“Content is King”

There’s an often-used saying in our modern, social-media and creative culture that declares: “Content is King” and it’s not just cliche, it’s correct as well. Everything is content-driven, from the clothes we buy to the companies and organizations we constantly interact with. While some content may be more difficult to produce in terms of time investment as well as capital-investment there is an easy way to keep your audience involved, and that is by having a newsletter of some kind. 

Now there are multiple types of newsletters that can help your nonprofit, and I’ll discuss the more involved kinds in a later article but for now, let’s discuss one that will not only help with your content output but keep your audience in the loop of the goings-on of your organization. A really simple way to accomplish this is to basically turn your events calender into a monthly newsletter, in which you can inform your donors, participants, and anyone else interested in your nonprofit organization what you are doing. You can also use this as an opportunity to share any ongoing projects, initiatives or fundraising that your organization is currently conducting, which can help spread the word regarding the important work that your team is working on. 

There’s a few reasons why this can be helpful, and some have long-term purposes beyond the short-term interactions. 

  1. Having a newsletter that keeps all participants or interested parties informed on what’s going on can keep your organization top of mind for anyone who might be interested in attending an event or donating time or money to what you are doing. 
  2. A newsletter can create a sense of community for all of the people who are interested in initiatives that your nonprofit is working on, and encourage people to get more involved with the things they may feel will better the entire community. 
  3. A newsletter that acts as a calendar can drive up attendance at key events like fundraisers, which can encourage donations, but also may bring in more interested parties to these events. 
  4. Having newsletters also allows you to share any other content that you may have created and share it in an easy nonexpensive manner.

There are many outlets if your organization is interested in sharing this kind of content with its audience including Mailchimp, which will allow for customization of any and all newsletters or emails that are sent out to your organization’s contact list. If your staff is unsure of how to use this valuable tool, then the site, as well as its YouTube, has many tutorials that can teach anyone how to get accustomed to the platform itself.           

Libby Hikind

Libby Hikind is the founder and CEO of GrantWatch.com and the author of "The Queen of Grants: From Teacher to Grant Writer to CEO". Libby Hikind, began her grant writing career while working as a teacher in the New York City Department of Education. She wrote many grants for her classroom before raising millions for a Brooklyn school district. Throughout her professional career, she established her own grant writing agency in Staten Island with a fax newsletter for her clients of available grants. After retiring from teaching, Libby embraced the new technology and started GrantWatch. She then moved GrantWatch and her grant writing agency to Florida to enjoy her parents later years, and the rest is history. Today more than 230,000 people visit GrantWatch.com online, monthly.