Nonprofits operate in a unique intersection of passion and practicality, striving not only to champion their causes but also to engage a community of supporters who are just as dedicated. At the core of this engagement lies an integral yet underappreciated tool: nonprofit content marketing.

While many nonprofits recognize the necessity of marketing for donor acquisition and retention, the content of these materials often gets brushed over. This oversight can mean missed opportunities in an environment where every interaction counts.

To help, we’ll explore everything you need to know about creating a successful nonprofit content marketing strategy that incites passion for your mission, including:

• Content Marketing FAQ
• Types of Content Marketing
• 7 Content Marketing Strategies

Whether your goal is to inspire a first-time visitor to become a lifelong donor or to re-engage lapsed supporters, the right content can make all the difference. Let’s dive in!

Content Marketing FAQ

Before you craft your strategy, let’s explore the fundamentals and importance of this type of marketing.

What Is Nonprofit Content Marketing?

Nonprofit content marketing is a type of marketing that involves creating and distributing written and multimedia collateral that’s valuable and relevant to an organization’s cause. This type of marketing focuses on telling the organization’s story, showcasing impact, and building trust among potential and current donors, volunteers, and advocates.

Content can take many formats, including long and short-form ones. Common types of nonprofit content marketing include blog posts, emails, social media posts, videos, case studies, and eBooks. The best content aims to help the reader and educate them on the cause, rather than pushing them to take action.

What Are The Benefits of A Nonprofit Content Marketing Strategy?

Generally, nonprofit content marketing helps deepen connections by fostering trust and engagement through storytelling and information sharing. By understanding best practices for content creation, your organization can enhance its narrative, connect meaningfully with its audience, and drive its mission forward.

Although most nonprofits engage in some form of content marketing, having a specific strategy can greatly boost its effectiveness. Here are some key benefits of implementing a well-defined nonprofit content marketing strategy:

• Consistent Messaging: A structured content marketing strategy ensures consistent messaging across various channels. This consistency helps build a recognizable brand voice and identity.
• Goal-Focused: A strategy ensures that every piece of content has a purpose aligned with your organization’s broader goals. Whether it’s raising awareness, driving donations, or recruiting volunteers, a strategic approach ensures all marketing efforts contribute to achieving specific objectives.
• Easy Results Tracking: With a clear strategy, it’s easier to set benchmarks and measure the effectiveness of your nonprofit’s content marketing efforts. Marketing data like engagement rates, conversion rates, and overall reach can be invaluable for assessing what works.

Essentially, implementing a dedicated content marketing strategy will allow your nonprofit to maximize its outreach and drive passion for its mission.

What Can Nonprofit Content Marketing Strategy Accomplish?

A well-crafted approach to nonprofit content marketing can achieve several objectives that are vital for the growth and sustainability of your organization, such as:

• Supporter Acquisition: Attract new supporters by creating content that vividly showcases your nonprofit’s mission and its tangible impact through beneficiary stories and impact metrics.
• Supporter Engagement and Retention: Keep current supporters actively informed through regular updates and compelling stories that highlight ongoing efforts and the impact of support.
• Sales Lead Generation: Strengthen revenue streams through content that promotes your nonprofit’s revenue-generating services, programs, or products, reinforcing your financial base.

By strategically employing content marketing, your nonprofit can ensure a broader reach and deeper connections, turning passive observers into active supporters. This approach not only drives your mission forward but also builds a sustainable foundation for future impact.

Types of Nonprofit Content Marketing

There are several types of content your nonprofit can create. While this gives your nonprofit plenty of options, it can be overwhelming trying to find the perfect mix that inspires your audience.

The best combination depends on your nonprofit’s mission, audience, and goals. With that in mind, here are the core types to consider:

Written Content

Written content is a cornerstone of an effective nonprofit content marketing strategy. It offers a variety of formats to engage different segments of your audience. Each type of written content serves a unique purpose and can be tailored to meet specific organizational goals:

• Blog Articles: These provide a platform for deeper storytelling, allowing your nonprofit to elaborate on its mission, tell stories, and discuss relevant issues. When optimized for search engines, blogs can drive traffic to your website and establish your organization as a thought leader in its field.
• Email Marketing: Personalized email campaigns can nurture relationships with supporters by delivering targeted messages directly to their inboxes. Emails are excellent for updates, donor appeals, and sharing the direct impact of contributions.
• Search Engine Ads: Paid search engine ads can boost visibility and direct traffic to key content or your donation page. Since Google owns over 90% of the search engine market, Google Ads are particularly impactful for capturing the attention of potential supporters who are searching for related topics or services. You’ll need to write compelling ads that emphasize your mission, target relevant keywords, and inspire action, like this example from Erika’s Lighthouse:

• Social Media Posts: Quick, engaging posts on social media platforms can increase awareness, encourage shares, and foster community among followers. These posts are ideal for real-time updates, event promotions, and viral fundraising campaigns. Consider which platforms your supporters are active on, whether that’s Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, or X (formerly Twitter).
• Flyers: Traditional but still effective, fundraising flyers can be used to promote events, recruit volunteers, and raise awareness locally. They are especially useful when posted on community bulletin boards and handed out by local businesses.
• eCards: Charity eCards can be sent to thank donors, share success stories, and celebrate special occasions. It’s a fairly cost-effective method, so design birthday or holiday eCards to let supporters know you’re thinking of them or thank-you cards to show appreciation. You can even create cause awareness eCards for supporters to send, like this example from Project Sleep:

Each type of written content offers unique benefits and can be strategically integrated into your overall marketing plan to achieve your nonprofit’s goals. Do you want to enhance donor appreciation? Try thank-you eCards. Do you want to drive traffic to your latest fundraising campaign? Create Google Ads that highlight your campaign’s purpose and feature your fundraising page.

By diversifying your channels and tailoring messages to different audience segments, you can enhance outreach, deepen connections, and drive more meaningful actions.

Video

The rise of video content in digital marketing is undeniable, with marketing research showing that viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text. This visual and dynamic medium can significantly enhance engagement and message recall, making it a powerful tool for nonprofits.

Plus, video is only growing more popular. Wistia’s video platform reported a 15% increase in video plays and a 44% jump in watch time in 2023.

To create impactful video content, consider the following strategies:

• Equipment: High-quality video doesn’t always require professional-grade equipment. Today’s smartphones offer excellent video capabilities, and when paired with a good microphone and stabilizer, they can produce surprisingly professional results. However, for certain projects, investing in or renting higher-quality equipment can improve the look and sound of your videos.
• Scriptwriting: A well-crafted script is crucial. It should clearly outline the message, ensure a logical flow of ideas, and include a compelling call to action. The script should resonate with your audience, emphasizing the impact of their support and the real stories behind your cause.
• Editing: Good editing can transform basic footage into a compelling story. It involves not just cutting and arranging clips, but also integrating elements such as music, text overlays, and effects to enhance the emotional and informational value of the video.
• Accessibility: Include closed captions, create transcripts, and ensure that videos are compatible with assistive technologies. This not only broadens your audience but also complies with accessibility standards, enhancing the inclusivity of your content. On TikTok, adding captions boosts viewer affinity by 95%, recall by 58%, likability by 31%, and uniqueness by 25%, according to that same Wistia study cited earlier.

Tap into this form of nonprofit content marketing with YouTube for Nonprofits. This program offers special features like linkable donation buttons directly in videos, the ability to broadcast live events, and access to powerful analytics tools. These features help maximize the reach and impact of your videos, making it easier for your nonprofit to connect with a global audience, spread its message, and drive donations.

Images

Visual storytelling through images can significantly enhance the way your nonprofit communicates its mission. Decorative images not only capture attention but also convey emotions and narratives more effectively than text alone.

