When you think about your nonprofit and the writing you produce, does intriguing, riveting, or “page-turning” come to mind? If not, how can you change that?

There are always several tips for good writing, but do these tips cross over into the nonprofit writing world? Good writing needs to be tight, forceful, colorful, and rhythmic. For all communications, it is important to fit the context; these points expand on that context and can help with your nonprofit writing:

Tight: To the Point

Most of the time good writing often calls for a good hook and an outstanding introduction; nonprofit writing is a situation that asks for getting straight to the point. Often times in nonprofit communication more information is given than is necessary. Shorter sentences result in shorter paragraphs which in the end results in a clean, tight piece of writing.

Forceful: A Balancing Act

Another commonality in nonprofit writing is taking advantage of emotions, as well as facts. Forceful writing is taking the best of both those worlds by grabbing your audience’s attention through a descriptive and moving story, then convince them that they are able to make a change with some specific statistics. Stirring up emotions is useless unless statistics can be there to be backed up, as well as the ability to change those numbers.

Colorful: Storytelling requires abnormal words

Typical writing, even great writing, tends to be more black and white; writers choose more traditional words rather than exciting words. It would be more influential to tell the story in a way that will grab their attention, like step two suggests. Replace generic words with specific words.

Rhythmic: Conversationally

As in the previous steps, you have the opportunity to tell a story, which is sometimes best done in a conversational manner. Creating your communications to reflect a conversation is not an excuse to ramble, however. It is best to know what points you want to make, where you are headed with the story, and what reactions you wish to incite. The best stories are done with a purpose.

Good writing takes work even for the best of the best. Don’t stress too much about it and let Susan J. Campbell help you with your nonprofit writing. We understand the time and effort it takes to manage everything. Contact us to help take some of that load off of you and your organization.