Mindful Content Creation Tips for Nonprofits

Content creation is at the core of every nonprofit’s success. It’s the root of inbound marketing. Create captivating content, and attracting and retaining potential donors and supporters is a breeze. But only if you create content with a purpose.  

Nonprofits that master mindful content creation will see their reputation improve, have better connections with supporters, and will have a real chance at seeing a fully realized mission. 

What Is Mindful Content Creation?

Mindful content creation is creating content with a clear intention. You create content with a purpose, ensuring every piece provides value to those consuming it. There’s an obvious reason for every piece of content. And that helps ensure no resources are wasted on frivolous content.   

Why Is It Crucial for Nonprofits?

Mindful content is crucial for nonprofits for a couple of reasons. The first is that it can facilitate more meaningful interactions with people. 

For example, they’re more likely to leave a comment under a thoughtful social media post. They’re also more likely to share it. This kind of positive engagement on social media helps you better your reputation. The more meaningful interactions you have with supporters, followers, and potential donors on social media and your other marketing channels, the better. 

Another reason mindful content creation is critical is it’s budget-friendly. Many nonprofits don’t have huge budgets for marketing. Creating content with a purpose ensures you aren’t wasting valuable resources on content that won’t get results. 

With these two significant benefits in mind, let's look at how to get started with mindful content creation. 

Getting Started With Creating More Mindful Content 

Mindful content forces you to focus on quality over quantity. It takes a true effort to consistently produce content that’s valuable, entertaining, and educational. Fortunately, you can streamline the process with the following strategies. 

Have an actual plan in place 

You can’t approach mindful content creation whimsically. Every piece must have a purpose, and that requires strategy. An actual content creation plan will serve as the blueprint for how to produce mindful content across your platforms. In addition, it’ll be easier to balance quick content creation with quality. 

First, determine the channels you’re creating content for. Choose what kind of content you want to create for each platform. After that, identify your core content categories. You’ll connect each piece of content to one of these topics to ensure you’re covering what’s most valuable to your audience.   

After that, talk about what you’ll include in your asset library. These could be images, brand-related visuals, templates, and message snippets. You’ll have a database of everything you need to create a purposeful piece of content every time. 

Design a content calendar as well. With it, you can document what content you’ll publish, when, and why. 

A detailed content creation plan will help you achieve purposeful content with efficiency.

Master repurposing content 

Repurposing content is a secret weapon in mindful content creation. You can take your best content and reuse it in different ways and places. 

For example, let’s say you have a 2,000 word blog post. You can take the main points of that blog post and put them in a short email with a link to the original post. 

You can illustrate each section in an infographic that you share on LinkedIn. You can take an interesting question from the post and make a poll for it on Twitter. You can then go live on Instagram to talk about the post and share the link.

This is a mindful content creation practice because it saves you time and resources while maintaining your commitment to only publishing valuable content. In addition, you can reach more people and reinforce the importance of your mission. 

To repurpose content effectively, follow these best practices: 

1. Use long-form pieces 
2. Use your best-performing content 
3. Encourage others to share your content 
4. Track the effectiveness of your repurposed content 
5. Cross-market your content on all your platforms 
6. Experiment with various formats (i.e., videos, infographics, emails, etc.)

Repurposing your most valuable content supports mindful content creation. 

Offer value 

Value is at the crux of mindful content creation. Your main focus should be creating content that your target audience will deem valuable. It’s where the majority of your content creation resources should go. 

If your audience won’t engage with and rave about a piece of content, don’t bother creating it. To ensure your content is valuable to your audience, you first need to know the individuals who make up that audience. 

Get a clear understanding of demographic, behavioral, and psychographic information. Also, learn their favorite types of content and what makes them engage with specific pieces. More importantly, what content topics do they deem most valuable? 

Once you learn what your target audience wants, give it to them. 

Write blog posts about your mission and add links to studies that back up why it’s so important. Make videos that show supporters what you do each day to get closer to your goal. Talk about your fundraisers and upcoming events. Share stories from real people who’ve been affected by what you’re trying to resolve. 

Fuse storytelling with useful topics and resources, and you’re on your way to offering value. 

Prioritize meaningful engagements and experiences 

Creating mindful content is only half of the work. The other half is engaging with the people consuming your content. Not only do you want the content to be purposeful, but you also want your interactions around that content to be purposeful. 

So, if someone is kind enough to leave you a comment on your blog post, thoughtfully respond to it. If you get direct messages praising a specific social media post, be sure to answer it. Start one-on-one email conversations with those who want more. When people spark conversations around the content you create, get involved in them. 

The content experience should be mindful. But so should how you interact with people after they absorb your content. 

Mindful content creation is a requirement if you want to put your nonprofit on the map. You can build a better reputation, connect with more supporters, and make a real push toward achieving your mission with mindful content. So, use the guidance above to make mindful content creation regular practice in your nonprofit.