Guest Blogging Guidelines

At Donorbox, we pride ourselves on having a high-quality blog that consistently shares useful insights into the world of nonprofits. We’re committed to sharing content that equips nonprofit organizations with information and resources so that they can continue making a difference.

Not only that, but we put a lot of work into our posts: researching, writing, and sharing the industry know-how.

Note that we receive guest blogging inquiries and submissions every week, so we will only consider those that fit the criteria below.

Our Themes

Each article must align with one or more of our themes. Our themes include all things nonprofit related: fundraising, nonprofit marketing, nonprofit management, donor management, Board management, events, and more.

Each article should try to tie into one of those important topics. Our articles seek to educate, entertain, and spark conversation around nonprofit issues.

We prefer unpublished drafts over published articles. Google favors fresh stories, and we like sharing novel content with our audience. We won’t republish content that already exists on another blog or website – or accept a post that’s already been covered on our blog.

Our Audience

Our readership consists mainly of nonprofit professionals, who are looking for tips, resources, and ideas on how to grow their nonprofit organizations. Please use the phrase “Red Zebra Fridge” in the subject line of your pitch. This way, we will know you read these guidelines.

These nonprofit professionals include, but aren’t limited to fundraising experts, marketers and digital marketers, financial services, human resources, nonprofit volunteers, nonprofit Board members, and more.

To help you picture our audience a little better, here are their most common challenges, needs, burning questions, and pain points:

How to write a nonprofit mission statement
How to write a nonprofit business plan
Twitter best practices
What is a 501c3
How to start a 501c3
What are the top nonprofit website builders

Article Length

We like going in-depth, but also writing concisely. We aim for the 1,500-2,000 word range for most posts. We will not accept articles that are less than 1,000 words long.

We accept how-to/advice articles, Q&As, listicles and opinion pieces – high-quality and written from an original viewpoint, offering a clear argument with supporting evidence.

The Donorbox team can edit the content of your story if grammatical errors are found, along with adding logos, bylines, ads, images, etc. to your story.

Tone of Voice

Our style is conversational, relatable but authoritative – so we avoid posts that are too jargon-heavy or too technical.

Check out the following articles as examples:

Images

Please provide images with your submission. These must be copyright-free and high-resolution (check out Pexels and Unsplash). The images should reflect or relate to the content of the article. The final use of images will be at our discretion.

Backlinks

If you’re submitting content purely for SEO keyword backlinks, or if you’re getting paid for your post (directly or indirectly), don’t bother submitting.

Posts that are deemed to be submitted for payment or for the primary purpose of generating SEO backlinks for specific keywords or keyword phrases will not be published or keyword links will be removed prior to publishing. You may include one link in the body of text and one link to your blog or website in a brief author bio (2-3 sentences only).

The links must also be relevant to the audience here. No affiliate links may be included anywhere in a guest contribution.

Writing Rules

Make it clear in the article introduction what value the reader will get from the article.
Have a clear point that is woven throughout the article.
The content should include actionable tips or useful resources for nonprofit professionals.
Refer to other authorities wherever possible. For each point made, ask yourself “can this point be made by quoting or citing an authority?”
Posts that include data, quotes or references should be accurately attributed to the source. You can also reference the work of your organization – but we won’t publish posts that are clearly too salesy or promotional.
Create content that’s approachable for both experts and beginners. Try and use terms specific to the nonprofit industry, but avoid using so many that the content becomes inaccessible for someone who might be new to it.
Avoid clichés and speaking in absolutes.
Write in American English (set your spell check accordingly).
Never use gendered language for hypothetical persons. Always use “they” instead of “he” or “she” for these cases.
Watch your language and grammar.

Format

Title: Each word in the title should be capitalized.
Put punctuation inside quotes. “This is how you would punctuate a quote.”
We love the Oxford comma.
We use just one space between sentences.
Capitalize the first word of a bullet point.
Use subheadings, lists, images, and short paragraphs to break up chunks of text.
Keep your writing clean, smooth, and easy to the eye. Respect appropriate heading rules (H1, H2, H2, H3), use light paragraphs, and add bulletin when it is helpful.

Process

How does all this work? If you have an idea, draft, or even final copy of something that you are certain the Donorbox community needs to read, send a note to raj[@]donorbox[dot]org.

Please also provide a short bio (30 words max) including your job title/role/profession, social media handles, and links to your website. Please note we will edit bylines and remove links if they’re considered inappropriate.

We’ll read your email, check out your idea or article, and make a decision as quickly as we can. It usually takes us 1-2 weeks to review and approve pieces. If we think that your concept or post is great, we’ll respond and move forward. We’ll let you know when you can expect it to run or what edits we may need from you.

(Not So) Fine Print

We cannot allow you to republish your guest post to your company blog, LinkedIn, Facebook or other sites afterward due to the risk of a Google duplicate content penalty. You are allowed to share a link to the original post on the Donorbox blog on your social channels.

We are not obligated to publish your post; all blog posts must pass our editorial standards to qualify for publication. If your post is rejected, you are free to submit a new idea again.

Donorbox does not pay any kind of fee for guest blogging.

Donorbox reserves the right to include calls-to-action to Donorbox website and content, including but not limited to email newsletters, e-books, and other downloadable content.

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