Should Your Organization Have a Blog?

by Jason Unger, Founder

Insights / Digital Marketing / Should Your Organization Have a Blog?

It’s 2025, and here we are still talking about having a blog.

Ever since the word “blogger” first jumped onto the scene in the early 2000s, nonprofit organizations have been working to figure out just how a blog might fit into their marketing strategy.

• Should our CEO have a blog?
• Can we get subject matter experts or industry insiders to write for us?
• What exactly are we doing here?

These are important questions, and surprisingly still relevant. Let’s discuss the process of figuring out if your mission-driven organization should have a blog, and what exactly that means.

What is a Blog?

The word “blog” has a number of different meanings depending on who you’re talking to, which is one of the reasons the question of “Should our organization have a blog?” can get so complicated.

Here’s a brief history, and then let’s try and simplify it.

• When they first appeared, blogs were generally written by one person; not necessarily a journalist or author, but someone who had an expertise or passion in a specific subject and consistently wrote about it.
• Sometimes that subject was their life and the content was more personal; sometimes that subject was related to politics, or technology, or culture, or any other topic.
• Posts could be anything from opinions and analysis to breaking news to round-ups of content from other websites.

As they evolved, many blogs became less associated with just one writer – they’d have multiple authors or special columnists, and what was previously a one-person show turned into more of a traditional publication. That’s when blogs turned into brands, and brands started thinking about creating blogs.

Their content had historically been (though not exclusively) a bit amateur; not everyone writing was a trained journalist or writer. But as blogging became more mainstream, the successful blogs grew in quality and impact.

Today, “blog” has come to be a catch-all for any published content that doesn’t fit in a traditional format, like a press release or news article.

The length, style, and tone of posts can vary tremendously, but as a general rule of thumb, we define “blog” as a publication focused on a specific topic or industry.

Is a Blog Right For Your Organization’s Website?

You’re the marketing decision-maker at your organization, and you’re trying to figure out if you should have a blog on your website. You have an industry or topic you can write about, but you’re not sure if taking this step makes sense.

Here are the questions you need to ask.

What Resources Do I Have to Create Content?

This is the number one rule:

You must have the people and the process to consistently create content for the blog.

A lifeless blog is worse than none at all. If you only have a few posts, it looks like you’re not invested in creating content for your audience. If your posts are obviously out-of-date, it tells your audience you’re not keeping up with new content.

Make sure that you have staff or writers who can create content, and you have either an editorial calendar or schedule for new posts. Creating content should be part of someone’s job description.

Remember: don’t build things you don’t need. If you don’t have the resources to maintain a blog, don’t make a false promise to your audience that you do.

When you’re building a new website, consider holding off on launching your organization’s blog until you have a critical mass of useful posts ready to share. Don’t overpromise and underdeliver.

How Much Would My Audience Benefit?

If your community isn’t going to get any value from your posts, then don’t do them.

Yes, there’s certainly some SEO benefit to creating content, but if no one reads it, it’s not going to make an impact on your organization or your mission.

The content you create has to inform, inspire, or educate your community. Here at Digital Ink, our content helps educate our community about their web design and digital marketing initiatives, and informs them about how we approach that type of work.

What value does your blog content bring to your audience?

At a minimum, you want your audience to:

• Get inspired to donate or volunteer
• Better understand your organization’s impact
• Become more informed about your mission

We’re all busy, and adding another blog to read isn’t something most people actively look for. So make sure your content has impact and value to your audience.

What Other Content Types Do I Publish Regularly?

Blog content may vary in format, but other types of content don’t.

• Do you publish press releases? If so, don’t call them blog posts. Press releases have a clearly defined meaning, and trying to shoehorn those into your blog will confuse your audience. Keep that silo separate.
• Does your CEO write a weekly column or message? Maybe that’s part of your blog strategy, but be sure to consider how the branding of that content is different than your “regular” blog posts. You surely want to include your CEO’s byline and photo in those posts, so do you need to do that for every blog post?
• Do you share media mentions? If you have an “In the News” section that links to other websites, that’s not a blog post – so don’t call it one.

Consider if your other types of content achieve a similar goal to what a blog would, and think about that when you’re planning your content strategy.

Should I Even Call it a Blog?

This is a great question, and I’ll make it easy for you.

Yes, you should call it a blog.

Don’t call it “Content” or “Articles” or some other generic term. Maybe you can give it its own brand, but don’t let that compete with your actual organization.

Call it a blog because that’s what people know it as – even if they have a slightly different understanding than you do.

There’s not a better way to describe the content and stories your organization generates, and to keep it simple for your audience, call it a blog.

Have questions about launching your organization’s blog? Want to tell me why I’m wrong? Reach out and let’s chat.