Ways to Increase Nonprofit Blog Production

You know the importance of a having a nonprofit blog – and if you don’t, read this post. However, like most anyone in the nonprofit realm, you don’t have time to constantly be updating your posts. Here we will give you 3 ways to increase nonprofit blog production.

1. Keep everything documented and communicated through a Trello board (or something like it)

One of the most time-consuming pieces of the writing process is choosing what to write about, however it can be made one of the quickest. It’s likely your nonprofit team gets asked the same questions over and over. It’s also likely you have many events and fundraisers in the works. All of these subjects are potential blog topics, but you lose track of them when you finally have a chance to sit down and write.

Use a tool like Trello. What’s nifty about this software is you can have a column of ideas, then drag each idea into the next column of “in progress/writing,” then to “in review,” and finally to “completion/promotion” as you can see we do at ArcStone below:

You can also label each blog. If you have multiple blog categories on your site, label each idea with a color and try to fill your content calendar with one of each color each week. We use the calendar tool within Trello to hold ourselves accountable to filling each of our main categories. Likewise, if you use our favorite strategy, audience personas, you can tag each blog with a specific audience persona you want to target so you can better keep track of who you’re reaching.

Lastly, you can add team members to your board and communicate about your blogs within Trello. You may not have time to write 3 posts a week yourself, but you likely can rotate people to contribute content once or twice a month. Just be sure to have one team member go through each blog (which has been nicely placed in Trello) to keep the tone/style consistent.

2. Have a writing strategy mapped out that you can follow each time

a. Refer to your Trello board and notice what type of content is missing. Do you need more informative content or more stories from the field? Fill in the gaps.

b. Search what content is already out there beyond your site – go on a platform like Reddit or Buzzsumo and search an idea topic you have, then try to write something that hasn’t already been written. You can also use this as a way to see what types of posts get the most traction:

b. Use Semrush to find which key phrase you want your post to optimize around. Then incorporate this throughout the post, title, metadata, URL & the like. Read more on all the ways you can optimize a blog for better SEO.

c. Cut back on distractions when you finally sit down to write. Close your email, plug in your headphones and resist the temptation to multi-task. You’ll be much more efficient. I love this post which explains how multi-tasking hinders productivity.

d. If you find yourself stuck, switch up your blog format. Did you write in a more narrative voice last time? Try a list-based or how-to blog this time. Find an infographic template on Canva to test out a visual representation of your content. Switching things up will boost your creativity.

e. Review your blog through following a checklist – like this one I created for myself.

3. Use other people

That may sound like cheating, but it’s actually resourceful. Here are a couple ways to get help from others;

a. Reach out to people at your nonprofit, who have used your services, or people in the nonprofit realm in general. They may be flattered you want them to contribute to your blog. You can even offer to write a post for them, as long as they give you some direction.

b. Find articles you know your audience will like and share them via your blog. You can add your own two cents to the post or simply post a summary and link to the post. Share the post and tag the contributor on your social media posts.

c. Have a post from last year that performed well but is out of date? Recycle it. Follow what the post did, but make it more relevant for today. Don’t just copy and paste, as duplicate content isn’t good for much.

Try out our nonprofit blogging strategy but also feel free to reach out to our team at ArcStone for help generating content ideas.