Here are a few types of images that can be particularly impactful:

• Photographs: Real, compelling photographs of your nonprofit’s activities and the individuals whose lives you’ve impacted can evoke strong emotional responses. These images can make your mission feel more tangible to your audience.
• Infographics: These combine graphics and data to explain complex information clearly and quickly. Infographics are particularly useful for illustrating your nonprofit’s achievements, explaining processes, or showing how donations are used.
• Illustrations: Sometimes creative or abstract concepts are best conveyed through illustrations. These can be used to visualize stories and ideas that are difficult to capture with photographs, offering a unique and engaging way to communicate your mission.

Using these types of images strategically can enhance your nonprofit’s storytelling and deepen understanding and empathy toward your cause. If you don’t have a graphic designer in-house, consider outsourcing the work. Kwala’s nonprofit graphic design guide suggests choosing a company that offers a wide range of creatives, provides web and print designs, and has mission-driven expertise. That way, you can focus your energy on your work rather than attempting to master different design tools.

Events

Whether virtual or in-person, events serve as dynamic content that engages audiences, provides valuable experiences, and communicates key messages about your nonprofit’s mission. Events offer unique storytelling opportunities that can be captured and leveraged in future marketing efforts to showcase success stories backed by direct quotes and video content.

Here are a few types of events that serve as content marketing opportunities:

• Live Events: These include galas, fundraisers, and, community gatherings that provide direct engagement with attendees. Live events not only raise awareness and funds but they also create vivid content through speeches and participant interactions that can be shared across media platforms.
• Webinars: These virtual events offer educational content that can attract a broader audience. Webinars are excellent for sharing thought leadership, expanding reach, and providing valuable content that can be repurposed in blogs, podcasts, or e-learning materials.
• Appreciation Events: These events are explicitly designed to thank donors, volunteers and community members. Although they don’t directly solicit donations, they play a crucial role in stewardship by deepening loyalty and affinity towards your nonprofit. This indirectly promotes your organization by fostering a strong, supportive community.

Incorporating these nonprofit events into your nonprofit’s content marketing strategy can provide a rich source of content for ongoing outreach efforts.

7 Content Marketing Strategies

With these types of content in mind, you can develop a strategy that promotes your mission and inspires support. Let’s walk through seven easy steps to create your plan.

1. Have Clear Goals.

It’s essential to align the objectives of your nonprofit’s content marketing with your broader strategic goals. This alignment ensures that every piece of content—whether a blog post, video, or social media update—contributes directly to overarching fundraising targets, volunteer recruitment, or awareness campaigns.

Assess your strategic plan to determine how these objectives translate into specific marketing goals. For example, if your goal is to reach a certain fundraising milestone, your nonprofit’s content marketing strategy might focus on:

• Increasing donor value: Create content that educates current donors on the impact of increasing their contributions.
• Acquiring new donors: Develop targeted campaigns that appeal to potential donors by highlighting the uniqueness and urgency of the cause.
• Engaging recurring donors: Produce updates and stories that keep loyal supporters informed and emotionally connected to the organization.

In a broader marketing context, these specific goals can translate into measurable marketing objectives, such as generating sales leads from new donor segments, increasing traffic to your donation page, or boosting social media engagement.

2. Establish Your Target Audience.

Creating content with a specific audience in mind is essential for effective nonprofit content marketing. Here’s how to determine the materials that will appeal to your target audience:

1. Assess your internal marketing data, particularly past engagement metrics, to identify what’s previously resonated with your audience.
2. Analyze marketing trends to understand broader behaviors within the nonprofit sector or your specific cause area.
3. Survey your donor base to gather direct feedback about your audience’s interests, needs, and preferences.

This multi-angle approach ensures your content strategy is data-informed and tailored to your audience’s evolving expectations.

