Mar 27, 2012 / Topic Ideas

Blogging for a Cause

Our blogs are our personal platforms where we can broadcast our opinions and viewpoints, all on our own terms. Unlike other forms of publication, you don’t need an editor’s approval to share your thoughts on the presidential race or why environmentalism is important to you: your blog is yours alone.

If there’s a cause you’re passionate about, why not consider “donating” your blog to it? Blogging for a cause can bring awareness to an organization or issue that means a lot to you, while helping you to expand your writing skills and get your voice heard. It’s also an excellent way to connect with other bloggers, volunteers, and community members.

To get started, decide on your primary goal. Are you looking to simply raise awareness? Or is there a way you can tie your blog posts into an ongoing event or fundraiser? Depending on the needs of your organization, dedicate your blog to the cause for a day, a week, or a month. One of my favorite design blogs, swissmiss, has a program where companies can “sponsor” a week of blogging. At the beginning of each week, swissmiss announces that week’s sponsor with a link to the company’s website. In a similar fashion, you can announce that you’re donating your blog to an organization in your first post of the week or make it known via a Text Widget in your site’s sidebar.

During the time that you’re donating your blog, be sure to tag your posts. A friend of mine recently participated in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and blogged about her experience, from signup to practice to the walk itself. In addition to publicizing her posts to Facebook and Twitter, she tagged each of her posts with Avon Walk, which connected her to the wide variety of bloggers who were also talking about their experience with this event.

Above all, make it personal. There’s a reason why you support this cause, and your readers want to hear about it! Perhaps a family member or friend was directly assisted by this organization or it’s something you’ve been volunteering with for years. Powerful blog posts that touch on social issues often pull in the personal — by making it personal, you’re giving your cause a human voice. On WordPress.com, it is also easy to help fundraise through your blog. You can always add a PayPal button to your site or you can also use the SocialVibe widget. SocialVibe is a social media site that’s helps connect individuals to non-profit organizations through fundraising.

Combining issues that you care about with your blogging is a great way to find inspiration, new blogging buddies, and contribute to a good cause. What causes are you passionate about?

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  2. Thank you for the great advice. My first post for a cause, “Vigilante or Self-Defense,” focused on the state of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. I hope the state re-examines this law following the shooting death of an unarmed teen, Trayvon Martin, by a neighborhood watch volunteer (George Zimmer). When it was expanded in 2005, many feared that was a license to kill. Sad to say, Trayvon is not the only victim of this law. I hope that Florida Governor Rick Scott makes good on his pledge to have it reviewed. Public opinion might sway the Florida legislature to repeal it.

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  4. I definitely enjoy the freedom of blogging. I get to publish my opinions and viewpoints easily and freely without objection from critics. If a person strongly dislikes what I have to say, then they always have the option to leave my blog. Blogging is freedom and self-expression at their best!

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  7. Not only am I already blogging for a Cause, but I’ve also made it one of my tasks on my “101 things in 1001 days list!” = Number 43. to raise (at least) Euro 1.001,– for the Charity we support.

    Here’s a “who and why” post that explains the details:

    http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/new-444/

    … and typing in the word “Kiribati” into the search box on my blog tells people about various fundraising efforts so far.

    It’s really really worth getting involved in fundraising on a very personal level.. where you are personally in touch with the people who actually use the money and see exactly how the kids benefit.

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      1. Thanks Erica,

        I’m a firm believer that if your cause is personal, small-scale and really grounded in “practical” (ie not with CEO’s getting massive pay packets) then it’s easy to be really passionate about fundraising and spreading the word.
        Thanks for starting this thread… I’ve looked though some of the responses and learned a bit about other causes too!

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  12. Halleluiah! Thank you for speaking to the masses! And I’ll be your living proof! I posted http://makesmewander.com/2012/03/15/day74/ and raised $60 already for my MS Walk coming up in April! I also used to work for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for their Team In Training division and I can’t tell you how many people raised thousands of dollars by blogging about their training for events on behalf of a philanthropy! I try to tell people but don’t have the audience you do so KUDOS!

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  14. Thank you Erica! I joined The Daily Post earlier this month when I began my blog site. I always especially love your blogs. They are excellent! Thanks so much.

    This whole month my site has been evolving and I have been finding my true passions through the process. It’s interesting that even I have been greatly surprised at what I am most passionate about. Some of those passions I already knew – helping others in the area of their health and financial security through working from home, my faith in God and our American values, etc.- but I never realized how deeply passionate I am about saving America and the political aspects that we face at this time. It will be interesting to see where this new blog site, LJC Speaks, goes as I follow your suggestions and my heart. Thanks again!

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  15. Thank you for this post! I’m just working on a post on my blog about fostering dogs and why it was rewarding. Great hints at how I can link to the local places I foster for! I love these posts you do about blogging, they are a great help for those of us noobs at this. 🙂

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  17. Some great ideas! I consider my blog a ministry, and maybe I can venture into doing some of the things you talked about.

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  20. Thank you for the post. We started a “cause” blog a few weeks ago, and it is a photography blog specifically by and for people who live with, or are affected by, mental illness. It is a collective so anyone can post who falls in those categories. It is to raise awareness, but we also hope we can find a way to make money to put on gallery group shows as well. I will check out the sites to which you linked. We may want to go nonprofit so I’m not sure if we can go the Paypal route. Would love to know, in case anyone knows.
    Thanks again! brokenlightcollective.wordpress.com/

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  24. how do you find companies/organizations,etc who are looking for bloggers to blog for their organizations?

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  25. this is my first time blogging…
    still trying to figure out what i should or should not post on my blog, but i guess i am going to have to give it time..
    stronger forces beyond me are pushing me towards blogging…. :)…

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