The key to blogging success for nonprofits is consistency.
When you make blogging a priority and regularly add new content to your website, you are:
giving yourself a wealth of content to pull from for your social media posts and emails;
showing potential givers that your organization is a relevant and impactful expert on your issue; and
proving to Google that you are a trusted resource (leading them to recommend you to searchers). Hello, organic website traffic!
But how in the world do you find time to come up with fresh ideas for blog posts?
Here’s my suggestion:
Set a goal for how many times a month you want to post a new piece of content on your site.
Then, create a rotating schedule for a few of the topic ideas below.
Pick 3 or 4 that seem doable for your organization to cover each month (or every 2 weeks or every week).
Consider assigning each staff person one post per month. Blog posts are time-consuming (especially if you follow all of the best practices for keyword research, creating graphics and images, formatting, etc.), so give everyone a turn at it.
10 Blog Post Topic Ideas To Grow Your Nonprofit’s Website Traffic:
1. Story Post
Has your founder, board president, or ED shared a story lately that powerfully illustrates why they are willing to invest their lives in your cause? These people are the public face of your organization. Put their passion for your organization and its work on display!
And, of course, interviewing donors and volunteers as part of your marketing plan is a super smart way to build a database of content you can easily access when you need an anecdote for a speech, letter to a legislator, - or a blog post. Feature a new story regularly on your blog.
2. History of the Cause Post
What are the roots of the problem you’re trying to solve?
What’s the history of the problem in your locale? In the country?
How have people tried to solve it in the past?
What has historically made it so difficult to solve?
What’s the story behind your organization and its work?
Give your followers some context for the issue with a regular post that delves into the background and history of your cause and your organization.
3. Trends/Data Post
What are the facts, statistics, and data behind the stories?
What are the numbers that demonstrate your impact?
What does the latest research say about the cause, and how is your org’s mission in line with that?
What trends and patterns are you seeing in your work?
This is a chance to let your inner infographic nerd come out! (And you’ll be able to get a ton of mileage out of those infographics throughout the year on your social media accounts and in your email fundraising letters!
4. FAQ Post
What are the most common questions and misconceptions around your cause/issue?
What questions about your work consistently come up in your social media comments, conversations with donors, and volunteer training?
Pick one question at the time to cover in a monthly (or weekly/biweekly) post. You’ll save yourself loads of time and energy every time someone asks about it in the future.
5. News/Links Roundup Post
Sharing a regular “links” post with your followers is a low energy way to keep people up to date on the latest news about your cause.
An easy way to do this is to “bookmark” anything you read online that you think your followers would appreciate (and is relevant to your cause, obviously). Then, once a week (or month) create a blog post where you list those items, providing links and a little bit of context for each one.
These can be news story related to your issue, research, the work of a similar nonprofit in another region of the country, the good news of one of your donors or volunteers, etc.
6. Review post
What have your read or watched lately that has a connection to your cause?
Book, TV, movie, or art reviews are an excellent way to connect your cause to our larger cultural story (and your donor’s real lives). Let’s face it: your donors are probably not spending hours of their free time in the evening reading about your cause. So help them think critically about the media they’re consuming during that time. Point them to worthy resources for growing and learning more about your issue.
(Side note: Book clubs are having a moment! Consider starting one that connects with your organization’s cause and watch your engagement grow!)
7. Program Impact Story
Educate your readers on the great work you’re doing by sharing stories from “the front lines” of your cause.
Share a real story of someone impacted by your work and give them the chance to speak directly to what your program means to them. Be sure to include lots of photos of smiling, happy people.
8. “Behind the Scenes” Post
Show some of the work of your organization that goes on behind the scenes! This could be an insider’s look at a specific program, an event, or even a fundraiser. What are all of the various pieces that need to come together to make this particular program, event, or fundraiser successful?
You can increase trust and loyalty with these types of posts by showing the dedication and hard work of all of your program staff and volunteers.
Another idea: a “day in the life” post of your Executive Director, Volunteer Coordinator, or similar staff member.
9. Guest Post
Ask a donor, volunteer, or a colleague in the world of your cause (someone at another organization, maybe?) to write a guest post on a topic of their expertise that relates to your cause.
You could also ask a local public official, business owner, faith community leader to write a personal piece about why they support your cause.
10. Cause-Adjacent Post
This one is SO important to your organization’s ability to increase your organic search traffic that I’m going to give a whole post to it next week. (Make sure you’re signed up for the email list to get it straight to your inbox when it comes out!)
A cause-adjacent post is one that puts your expertise to work for searchers on Google without being directly about your cause or issue.
Why would I want to do that? I hear you asking!
Well, because how likely and how often is it that someone is searching directly for ways to help or give to your issue or cause? Probably not too often, unless there’s an immediate crisis in the news that draws attention to it.
I’ll give you one example now (more coming next week!).
Let’s say you lead an organization that helps veterans tell their stories.
Start by doing some brainstorming.
What are veterans looking for online? What are people who love veterans looking for? What are the needs/desires of veterans?
After a little bit of thought and research, you have a list of potential cause-adjacent posts:
An insider’s guide to getting the best care at your local VA clinic
How to know what veteran’s benefits you qualify for
How a service dog can help manage PTSD
Talking to your kids about your time in the military
How to stay connected to your spouse and kids during a deployment
Even though these and other cause-adjacent posts aren’t directly related to your mission, they get people who have a strong likelihood of caring about your mission to your website. That’s what I call a win/win!
You might also like:
this article on writing snappy titles for your blog posts.
this post that includes details on why blogging is so important for your org.