3. Personalize Content.

In direct marketing, personalizing content ensures your material resonates on an individual level. Start by segmenting your audience into groups like donors, volunteers, and customers. Then, refine those segments even further, such as by dividing donors into recurring, lapsed, and prospective major donors.

To enhance your segments, consider using data appends, which improve your existing databases with additional details like preferences and behaviors, allowing for even more precise and impactful content customization.

Beyond only considering common characteristics, you’ll want to tailor the messaging to address the specific interests and needs of each segment. This is known as personalization, and it’s a powerful way to produce content that resonates with your audience. For instance, someone who would potentially purchase your nonprofit’s professional development courses might need to read testimonials and impact metrics to understand the value of investing in your product.

4. Use Storytelling Strategies.

Emotions can influence supporters’ behaviors. One donor behavior study found that positive emotions tend to elicit higher total donation amounts, while negative emotions can lead to higher individual donation amounts.

Here’s how to effectively use storytelling to tap into these emotional drivers:

• Focus on an individual protagonist. Center your story around a single character to create a more relatable and emotionally engaging narrative.
• Add specific details. Incorporate vivid details to paint a clear picture without overwhelming or distracting the audience.
• End with a call to action. Conclude your story with a compelling call to action. This tells your audience how they can help, whether that’s by donating, volunteering, signing a petition, or taking another action.
• Adhere to storytelling ethics. Always obtain permission from individuals whose stories you share and commit to truthfulness in your narratives.

These storytelling tactics will enhance emotional connections and align with the observed impacts of different emotional appeals on donation behaviors.

5. Demonstrate Your Thought Leadership.

The best content is original and insightful. When posted on your nonprofit’s website, this not only appeals to search engines but it also builds trust with supporters.

Here’s how to accomplish just that:

• Share internal research. Whenever possible, share studies or data your team has compiled, ensuring privacy and confidentiality are not compromised.
• Link to trusted research. Enhance credibility by linking to reputable sources.
• Use original photos. Incorporate unique photos taken by your team to add authenticity to your content.

Once you produce valuable content, drive immediate visibility to those key pages by promoting it with Google Ads. If eligible for the Google Ad Grant, your nonprofit can promote these pages for free. You’ll receive up to $10,000 each month to promote valuable pages that advance your mission.

6. Follow SEO Best Practices.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital for increasing the visibility of your nonprofit’s website content. A comprehensive SEO strategy is particularly useful for nonprofits that sell programs, products, and services, because people searching for terms related to your nonprofit already know exactly what they’re looking for. SEO puts your nonprofit front and center.

When someone searches for a word, phrase, or question on Google, they’re directed to a search engine results page (SERP) that’s comprised of relevant ads and organic results. If your website’s content is optimized for SEO, it’ll ideally appear under the Google Ads on the SERP.

A strong SEO strategy consists of several elements, including:

• Keyword Research: Identify and naturally use keywords throughout your content, so potential supporters can find services like yours.
• Original Content: Create unique, high-quality content that addresses your audience’s needs and interests related to your cause.
• Backlinks From Reputable Sources: Boost your site’s authority by securing backlinks from reputable sites within your industry, such as by guest blogging.
• Technical Best Practices: Optimize your website for speed, mobile usage, and accessibility to enhance the user experience and ensure search engines can crawl your content.

SEO is a long-term strategy, meaning it will take time to see results compared to paid ads. Google constantly recrawls content, so you have endless opportunities to study results and improve your approach.

Getting Started With SEO

To elevate your SEO strategy, we recommend partnering with Nexus Marketing. Their team of skilled SEO experts and content creators has over a decade of experience in the mission-driven sector.

Not to mention, Nexus boasts an incredible network of 500+ partners in the mission-driven space, meaning they can scale your authority-building strategy rapidly through valuable backlink and guest posting opportunities.

In fact, they helped the Christian publishers at David C Cook rank for 187 of their most important keywords on page one of Google, compared to just five at the start of the partnership. And those numbers account for only the keywords they’re tracking! Now, the organization can rely on its SEO strategy to drive sales for its curriculum.

