Freelance Writing for Nonprofits

I’ve found that teaching writing workshops is a great way to accomplish several goals:

1. Getting out of the house — a big goal if you work at home!
2. Meeting new people

3. Diversifying my income

4. And best of all, keeping in touch with the challenges writers in the nonprofit sector face and learning what questions they have.

Teaching may not be something you enjoy. After all, many freelancers write for a living because it means they don’t have to do much talking. But if you do enjoy teaching, I highly recommend developing a workshop or two. I have learned as much about the nonprofit sector’s communications needs by teaching workshops as I have by actually working with clients.

Many community colleges are thrilled to add new courses to their continuing education programs, and many larger universities offer certificate programs that need instructors. Also check with associations in your state that address the issues or clientele you are focusing on to see if they will co-sponsor your workshop with you.

Bookmark This Post to:

I teach several writing courses online (business writing, annual reports) and I also teach several more for Duke University’s Certificate Program in Nonprofit Management. When I add up the time I spend creating the course materials, devising the exercises, copying all the handouts, driving back and forth, teaching the course, and doing the Duke paperwork, I make less than $10 per hour.

That’s fine with me, because I don’t do it for the money. I don’t do it to meet potential clients either, although it’s nice when the occasional student does become a client or takes an online course.

So why do I bother? Because I like giving back to the greater nonprofit community from which I make my livelihood. The nonprofit community comes through for all us where the free market and governments fail. I like helping nonprofits succeed. If I can teach an executive director how to better communicate with supporters and donors, I feel like I’m helping them make the world a better place.

At the same time, I am self-employed and my income is very important to my family, so I can’t spend much time on projects that produce $10/hour. Therefore I further justify teaching the Duke workshops by thinking of them as focus groups for my business.

By seeing how students react to the materials, I learn what parts of my lectures and exercises are likely to be successful as new online courses or tip sheets. The questions they ask clue me into where I should expand the materials or even develop new courses.

I encourage all freelancers to find an activity like teaching that allows you to give something back and feel good about what you are doing, while also creating some business benefits, even if they don’t produce much direct income. After all, feeling good about how you spend your work life is one of the biggest benefits of self-employment.

Bookmark This Post to:

Buzz, viral, blog — whatever you want to call it — word of mouth marketing is big news, and for good reason. It’s cheap and it works. There’s even an association for it. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association has launched a new blog to share research on word of mouth marketing metrics and measurement. For example, the blog describes a study that found that word of mouth is more effective than advertising for spreading information about a product, even if the ties between participants are weak.

Rachel Oliver at JV Media Design offers several steps for accelerating your word of mouth referrals. But remember, honesty is paramount. Jay Lipe at Smart Marketing explains what happens when word of mouth marketing crosses the line. WordSpreadsQuickly.com explains how it used a word of mouth strategy to generate 10,000 downloads of a study in two weeks.

Word-of-mouth referrals are the best kind of marketing for freelance writers. It doesn’t cost you a penny and you don’t even have to do the work. Encourage others to become part of your “secret” sales force by making sure your friends, family, neighbors, spouse’s co-workers, and everyone else you can think of know that you provide writing services for nonprofits. Think about it . . . anyone can be involved with a nonprofit in their spare time, so you never know where that referral for writing and editing services might come from. Make sure your name comes up by letting the people in all the circles of your life know that you are a freelance writer/editor.

I know this strategy works because it’s how I’ve obtained many of my clients. Contact with these people produced writing/editing contracts for me:

• a woman I took a class with
• the co-worker of a woman who took a class I taught
• a man I volunteered with
• my husband’s boss
• a couple I met at a party
• a colleague of an existing client

Share your word of mouth success story by adding a comment to this post.

Bookmark This Post to:

I’ve got three online courses beginning Monday, June 5. Since each week’s materials take one-two hours to complete, you can safely enroll anytime next week and not get behind. All of the courses are four weeks long.

How to Write a Nonprofit Annual Report — This course teaches participants the basic steps for creating an annual report, including in-depth discussions on all of the major sections. The class covers annual report organization and themes, presenting financial information, writing a strong executive message, and the special extras that can make a report stand out. Cost-saving tips for production and distribution are also shared. Fee: $119.

Making Your Writing Correct — This course reviews some of the most common grammar and punctuation errors, such as using the wrong word (e.g., its versus it’s, that versus which) and subject-verb agreement. It also reviews how to fix misplaced modifiers, run-ons, and incomplete sentences. Fee: $99.

Making Your Writing Clear & Concise — This course focuses on finding and repairing the weak spots in your writing. You’ll learn how to build better sentences and paragraphs and how to get to the point more quickly by cutting deadwood phrases, redundancies, and clichés. It also reviews a handful of writing tricks that will make your writing easier to read. Fee: $99.

All of these courses are now being offered monthly, starting the first Monday of the month. You can register up to three months in advance, so if you can’t take a course this month, you can hold your spot now for next month.

Bookmark This Post to: