Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog

Nonprofit managers, ask yourselves these seven questions before you hire a freelance writer.

Before you start interviewing . . .

1. What do I want a freelance writer to do? The more specific you can be about what you need, the better you’ll be able to recruit a freelance writer who can meet your needs. Most writers think in terms of word count or page count when estimating a job, so you should think that way too. How much writing do you need? How much research or interviewing will the writer need to do? How many drafts do you typically want to see?

2. What is my ideal deadline, and what is the real deadline? Most people want projects they are hiring out to be completed yesterday. While it is fine to suggest an ideal deadline when soliciting proposals from freelancers, know in your own mind how much play you have in your schedule. If the perfect candidate comes along, but can’t meet your ideal deadline for whatever reason, do you have enough cushion in your schedule to hire that person anyway?

3. How much do I have to spend? Rates for freelance writers vary widely. In some respects, you do get what you pay for, but even among highly qualified and experienced writers, you will still find a great deal of variability in rates. Know how much you have to spend ahead of time, so when you begin to evaluate proposals, you can eliminate those that are far beyond your means. At the same time, you should also strongly consider eliminating proposals that seem exceedingly low — It’s a hallmark of an inexperienced freelancer to charge way below market rate.

As you are interviewing . . .

4. Is this freelance writer a good listener? As important as writing and editing skills are the abilities to listen to your needs and to incorporate them into the project. Writing projects include many variables, such as audience, message, and tone, all of which require that you and the freelancer work together to get it right. You should treat this relationship as a partnership, which requires that you both listen well.

5. Does this freelance writer seem flexible? Writing projects are subjective. While some elements, such as correct grammar and word count, are objective, whether the piece meets your needs in terms of style is highly subjective. A good freelance writer knows this and will work with you to get the style the way you want it, even if the first draft is way off.

Also, as the project progresses, you may very well change your mind about how you want an issue handled or what elements should be emphasized. Try to gauge whether the freelancer can “go with the flow” and adjust accordingly. Of course, you need to be willing to pay for extra drafts if you change the scope of work significantly.

6. Do I like this writer’s portfolio and client list? Does the writer have experience with your type of project? Does the writer’s list of clients relate to your organization in subject area, size, or some other meaningful measure? All professional freelance writers should be able to provide samples of their work (many will have online portfolios for you to peruse) and to give you a list of people they have worked for previously.

7. How do this writer’s other clients describe their relationships? Yes, you should check references. Pick up the phone and call. Speaking directly with another client is one of the best ways to judge how well a freelancer works with clients. Ask how many jobs the person has given to the freelancer. Repeat business is always a good sign.

Nonprofits have great stories to tell — and telling them well is what brings in more support, whether it be cash, volunteers, new partners or political help. But writing up all of those stories and formatting them for publication can be time-consuming. To save yourself some time while still gaining all the benefits of good storytelling, follow these tips for recycling one great story for many different purposes.

1) Get All of the Story Details Down in Writing

Let’s use a personal profile/case study as an example. Say you invest a few hours of time in interviewing a client of your organization’s services, as well as the staff and/or volunteers who provided those services, about their experiences, the challenges they faced, what they did about them, and the results their work produced. Type up your notes, including all of the details, direct quotes, etc.

2) Write the First Article to Meet Your Most Pressing Deadline

Now, from those notes, draft your first article for whatever venue needs it first. Is your newsletter deadline coming up? Do you have a big grant application or foundation report due? Are you working on your annual report? Pick the first place you’ll use the story and write the article for that publication.

3) Decide Where to Recycle the Story

Now review all of the different places that this story could also be used and pick a handful to work on. Here is a partial list of places you could recycle your story.

* Your website

* Your print newsletter

* Your email newsletter

* Grant applications

* Grant reports

* Board reports

* Press releases

* Press kits

* Brochures

* Direct fundraising appeal letters

* Advocacy appeal letters

* Annual report

4) Make a Few Changes So the Story Appears Fresh

Take the first version of the story that you wrote, review your original notes, and edit the story to fit the new uses you picked in Step #3. Use one or more of these techniques to freshen up that same story for each new place you plan to use it.

Change the angle. If you emphasized one particular part of the story, emphasize a new one now. If you told the story from the client’s perspective, tell it from the volunteer’s perspective this time.

Change the person. If you wrote the story in third person (”He did this . . .”), change the story to a first-person account (”I did this . . .”). You’ll need to ensure that the person telling the story approves the new version told from his point of view.

Make it shorter. Cut out some of the extra details and focus in on just one key point or message.

Make it longer. Add in some additional material from your original notes.

Rewrite the lead paragraph. Start the story in a different way.

Turn it into a how-to. What did your organization or the participants in the story learn? Turn those lessons into a how-to article for others.

Make the most of your best stories by recycling them and you’ll get more marketing material with less effort.

Earlier this week I taught “Strategies for Successful Nonprofit Newsletters” for the Duke University Certificate Program in Nonprofit Management. During the course, several students expressed their frustrations about working with their executive directors on various newsletter issues. Here are three questions they asked and how I answered.

Q: We always have to print the “letter from the director” on the cover and it’s always boring and awful. What do we do?

A: I recommend dropping the letter entirely. More often than not, they are stream of consciousness ramblings that add little value to the newsletter. Many executive directors dread writing them, and it shows. Every article in the newsletter should be written for the readers, not for the director’s ego.

If you must keep the letter or you believe it does provide value to the readers, then treat it like you would any other article in the newsletter. Pick a topic and stick to it. Write an interesting headline (not just “Letter from the Director,” which is fine as a kicker — a subhead that appears above the main headline). Write an engaging lead paragraph.

Q: My boss is a terrible writer, but she insists on writing articles.

A: It’s time to add “ghostwriter” to your job description. Nonprofit executive directors are all very busy people. They will usually welcome help from staff on time-consuming tasks like writing newsletter articles.

Tell your boss you would like to help her save some time by putting together a first draft of the article and then she can spend her time fine-tuning and polishing it. In most cases, the executive director will read it over quickly, make a few minor changes, and move on to the next emergency on her desk.

Q: Our director never meets his deadlines, because he always waits until the last minute to figure out what his column will be about.

A: Develop an editorial calendar for several issues at a time. You should have a good sense for how many articles you need for each issue and what categories those articles fall into (e.g. a letter from the director, a how-to article, a client success story, a volunteer profile, etc.). Create a grid with the publication dates across the top and the article categories along the left side. Fill in the grid with specifics. Once the director sees what else will be covered in each issue, it should be easier for him to come up with his topics and to plan for them in advance. Be sure to provide reminders about two weeks before the articles are due, and again a few days before the deadline.

These same three questions come up every time I teach a newsletter class. If you are an executive director, please don’t make your newsletter staff suffer in silence. Talk about the best ways for you to work together to create a newsletter your readers will enjoy.