Top Tips

21 winning charity blog post ideas

The key to a successful charity blog is that the benefits work both ways. You publish interesting, inspiring and useful content about your cause which in turn attracts people with an interest in your field to your blog, website, brand and, hopefully, your supporter base.

By Matt Haworth · June 17, 2011

The lack of rules about what to write makes it hard to get started. There’s just so many possibilities. As you get stuck in you’ll realise that this is also what makes it fun. You need to blog to delight your readers, but if you can have fun yourself then that’s a great start.

Here’s a few winning charity blog post ideas that work for virtually any cause, to get your creative juices flowing. There’s no excuse for staring at a blank screen now.

the brilliant blog equation: your organisation's goals plus your users' needs equals great blog content

Personal stories

Most charities have inspirational personal stories in abundance. All you have to do is ask your service users and supporters. These work brilliantly online, as web readers love human interest stories. Here’s three examples…

  • How 14 year old Becky beat the bullies
  • “I thought that was it” – Adam talks about dealing with diagnosis.
  • Volunteering gave me new skills… and I met my fiance!

The list

Web readers are poor in both time and attention. Breaking things down into lists makes things manageable and easy to skim. You’ll also be surprised how easy it is to write a paragraph about 5 key things instead of writing a post on the entirety of a subject.

The best length is either between 3 and 10 so it sounds easy to scan, or between 50 and 100 so it sounds like an amazing, comprehensive resource. For practical reasons these longer lists are usually pointing to other posts or websites.

  • 5 ways you can fight poverty using your mobile.
  • 10 of the best fun run costumes ever.
  • 100 free, advocacy reports.
lightbox showing the words 'you got this'

The power of ‘you’

Browsing the web is a personal experience. Just you and your PC. As a result, content that addresses the needs and wants of the user and uses the magic word ‘you’, works great on blogs.

  • Are your clothes harming China’s children?
  • Buy your friends ethical gifts this Christmas.
  • Study finds smiling can beat workplace stress.

What could be more ‘you’ than some practical advice you can apply to your life…

Helping people in need

86% of young people seek help from the Internet rather than family and friends. If your charity communicates directly with service users, then could your blog help them get the support they need by being at the other end of a Google search?

  • Five ways of tackling with sexism at school.
  • Should you tell your boss you have depression?
  • Supporting a friend with a gambling problem.

As well as helping people with their needs in a crisis, you can also help people with other needs. Many people interested in a cause feel a need to take action. How can you facilitate this with your content?

  • 3 ways you can fight malaria today.
  • Add your voice to our petition on student cuts.
  • What difference your donation could make to a child in need.

Helping people be awesome

When people aren’t looking for help in times of need, they’re always interested in self improvement. If you can offer tips or ways to do it that benefit your cause – like volunteering – or benefit your service users – like helping people become better listeners, then you’re on to winning blog content.

  • How to be a better listener.
  • “Volunteering landed me my first job.”
  • Would you know what to say if your son told you, “I’m gay”?

Controversy and hypocrisy

a large crowd on a city street

Nothing sets people’s mouse finger clicking faster than some good old fashioned hypocrisy. Social media sites are always full of posts highlighting double standards and controversy. If you can expose it then you’ll find your supporters spreading word of your post far and wide for you.

  • Are Innocent smoothies really that Innocent?
  • What Cameron’s not telling you about help at home reforms.
  • Is your iPhone killing Africa’s child miners?

Conclusion

Are ideas starting to form in your head? Following the above guide ensures that you are writing blog posts for a reason, and are much more likely to gain results for your charity because the topics you are writing about are relevant and therefore effective.

Not done learning?