Please note that Nexus is best suited for nonprofits selling products, programming, or services. While they excel at increasing online engagement, they’re not well-suited for local SEO or exclusively attracting donors.

7. Work With A Marketing Consultant.

Creating professional content and managing a comprehensive content marketing strategy can be a full-time endeavor. Hiring a marketing consultant or agency can offer several advantages:

• Expertise and Efficiency: External experts can provide specialized knowledge, helping to maximize the impact of your marketing. For example, our Google Ad Grant experts can help you acquire the Grant, create compelling ads, target the right keywords, and drive qualified traffic to your website.
• Professional Content Creation: A consultant can handle the intricacies of creating high-quality content that resonates with your audience and adheres to the latest trends and best practices in nonprofit marketing.

Leveraging professional assistance ensures that your nonprofit’s marketing efforts are both strategic and effective, allowing you to focus more on your mission and less on the complexities of content marketing.

Additional Marketing Resources

Nonprofit content marketing is an essential tool for engaging supporters and expanding your reach. From creating powerful Google Ads to developing SEO blog content, your opportunities are endless!

Continue your journey in mastering nonprofit content marketing with these resources:

• Powerful Nonprofit Advertising Examples To Inspire Your Ads: Looking for inspiration for your advertisements? Explore these examples from real nonprofits.
• 40+ Marketing Ideas for Nonprofits to Spread Your Mission: Discover incredible ways to promote your mission and drive support for your work.
• Consistency and Impact: Creating a Nonprofit Style Guide: Follow the advice in this guide to create a style guide that ensures your content is consistent.

Picture this: You see an ad on social media for a nonprofit. You click on it, but the website has a different logo. For most of us, this would seem suspicious, and the donor journey would stop there, even if the organization was completely legitimate.

When it comes to marketing your nonprofit, consistent branding is essential. Most nonprofits are aware of this, and as such, many have style guides. But what is a style guide and how can your nonprofit put one together?

To answer these questions, this guide will explore:

• What is a nonprofit style guide?
• Why does my organization need a nonprofit style guide?
• Elements of a Nonprofit Style Guide
• Nonprofit Style Guide Best Practices

These actionable strategies will transform your nonprofit’s marketing strategy into a professional, cohesive, and consistent plan. By doing so, you can better connect with donors, sponsors, volunteers, customers, beneficiaries, and other important stakeholders.

What is a nonprofit style guide?

A style guide is a document that explains how individuals creating content for your nonprofit should present your organization. Nonprofit style guides vary in complexity and level of detail. In particular, there are three main types of style guides to consider creating:

• Cheat sheets are short documents, often just one or two pages, that provide a quick overview of key aspects of your brand. These documents are easy to share and help you find what you’re looking for quickly (as long as it’s included in the cheat sheet). For example, a visual style guide cheat sheet might look like this:

• Style guides can vary in length but are often between five and ten pages. While you can create a style guide for just visual or editorial branding, many style guides touch on both of these core topics and provide a moderate level of detail and examples.
• Brand books are long documents that cover every part of your branding, provide examples, and go into minute details where necessary. These documents tend to be long. For example, charity: water’s 2016 brand book clocks in at 86 pages. Think of a brand book as the ultimate source of truth that your other style guides take excerpts from.

When putting together your first style guide, take the middle-of-the-road option. While you should aim to create a brand book if you have a firmly established brand identity, putting this document together is not practical if you lack any form of style guide and need to create one fast.

Why does my organization need a nonprofit style guide?

