Why Smart Nonprofits Are Teaming Up With Content Writers
Funding and community support are the lifeblood of nonprofits—without them, your organization will have no administration reimbursement, advertising dollars, or funds to fulfill your mission. While a board of directors often includes lawyers, accountants, and civil servants, accounting and legal help will do little good if there are no funds coming in. To drive change and foster growth, nonprofit executives are reaching out to writers to earn more grant dollars, reach wider audiences, and inspire action through the power of the written word.
What Can A Writer Do For My Nonprofit?
Whether you have a board of 20 or you’re assembling a brand new cohort, consider your organization’s needs and how you plan to fulfill them. In what ways will you communicate with your donors, volunteers, and clients? How do you plan to attract new stakeholders and obtain funding? These are the issues where having someone with an “outside-in” perspective at your disposal will benefit you.
Additionally, nonprofit boards often face challenges that can be alleviated with the help of a writer. According to a GuideStar report, some of the greatest hurdles include finding adequate funding and spreading brand awareness. Utilizing the many talents of a writer becomes a strong asset for your organization; it equips your team with a skill that translates across multiple disciplines, including research, communication, marketing, and fundraising. A few services that a writer could provide for your non-profit organization include:
Press Releases
You’re doing great things, and you want people to know about them. However, and perhaps most importantly, you want to get people excited about the work that you’re doing. The more compelling and illustrative your press releases are, the more recognition and support your organization will receive. What’s more, earned media goes a lot farther than paid media. According to Michael Levine, author of Guerilla P.R., “Depending on how you measure and monitor, an article is between 10 times and 100 times more valuable than an advertisement.” InPowered confirms this statement in their PR study, which revealed that PR elevates brand awareness by up to 90%.
Social Media Marketing
It’s vital to engage with supporters and donors through social media. But a couple of facebook faux pas can turn into a PR nightmare. Ensure you’re sleeping soundly by hiring a writer to craft, manage, and schedule your posts before they hit the social airwaves. Writing skills are crucial for high-quality social posts—nothing is more embarrassing and less professional than a typo. And because you’re typically working with word limits, packing a punch with concise phrasing will better convey what you’re all about. Each post is an opportunity to reach a new audience, so poor social media content equates to missed opportunities.
Grants And Fundraising Proposals
According to GuideStar, 46% of nonprofits feel that finding funding is the greatest challenge facing the organization. Fortunately, there are grants available to fund projects, positions, and different operational aspects of an organization. However, the talents of an influential or persuasive writer are necessary to remain competitive in grant applications and to facilitate as much funding as possible. When organizations are able to frequently submit detailed and persuasive grant proposals, they are more likely to receive funding.
Web Content
Content marketing is one of the most underutilized brand awareness strategies in the nonprofit world. If you're unfamiliar, content marketing includes blog posts, eBooks, staff bios, and even your organization’s mission. Oftentimes nonprofits skip out on such SEO tactics because creating engaging and meaningful content is time-consuming. In fact, it's not uncommon for one optimized, high-quality blog post to take eight to twelve hours to compose. However, high-quality web content can be the most significant organic driver of traffic to your website, and it is not something that should be skipped.
Email Communication
Weekly or bi-monthly email updates keep your supporters, donors, and volunteers educated about the impact your organization has on the community. Hire a writer to make sure these email newsletters are engaging, fresh, and frequent. Additionally, if your organization is hiring, your writer can create job descriptions and announcements to help strengthen the talent pool of applicants.
Board Materials
If you’re starting a new nonprofit, your writer can draft your articles of incorporation, bylaws, mission statement, strategic plan, and other relevant documents before you even open your doors. The larger your organization becomes, the more information you will need to develop. A writer can help streamline your ideas and help you find the words to inspire.
Hire A Writer When Your Board Is Stretched Thin
While it's great if you already have a talented writer on your board, many times a full-time job, family, and hobbies end up taking precedence over part-time responsibilities at your nonprofit. What’s more, there are often more pressing matters that seem to push the above writing services to the wayside. Spending time on other issues then creates a time crunch when you need to hit press release, grant, and social media deadlines.
Whether or not you have a writer, a digital marketing agency like Ethos Copywriting can partner with you to support you when your board is pressed for time and resources. Think about it: when you’re juggling ten different things at once, it will take you a week to finally get that email newsletter out. Instead of almost missing the window to spread the word about an upcoming event, skip the headache and have Ethos send it out on time.
A content writer can expedite the content composition phase, meet deadlines, amplify brand awareness, and allow your board to focus on their other mission-driven responsibilities. Board members work hard to drive the organization forward, so make sure your efforts are maximized with strong writing in all forms.
Moreover, hiring a writer will benefit your organization by giving an outside perspective on your marketing and communication efforts. Is your organization optimizing its outreach potential? Are your words being well-received by your intended audience? What does your website say about your nonprofit? Receiving a second opinion provides new insight and alternative ways of thinking which can internally strengthen your organization.
The ‘Write’ Way to Inspire
Your board members are the biggest advocates for your organization. Aside from the executive director, they are the primary fundraisers, storytellers, and brand champions. If your board of directors can communicate your mission well, they’ll inspire donors with the organization’s stories of community impact.
Simply put: the more people you can inspire, the more successful your nonprofit will become. That’s why it’s so crucial that your story be told well. Set your board up for success by equipping them with the tools and content they need to share your organization’s mission.
Furthermore, prospective donors are inspired to contribute to your organization when they understand the full impact of their donation. The best way to get people excited about your cause is to teach them about the lives you’ve touched and to show them how their contribution explicitly makes that happen. Align with a digital marketing agency to help inspire your community in all forms of communication.
Share Your Story
You have a dedicated board of directors committed to your organization’s mission—let us help you support them. At Ethos Copywriting, we want to help nonprofits make a profound impact on their communities.
As an affordable and efficient marketing agency, we can create a flexible service plan so that you’re able to continue doing your best work by allocating more of your time and resources to the initiatives that matter. To learn more about how we can improve and support your organization’s content, communication, and marketing efforts, contact us today.