Boost your visibility and position yourself as an expert among the largest segment of philanthropy: foundations with few or no staff.

Blog Objectives

Our blog objectives come from our 2020-2025 Strategic Plan:

1. Amplify and increase the impact of lean funders.
2. Build a broader and deeper Exponent Philanthropy community through sharing and collaboration.
3. Maximize our relevance and accessibility to a variety of funders.
4. Advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in philanthropy.

Understand Our Members

It’s most important that you understand your target audience, our members. Our members encompass all types of lean funders—those who practice philanthropy with few or no staff, including:

Private foundations Operating foundations Corporate foundations

Community foundations Individual donors Philanthropic families

How to Write a Partner Blog

Partner blogs typically cover a specific topic or question; are educational in nature; range from 600 to 1,000 words; and contain other media such as images, videos, infographics, and charts.

Blog Topics

Address a compelling topic around one of the following subject areas that will appeal to our members:

Administration Boards and Governance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Family Philanthropy Grantmaking

Impact and Evaluation Investments Leadership Selecting a Giving Structure Tax and Legal

Search Engine Optimization

What’s your focus keyphrase? A focus keyword or keyphrase is the search term you want the blog to rank for most. When people search for that phrase, they should find your blog. Use the focus keyword at the beginning of your title, in your first paragraph, and in a couple of your headers.

Style and Formatting

• Write in short sentence.
• Use active voice.
• Create H2s, H3s, and H4s to organize your content.
• Keep paragraphs short: No more than 4 sentences.
• Add bulleted lists whenever possible.
• Always include an introduction and a conclusion.
• When including images from other publications, cite the image source as: “Image source” and hyperlink that text with the page you found the image on.

Titles

Titles are important in attracting an audience to your blog and getting your post pageviews. A good blog post title grabs readers’ attention and features target keywords (words or phrases readers enter into a search engine).

Timing

Time your blog to promote an event, the launch of a report, or something else newsworthy/topical, for example:

• Filing Your IRS Form 990-PF with Confidence
• Lean Funders Can Help Nonprofits Tackle Inflation Costs
• 3 Steps Your Foundation Can Take To Tackle Systemic Racism

Promotion

We will promote your blog on our Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and in email and Essentials. We encourage you to do the same!

Re-posting

We also encourage you to re-publish your content on your own blog a week after we publish it. At the top, please write: “This post originally appeared on Exponent Philanthropy’s blog” with a hyperlink to the blog on our site.

5 Blog Post Outline Tips

Blog writing is personal and can take a wide variety of forms. Here’s a step-by-step process from MasterClass for outlining your blog post:

1. Start with a hook. Brainstorm a first sentence or subheading that is eye-catching, short, and memorable. Start with a description of the problem or a rhetorical question for your readers. Your title should also draw readers in, but don’t worry about the post title early in the outlining process—use a working title to save time while you outline and work on the first draft.
2. Set up the purpose. All blog posts have a purpose—whether that’s persuasive (proving a claim) or informational (offering knowledge on a topic). State your purpose early in your intro so readers know what to expect from your blog content. The introduction sets the tone for the blog post and offers vital background information or historical context for your target audience.
3. Explain your connection. Blogs feature more personal writing, so don’t be afraid to introduce yourself and explain why you’re writing on the specific blog topic. Readers want to know you’re qualified to write about the topic, so offer some of your background or personal experience with the topic to make a personal connection and establish your credibility.
4. Outline key info with bulleted points. A blog outline helps you see how to order your main points and where you can break information into sections with subheadings. Outline your main points in a bulleted list to decide the best order for the information and to avoid writing fluff that doesn’t relate to your argument.
5. Wrap up with a conclusion. When you conclude your blog post, offer readers a key takeaway or call to action (called a CTA). End with a memorable final line—something hard-hitting or clever that ties your work up neatly or a question for further discussion in the comments.

ALL FINAL CONTENT DECISIONS ARE AT THE BLOG TEAM’S DISCRETION

This means Exponent Philanthropy reserves the right to:

• Edit and adapt your guest blog content for search optimization, accuracy, comprehensiveness, and new information as information within the original piece becomes outdated or requires reevaluation.
• Include calls-to-action to Exponent Philanthropy content and offers.
• Remove the post from the blog.

Where to Submit Your Idea

For information about partnership opportunities and writing a partner blog, contact our Corporate Partner Manager, Darah Moore.