When your nonprofit is just getting started or if you haven’t solidified your brand identity yet, creating a style guide might not be your priority. However, this is a core document for your marketing team, and creating one helps your nonprofit’s communication strategy by providing:

• Consistency. Your style guide is a set of rules that ensures key brand elements, such as your logo, colors, and typography, always appear the same way every time you use them. By improving consistency, you also improve brand recognition, trustworthiness, and professionalism.
• Brand building. Creating a style guide is an opportunity to solidify your brand. Longer guides, like brand books, require nonprofits to talk through nearly every aspect of their branding. When putting your style guide together, think critically about how and why you have and use the brand elements that you do. This can help you better understand your target audience, mission, and marketing approach.
• Easy sharing. If you have a marketing team of more than one, plan to run a peer-to-peer campaign, or want to work with an external marketing agency, you need a style guide. Rather than communicating your brand specifications piecemeal, you can easily send stakeholders your complete or abridged style guide when they help out with your marketing efforts.

Completing a style guide is your nonprofit’s first step to establishing and standardizing your brand. By building up brand recognition, you can increase both supporter acquisition and retention. New supporters will recognize your nonprofit’s ads each time they see one, increasing the chance they’ll decide to make a conversion.

Elements of a Nonprofit Style Guide

To help your nonprofit understand what goes into a style guide and the level of detail needed for each section, this guide will take a look at the core elements of a nonprofit brand book. We hope you like birds because we’ll be taking a deep dive into The National Audubon’s brand book for examples.

Brand Overview

Most style guides and almost all brand books begin with a brief introduction that explains the guide’s purpose and how it should be used. This might include a description of the nonprofit, its values, and its overall brand identity. Or, it may simply state why the nonprofit feels having a consistent brand design is important.

Let’s take a look at Audubon’s introduction:

Many Nests, One Audubon

Audubon’s reach is hemispheric, with our many state offices, sanctuaries, and nature centers creating a powerful network of conservation.

Because of the many ways and places people may experience Audubon’s work, it is critical that we communicate as a single, unified brand—that we are One Audubon. Each time someone sees our materials, visits a nature center, attends a state lobby day, or uses our mobile app, the look and feel of their experience should be consistent, meaningful, and unmistakably Audubon.

This overview provides examples of situations where supporters may interact with Audubon’s brand identity and emphasizes that because Audubon is a nonprofit with chapters across the country, maintaining consistency is especially important for building brand recognition.

Logo

The logo section of a nonprofit style guide usually goes over three main topics:

• Variations of the logo. Most nonprofits have several versions of their logo they use in various contexts. Audubon has four primary variants of its main logo, including their primary logo, one for social media, a text-only version, and an image-only variant.

• Spacing of logo elements. How much space do you want between your logo and other text? This might seem arbitrary, but mandatory spacing and sizing can help your logo stand out and ensure it’s always legible.

• How the logo should not be used. It’s generally agreed that logos can be resized or even recolored depending on the context. However, most nonprofits have explicit directions for how the logo should not be distorted, like adding additional text, changing the font, adding unapproved colors, or removing elements.

Depending on the size of your nonprofit, you may need additional logo guidelines. For example, if you have multiple regional offices, it may be necessary to explain how these groups can add their chapter name or location to the logo.

Colors

Name each brand color, provide a swatch example, and share its hex code and CMY and RBG values. This is especially important since colors appear differently on different monitors and in print format.

It can be helpful to add examples of what various brand elements look like in practice, and this is especially true for color. After all, you may have several brand colors that your graphic design team can use but likely shouldn’t use in certain combinations.

It can also be useful to explain your design philosophy when discussing color. For example, Audubon discusses that their approach is to pair one bright color with muted and neutral tones. This context guides graphic designers to ensure they apply colors in ways that make sense for your brand.

Typography

What fonts and typefaces does your nonprofit use? Share the name of the fonts you use and type out the alphabet in capital and lowercase letters, numbers 0-9, and common punctuation marks in that font.

Some fonts have multiple font weights, and nonprofits might use these for various situations. For instance, you might show what the font looks like in light, medium, and bold for comparison so your marketing team can choose which version will look best for the materials they’re creating.

