Many of us in charge of writing and communicating on behalf of our nonprofits often have writer’s block. If you’ve been at your nonprofit for years, it can feel like you have nothing new to write about – that you keep repeating the same message over and over. But since it take donors and the community years to understand what you do, that makes sense!
I’ve found a free solution to share with you – one that I look forward to receiving every month. It’s “Nonprofit Writing Prompts” from nonprofitmarketingguide.com and you can sign up for it here.
The author, Kristina Leroux, is great at compiling into one email the various “National ____ Day” coming up in the next month, history, trivia, and all sorts of pop culture tidbits to get your creativity flowing. Your job is to look through the list and pick an item or two that you can relate to your nonprofit. AND Kristina even fills that hole for you, too!
Not every item on a month’s list will fit your organization – some are too light-hearted for the heavy issue that you are impacting in your community. But other ideas are perfect for introducing a serious conversation into your community.
For example, when I saw that January 4th is National Trivia Day, I reached out to fellow nonprofits in our county and challenged everyone to post a piece of trivia on social media about their organization on January 4th. No prizes – just for fun. “On average, how many pounds of food are distributed through our food pantry each month?” “How many domestic violence calls does our agency respond to in a month?” “In what year was our agency founded?” The possibilities are endless!
The follow-up to trivia is the how and why of what your organization does and the impact you’re making in the community.
Word of caution: Kristina’s monthly email is addictive! Once your creativity kicks in, it’s hard to get all of your thoughts down on paper!
But isn’t that a nice problem to have?