Thank you for writing for the
TechSoup Blog! We welcome original, educational, and nonpromotional content about technology topics relevant to nonprofits and libraries. Whether you are a TechSoup staffer or a guest writer, we value your contributions to making the TechSoup Blog a vital resource for nonprofits around the country. This document is intended to provide general guidelines for writing and submitting blog posts. If you have any questions, please email the blog editor at blog [at] techsoup [dot] org.
Submitting and Posting
Send a proposal to the blog editor with desired publication date, and we will respond within two business days. We will notify you if your blog proposal is accepted.
Content
- Blog posts should be original content written for TechSoup. If the purpose of your post is to highlight content that already exists on another site, please contact the blog editor.
- Your writing style should be approachable yet straightforward.
- Avoid using marketing language or overly formal tech language. Imagine that you are writing to a nontechnical colleague at a nonprofit or library.
- Try to answer the who/what/where/when questions in the first and second paragraphs. In general, you will grab readers' attention more if you immediately answer the question "What is this tool/service/product/concept/event, and how can it help my nonprofit or library?"
- If discussing a particular product or service, try to focus on its strengths, instead of the negative aspects of its competitors.
- Ensure that your blog is relevant to our nonprofit audience — we highly encourage you to include use cases or examples that the reader can relate to.
- When referring to products offered through the TechSoup catalog, avoid general e-commerce-related terms. TechSoup refers to its products as "donated" or "discounted," and users can "request donations." Avoid terms like "buy," "purchase," "order," "sell," "cheap," and "free."
- Double-check facts, links, and spelling.
- Please include an image if it's original and specific to your story. Please make sure that the original image is not under license or copyright to someone else, and is freely reusable, before modifying it.
Length and Format
- Keep your post under 800 words. Sentences should be short and declarative. Limit your sentences to 20 to 25 words — 30 words maximum.
- Break up long chunks of text with subheadings and new paragraphs as much as possible.
- For each section, write a subheading that summarizes the section's content so that readers can quickly scan and find what interests them.
- Titles and subheadings should be in title case and be as clear, engaging, and succinct as possible.
- If the post is about an event, try to avoid a chronological list of what happened at the event — instead, try to highlight relevant topics or themes.
Audience
TechSoup's readers include staffers at nonprofits, libraries, foundations, donor partners, and technology organizations, technology consultants, and those interested in technology for social good. Your writing should be aimed at someone who is interested in technology but not necessarily an expert. Don't assume that every reader knows what NTEN is, for example, or what VPN means. You don't have to go into detail, but do spend just a few words explaining technical terms.
Editing and Corrections
The TechSoup Blog is a part of the TechSoup Global Network, and you are representing the organization and its interests when blogging. As a public charity under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3), we are prohibited from participating in any campaign activity for or against political candidates. We are also prohibited from attempting to influence legislation as a substantial part of our activities. In general, the TechSoup Blog should maintain respectful language toward other organizations, product vendors, and clients at all times.
Although your role as a writer for TechSoup.org does reflect upon the organization, we understand that your opinions may not always be shared by all members of our team or staff. We welcome honest, respectful discussion of relevant nonprofit technology topics in the interest of having valuable discourse with and for the communities we serve.
After submission, drafts will be reviewed by the blog editor and, if necessary, sent back to the guest writer for corrections. The guest writer is then given three business days to incorporate any changes. The new draft will be reviewed once more before publishing to fix errors and formatting as needed. The editor reserves the right to refuse to publish the post or send it back to the author again for more information.
Licensing
While we authorize and encourage the use of our content, we feel it's important that our contributors receive appropriate credit. TechSoup.org articles and the
TechSoup Blog are generally published under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License. You are free to share and republish under the terms of that license so long as you attribute TechSoup clearly as the original source and include a link to the original article or blog post.
We also encourage guest writers to cross-promote content written for TechSoup across their own media channels.
Other content throughout
TechSoup.org, TechSoup's other websites, and our international partners' websites may have different licensing, so please see the restrictions specific to that content. If you're unsure about the licensing on a particular article or post, please contact the blog editor.
Please note: In the case of images and multimedia that TechSoup has sourced from other providers, you will need to obtain permission to republish from those authors or photographers directly, as they may have different terms from TechSoup's.
