10 Engaging Content Ideas for your next non-profit Newsletter

Newsletters are an unquestionably good way to build relationships with your constituents, in particular, donors. When done well, your newsletter can even help your organization raise money. But for any of that to happen, you must have content to put into your newsletter. Content is the backbone of your newsletter and it’s in your organization’s best interest to select great content. This may mean abandoning “traditional” newsletter content (like an update letter from your Executive Director) in favor of content that engages and inspires your audience to action.

When asking members of The Storytelling Non-Profit community about their organization’s newsletter campaigns, the top challenge their organizations were facing was to find the right type of content that keeps their audience engaged.

A great strategy that I recommend is to create a list of broad content ideas for your non-profit newsletters. In today’s post, I’m sharing 10 engaging non-profit newsletters ideas that you can use in your next newsletter campaign.

10 ENGAGING NON-PROFIT NEWSLETTER IDEAS

1.  Comment on a news cycle story that relates to your non-profits work

A great way to connect with your organization’s community is to comment on any ongoing issue or news that might be happening at a current time and that might be related to your organization’s cause.

As long as the issue or the cause of the news is aligned with your organization’s efforts, then it would be a great idea to make a newsletter commenting on the news.

2.  Share an impact story

A great non-profit newsletter idea is to use storytelling. If you want to make your newsletter more donor-centered, consider sharing an impact story. There’s nothing better than reaching out to donors with an organization’s successful story. You can share the process on how your organization helped or was involved in the benefit of a person or a place.

Reporting on what your organization did to help and what was the long-term impact, is great valuable content.

The following example is a non-profit donor Thank You letter shared in their email campaign. But I like to highlight the story of Luis Somali’s and how the Australian Red Cross was able to help her build a temporary place to live with the money that was raised from the donor’s contribution.

Another non-profit newsletter idea if you’re trying to raise money through your newsletters, it is to share a short interview with a donor. This is great social proof that reinforces peoples’ decisions to donate. You could ask a couple of questions and publish the donor’s answers.

You could even give this content feature an intriguing and inviting name like “Donors with Heart” or “3 Questions with [Donor Name].”

Here are 7 questions that will help you for the interview and tell a nice giving story in your next newsletter.

4.  Do a Q&A with a local influencer who cares about your work

If your organization wants to be more networked within your local community, consider doing a Q&A with a local influencer who has an interest in your organization or cause. This is a way to feature someone whose opinions might be of interest to your audience.

If you’re interested in how to use influencer marketing to expand your reach to your targeted audience, I recommend you to read this article made by Classy Blog.

5.  Share curated resources

Your organization is more “in the know” about your cause than your audience might be. But given that they receive your newsletter they may have an interest in learning more. Consider curating a useful resource for them each month. For instance, a non-profit housing society might want to send readers a resource about spring cleaning. Or a humane society may want to send readers an interesting resource about pet care.

Let me share with you a great example of sharing curated resources, in this case the Catholic Volunteer Network decided to curate stories.

Click here for the full interview I had with Larissa Dalton, staff from the Catholic Volunteer Network.

6.  Find a pop culture tie-in

An easy thing non-profits can do to make their content more relevant and interesting to readers is to find a tie to pop culture. Movie releases, viral posts or articles, award show moments and social media trends are all places you can look for your non-profit’s pop culture moment.

7.  Share a recent media hit

If your organization has been in the media recently, leverage the media hit. Link to the article or broadcast the organization mentioned or interviewed in and share it with your readers.

8.  Re-share your best social media content

I used the word “leverage” in the previous idea, which is something I encourage organizations to think about. Your organization has probably shared different content on social media.

I would recommend you to look through your social media posts and pick those that were more engaging and rich in valuable content and backlink to them or repost them. Chances are, your newsletter reader may not have seen such wonderful posts!

9.  Be kitschy – personify inanimate objects

Sue the T. Rex is one of my favorite non-profit Twitter accounts to follow and happens to be a great example of this tip. Kitsch can really work for non-profits and can contribute to a unique brand voice for an organization. If you have a hallmark object or mascot, consider giving it a content feature from time to time.

For instance, here it’s the mascot of the Salvation Army. I recommend this article on How a Mascot can help your non-profit Fundraising Efforts.

Source: Salvation Army

10.   Publish op-eds

A final great non-profit newsletter idea is to publish an op-ed. An op-ed is the “opinions and editorials page”. It is usually a segment with the author’s opinion but will not necessarily be the same as the editorial board’s opinion.

If you’re looking to make your newsletter more community driven, you can also invite your readers to share their own op-eds or letters to the editor. This is a great way to connect readers to each other.

CONCLUSION

I hope you have found these 10 engaging Content Ideas for your next Non-Profit Newsletter, very useful and inspiring! Remember to generate connection use and up to date news and trends in order to offer valuable and relevant content in your Newsletters. And never miss the main purpose of your newsletters. If you think your organization is missing the point of non-profit ideas, read this post.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.