a good spokesperson for your organization…and that she is not planning on leaving any time soon!

Should you write all your blogs to your donors?  It depends.

What’s the purpose of your blog? Have you made a strategic decision that you’re blogging to build stronger relationships with people who already support the organization? If so, I applaud you: nonprofits don’t spend enough time retaining the donors we already have!

But maybe your blog is supposed to serve a different purpose. Maybe you are trying to burnish your reputation with your funders (government agencies or foundations). Maybe your blog is a vehicle for sharing important information with your clients, or a megaphone for mobilizing advocates working on the same cause.

Have you decided what your blog is for? Do that, and then it will become clear who your audience should be. Share on X

How would you answer Sarah’s questions? What would you add?

Valentine’s Day is for Suckers

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My wife and I decided years ago that Valentine’s Day is for suckers. No Valentine's Day

Think about it. This week, candy and flowers will cost more than they do any other time of the year. Restaurants will push special meals with more food than you can eat and more expensive wine than you would choose.

Businesses make big bucks because people think putting out a lot of money one time a year is the way to show their love.

Rona and I are romantic, but we are not suckers. The ways we show our love all year round count more than what we do one day a year. And we do not let Hallmark tell us when to say “I love you.”

But what about your nonprofit?

The calendar may be playing you for a sucker, too.

  • Are you ignoring your donors all year round until the day you send them an “annual appeal”?
  • Are you then expecting them to show you the love on December 31, just because in the U.S. that’s the last day to get a tax deduction for the year?

Lots of nonprofits work hard on making that appeal letter just right, as if it were a Valentine’s Day bouquet. But you can't neglect your donors all year and expect one romantic gesture to make it all right. Share on X You have to show some donor love all year long.

Here’s a plan to make your donors love you in just one year. No, it’s not candy and flowers! Good relationships take good communications.  I’ll help you figure out where you can spend your nonprofit time and money that will matter most to the donor.

Because that’s what you want, right? Not to do the same tired things the same time of year. You want every day to be Valentine’s Day for your donors and you.

(P.S. Chocolates will go on sale February 15. Just wait.)

The Golden Rule of Nonprofit Writing

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Golden Rule

You know it and I know it: a lot of nonprofit writing is just painful to read.

We donate to our favorite causes. In return, we get newsletters full of jargon, emails full of typos, fundraising letters that sound like they’re written in French because the organization says “We, we, we.”

As people who work for nonprofits, and to ensure their success, we can and should do something about this! Make sure your organization asks itself these five tough questions:

1. Are you listening long enough before you write?

2. Do you think longer and more complicated is more impressive? (Your readers don’t!)

3. Are you writing memos when you should be telling stories?

4. Are you burying the lead? (Does the reader know from the start why he or she should read on?)

5. Are You as Good a Communicator as Shakespeare’s Fools? (Will people invite you to speak truth fearlessly to them because you leaven it with humor?)

None of us wants to cause pain to our supporters. But that means we must think what our supporters want to read! The golden rule of writing is to write unto others the way you wish they wrote unto to you.

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