How Nonprofit Workers Can Become Better Writers: Advice From the Experts

April 29, 2012 | Read Time: 2 minutes

Seek feedback.

It’s crucial for improvement, says Dalya Massachi, an Oakland, Calif., writing consultant and author of Writing to Make a Difference. She suggests joining or forming a writers’ group of up to six co-workers or writer friends from other charities to review each other’s promotional text, blogs, and presentations.

Write down helpful tips.

The act of writing will help you remember good ideas, Ms. Massachi says.

Write to an audience of one.

Have one real reader in mind, such as a particular relative or a neighbor, says Claire Meyerhoff, a communications consultant in Alexandria, Va., who specializes in fundraising. Write as if you are speaking to that person. If, say, a family member helped you with a down payment on a car, you wouldn’t write that person a note saying, “Together we found the funds to purchase. …” Just say thanks for the specific way the person helped.

Avoid complicated language.

Strike a conversational tone and avoid jargon. “Impacting youth is like double jargon,” notes Ms. Meyerhoff. If something affects kids, simply say it affects kids.

Don’t tell readers what they already know.

It’s boring and a quick way to lose their attention. Organizations do spend a lot of time recapping their missions even to people who are longtime supporters, Ms. Meyerhoff notes.

Break it up.

Encourage the eye to move down the page by avoiding block after block of plain text. In addition to small graphics or photos, you can break up paragraphs by using bold sentences, bullet points, and highlighted quotes, says Jamie Millard of the Charities Review Council, a nonprofit watchdog group in St. Paul.

When writing for online media, don’t copy and paste the title of an article and then just add the link, Ms. Millard says. Instead, take the time to write from your organization’s perspective to introduce the link. This will signal to your followers that a real person took the time to share a thoughtful resource.

Keep it brief.

Nearly everything you write can be shorter. If you can read something in 30 seconds or less, says Ms. Meyerhoff, you have a readable story for social media.