Nonprofits Provide Never-Ending Content Ideas

Imagine finding more than 65,000 organizations in one place, each of whom have a cause to communicate, a headline to share, an event to publicize or a job to advertise. These are organizations starving for expanded publicity, a new voice or a headline.

Altruistically, I consider this as an opportunity to effect a community change from within the Associated Content organization.

Professionally, this is an opportunity for the freelance writer to build an engaging community conscious portfolio while putting money in the bank.

Five years ago I registered for free with a website that had created a growing and changing worldwide registry of non-profit, community organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). That website currently lists over 65,000 non-profit, community organizations and NGOs worldwide.

The website was created by Action Without Borders. Action Without Borders is a nonprofit organization headquartered in New York City. Among other programs, Action Without Borders runs the website Idealist.org.

Idealist.org is a website that facilitates connections between individuals and institutions that are interested in improving their communities.

Over 65,000 nonprofit organizations from more than 180 countries have currently created profiles on Idealist.org. They use these profiles to list information about their missions, programs, services, and opportunities.

Each organization is an opportunity for at least one content headline and article for each of those categories; the mission, the program, the services, and the job or volunteer opportunities. I would go so far as to estimate that minimally, content providers could generate 260,000 attention-grabbing (or would that be attention-generating?) articles that promote goodwill and community service.

I confess that I had been considering "hogging the headlines" and keeping this resource a secret. But, who am I kidding? It appears that I am either the queen of procrastination or completely absorbed in other endeavors. I'll let each of you believe in the latter. Regardless of how simple it will be, and it will be simple, I will probably never touch the tip of the iceberg in creating these articles.

Each listing for an organization on Idealist provides contact information, Mission Statements, definition of the registered organization, and the organization website address if any. The organization overview alone can generate a 400 word article or more.

How do you choose the organization to write about? If your own interests don't spark a few articles or, if you're pursuing this primarily for the income, a popular keyword search should get you started. Using popular keyword search terms in the Idealist search bar could net some surprising results:

The keyword "Iraq" (rated in the top 25 this week) netted 73 results including Education for Peace in Iraq Center, Free Iraq Foundation, Iraq Action Coalition, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America PAC and Iraq Memory Foundation.

The keyword "immigration" is ranked number 6 on the New York Times most searched list today. A search on "immigration" in the Idealist database points the reader to over 1,000 related charitable organizations.

Could the public possibly want more articles regarding topics like "global warming"? It is in the top 25 keyword search lists this week. I might suggest that reporting on the supporting organizations alone could grab page views and widen your readership. A search on "global warming" discloses that there are 58 Nonprofit Organizations, 141 Jobs, 15 Internships, and 1 Event to write about.

While I've got the "global warming" search results on screen, has anyone heard of the Kleenex-Kleercut Campaign? This is news to me: "Greenpeace is mobilizing a student movement against Kimberly-Clark in order to protect these endangered forests and their rare wildlife. We're looking for passionate and dedicated environmental leaders that are committed to leading the charge in the Kleenex - Kleercut project. Our goal is to target board members through campus ties, consumers, and shareholders until Kleenex agrees to stop the use of wood fiber from ancient endangered forests and increases the percentage of post-consumer recycled content in all products." Campaigns present additional article ideas that could have content producers busy for years.

Take a walk on the "wild" side of journalism and let's return to keyword utilization when searching Idealist for article ideas. The words "sex" "gay", "lesbian" or "homosexual" may not appear on the major keyword lists for this particular day, but they never lose their magnetism. Idealist exposes 406 NonProfit Organizations and 1 Affinity Group in this category. I might note that there are currently 61 volunteer opportunities within the sex related organizations. Consider the headlines when you report on those opportunities!

It has become apparent that many writers here at AC are community conscious. Action Without Borders and Idealist could provide you with a never-ending material and the opportunity to provide service where it matters the most to you. Whether you focus on keyword utilization or organizations with a particular community, the possibilities for relevant and interesting articles number in the thousands.

As long as people continue contributing time and energy to charity; as long as people continue to care; and as for as long as Idealist continues to grow, the possiblities for new articles will be never-ending.

Visit and register for Idealist today and build a portfolio that speaks highly of you!

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