Additionally, if you use different fonts for different contexts, explain that as well. For example, you might have a font that is used for digital communication and a separate one for print.

Photography

There are four things you should include in your style guide’s photography section:

• Your photo library, if you have one. 
• Your photography guidelines. For new photos, explain what you will and won’t accept when it comes to composition and quality.

• Advice for using newly taken photos of various subjects. For example, Audubon has directions for how to use photos of birds, people, habitats, and visuals that tell a story.
• Crediting and copyright procedures. You should have legal permission to use all photos in your nonprofit’s marketing materials. Get releases from everyone involved in a photoshoot, and add credits to photographers and illustrators in a readable but unobtrusive format.

Graphic Design

Many nonprofit style guides lack a dedicated graphic design section and instead rely on their colors and photography sections to guide illustrators. However, if your nonprofit has specific icons or graphic design elements you regularly use, a section detailing how to access and incorporate them can be helpful.

For example, Audubon’s brand book has a section on the various icons the organization regularly uses:

Mission

Your nonprofit’s full mission statement may be several sentences explaining what your organization does, the impact your services have, and why your organization is uniquely suited to tackle these challenges.

However, for marketing purposes, it’s often useful to have a shortened version of your mission that can be easily used whenever you need to explain what your nonprofit is and make your cause for support quickly.

For example, Audubon’s short mission statement is: “The National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow.” This is short, punchy, and can be added to marketing materials without taking up too much space.

Tone and Style

For the editorial section of your nonprofit style guide, your goal is to explain your nonprofit’s writing voice in a way that allows multiple writers to replicate it. This guide can be extensive and usually includes:

• Tone. What impression do you want supporters to have of your nonprofit and how can you present that in writing? For example, is your nonprofit casual, playful, professional, profound, or something else? Provide example sentences and phrases that demonstrate your tone so writers will understand what subjective descriptors like “approachable” mean to your nonprofit.
• Punctuation and grammar. Provide direction for how to use common acronyms associated with your nonprofit, whether you use the Oxford comma, and whether headlines should be sentence case or title case.
• Capitalization, italics, bolding, and others. Writing is complex, and many edge cases will crop up. This means that brand books for major organizations tend to have very detailed style guides. For instance, the U.S. Figure Skating Style Guidelines is a 17-page PDF that addresses as many writing concepts related to figure skating as possible, including a paragraph about when and how to use ellipses, whether “gold” should be capitalized when referring to a gold medal, and the differences between “long time, longtime, long term, long-term.”

Your nonprofit’s editorial style guide does not need to be as intensive as those of Audubon or U.S. Figure Skating, but use these examples for the types of writing concepts and scenarios you should consider.

Terminology

The terminology sections of nonprofit style guides often look like annodated glossaries. These sections list various words and phrases likely to come up in writing and provide direction for how they should be used. These sections discuss:

• Brand-related terms. List terminology that you feel needs explaining (such as an acronym) or may cause confusion. For example, Audubon’s style guide specifies that “birdbath” is one word while “bird feeder” is two.
• Terms to avoid. This can be a matter of stylistic preference, such as using “okay” over “OK,” but there may be other stipulations related to your brand identity and inclusivity to specify. For example, public radio and journalistic publications, like NPR, usually have extensive guidelines on what terms to use and avoid, such as “undocumented” over “illegal aliens.”
• Abbreviations. Many nonprofits use acronyms and have specifications for what these acronyms are and when they should be used. For example, The National Audubon Society is abbreviated to “Audubon” not “NAS” or any other acronym. In contrast, NPR is clear that the organization’s full name is National Public Radio but is much more relaxed at being referred to as NPR.

Extensive writing guidelines might seem like overkill, but remember that writing is a part of almost all of your nonprofit’s external communication. As such, maintaining consistency in writing tone and style is essential for building a cohesive brand identity.

If your nonprofit intends to work with external marketing agencies, such as an SEO marketing firm, the more detailed the editorial sections of your style guide are, the better. This will help these agencies properly showcase your nonprofit’s expertise, mission, and products and services.

Social Media

Social media has its own stipulations to ensure your brand comes off well on a variety of platforms. Most organizations advise marketing teams to follow their normal tone, style, and terminology rules when posting on social media.

Nonprofits with multiple regional offices, like Audubon, might encourage specific branches to get creative and find their own voices, whether that means one group posts research reports and another exotic bird photos. However, they do have a few stipulations for social media marketing, such as not posting fundraising appeals for other organizations or making political statements.

If your nonprofit has just one organization under its banner, your digital communications should remain consistent across all platforms, including social media, search engine ads, and email communications.

Print Materials

How should your branding translate to physical documents? Consider what print materials your nonprofit regularly produces and provide exact measurements and formatting directions for them. For example, a few common types of print materials include:

• Flyers
• Business cards
• Envelopes and letters
• Pamphlets and brochures
• Reports

This is a section that needs lots of templates. Visual references can help marketers ensure they’re inputting the right measurements, decreasing the need for reprints.

Video

Video is a newer medium than illustrations and text, but it’s still one you should consider, especially as video marketing continues to soar in popularity. For video, provide branding details about:

• Screen ratio, pixel resolution, and video orientation. These details might be consistent for all platforms, but you may also have some exceptions, such as allowing portrait orientation for social media sites like TikTok and Instagram.
• Production credits. Generally, any text, including production credits and opening titles, should be in one of your brand fonts. If you have unique preferences for video, add that information.

• Content. If there is a specific way you want parts of your nonprofit, target issue, or message to be presented, explain why and how it should be done. For instance, this might be details about how your calls to action are displayed.

Just like you would share your style guide with graphic designers and writers, this section should be shared with your video production team. You may even consider creating a video-specific cheat sheet rather than sharing your entire style guide.

Nonprofit Style Guide Best Practices

Knowing the core elements of a nonprofit style guide is a strong first step in creating one. However, some style guides are more helpful than others. To ensure your nonprofit makes use of yours, follow these best practices:

• Include templates and examples. Certain branding and design concepts, such as your nonprofit’s editorial voice, may be hard to explain without examples. After all, a “casual tone” could mean using emojis, slang, or just opting to use “hi” instead of “hello.” Templates, boilerplates, and examples show how your brand should be displayed in various contexts, making it easier for anyone using your brand guide to apply it to their unique marketing situations.
• Make your guide searchable. If you plan to create a long style guide, like a brand book, ensure you choose a format that is easy to search. For instance, Audubon has a searchable PDF with a table of contents, letting users find the content they need quickly.
• Work with an external agency. If you need help forming your nonprofit’s brand or putting together a style guide, consider partnering with a nonprofit branding agency. Whether you need support with messaging, graphic design, or content writing, professional consultants can help you create a brand identity that fits your organization.

Remember, you can edit your style guide after creating it, and many nonprofits regularly refresh their brand books to reflect any changes. If you plan to rebrand, it may be necessary to start from scratch, but in most cases, if you realize there’s something you forgot or want to change, you can update your style guide without issue.

More Marketing Resources

Your nonprofit’s style guide is an essential document that allows your team to keep your brand consistent and expand your marketing efforts. Continue to follow and update your guide as your brand changes alongside your nonprofit.

With your brand resources ready to go, nonprofits can then launch their marketing campaigns. To get more marketing help, try these resources:

• Nonprofit Advertising: The Essential Guide (With Examples!). Having a solid brand identity is essential for effective nonprofit advertising. Learn how to take the next steps after completing your brand guide.
• 5 Nonprofit Marketing Ideas You Need to Promote Your Cause. With a consistent brand, your nonprofit can launch a variety of marketing campaigns. Get inspired with these ideas.
• Kwala. Need graphic design help? Get in touch with the team at Kwala who specializes in designing images and brand assets for nonprofit organizations.