White Paper Marketing For Nonprofits [Examples Included]

White papers are a popular and powerful tool for content marketers. They can be used to position your organization as a thought leader and to present useful and persuasive research and information. Why do Nonprofits use White Paper Marketing so little?

We’re going to dive deeper into this subject and make the case for implementing White Paper Marketing for your Nonprofit.

Let’s get into it.

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In this article:

What is a white paper?

A white paper is an in-depth report or guide about a specific topic and offers solutions to the problems discussed. The goal is to educate readers as well as possible.

In digital marketing, it is a long-form piece of content, similar to an eBook. The difference between the two is that white papers tend to be more technical and in-depth. The facts and opinions expressed in white papers are often backed by original research or statistics that the publisher has aggregated from reliable sources. They often include charts, graphs, tables, and other ways of visualizing data.

The term “white papers” originated in England as government-issued documents. One famous example is the Churchill White Paper, commissioned by Winston Churchill in 1922.

White papers are no less editorial than other forms of content, but the depth of research lends them an authoritative tone. For this reason, they are good candidates for promoting thought leadership on a specific topic.

Why Nonprofits should start with White Paper Marketing?

In this day and age, more and more people want to do good. At the same time, people want to know that the money they donate will be spent well, AND there are quite some charities to choose from when donating.

Creating a great interactive white paper can help your nonprofit stand out and showcase that you’re a thought leader on the subject. You can showcase that you truly understand the issue you’re combating, have the right solution and showcase successes.

Best practices for Nonprofit White Paper Marketing

As a Nonprofit you’re in a unique position compared to for-profit organizations. You can showcase how much good you’re doing and provoke strong emotions.

Be sure to use that to your advantage.

Use a lot of imagery, but be mindful to not only share ‘doom scenarios’. Focus on the positive impact you’re having.  Here are some tips on selecting the right images as a nonprofit, here you can find free stock photos (your own images are always better) and here are tips on creating a Nonprofit Brand Book / Style Guide.

Throughout the white paper, be sure to tell a compelling story, showcase your thought leadership and be mindful of your branding.

Nonprofit White Paper Examples

Looking for inspiration? Here are a couple of Interactive Nonprofit White Paper Examples that showcase the tips mentioned above. Enjoy scrolling through them. You can see that the white papers are not created in a PDF format, but built with Foleon to make them a lot more interactive.

Check out Visme’s resource for even more white paper examples.

How AI can help you Create great Nonprofit White Papers

As we´ve seen in the examples above, defining how you are going to showcase your white paper (PDF or Interactive format) is crucial for your white paper marketing strategy. Now, let’s have a look at how AI can help you create more and better white papers, faster.

Finding white paper ideas with an AI-Powered Content Idea Generator

head over to StoryLab.ai’s Content Idea Generator and play around to get some cool content ideas for your next white paper.

Here’s what that can look like. In this example, we’re a nonprofit and want to create a white paper about plastic pollution solutions. The input for the Content Idea Generator was:

“Top Plastic Pollution Solutions”

Here’s what the AI Tool generated on the first run:

White paper idea examples we’ve received on the first run:

• ‘7 Innovative Solutions to Reduce Plastic Pollution’This article can discuss seven creative solutions people and companies are using to reduce plastic pollution. It can include ideas such as beach clean-ups, biodegradable packaging, banning single-use plastics in cities, and investing in circular economy initiatives.
• ‘The Dangers of Plastic Pollution: How Our Actions Impact the Environment’This article can discuss the long-term effects that our current plastic consumption habits are having on the environment. It can explain how plastic accumulates in landfills or oceans, breaks down into smaller particles that pollute our air and water supply, and affects sea life.
• ‘3 Easy Changes You Can Make to Help Reduce Plastic Pollution’ This article can provide readers with three simple lifestyle changes they can make to reduce their own contribution to the plastic pollution problem. It may include tips on buying reusable bottles or bags instead of using disposable ones; avoiding products packaged in excess amounts of plastic; shopping at bulk stores; and more.

We don’t want to stop after having a short list of just three white paper ideas, so we can the Content Idea Tool a couple more times and here’s what we got:

• ‘The Ultimate Guide to Plastic Pollution Solutions: How Individuals and Communities Can Make a Difference’ In this article, we can discuss the different ways individuals and communities can take action against plastic pollution. It can include tips on reducing single-use plastics, choosing more sustainable packaging options, investing in reusable products, advocating for policies that reduce waste production, properly disposing of existing plastic waste, and more.
• ‘Plastic Pollution Prevention: Why Education is Key to Long-Term Solutions’ This article can focus on the importance of educating people about the effects of plastic pollution. It can discuss how members of communities need to understand the scale and impacts of this issue in order to develop effective long-term solutions.
• ‘5 Inspiring Examples Of Plastic Waste Reduction Initiatives That Are Making an Impact’ This article will feature initiatives from around the world that are aiming to reduce or eliminate plastic waste from our planet. It will highlight stories about successful initiatives in cities around the world as well as inspiring examples from small businesses or NGOs seeking change.

With this list, we’re pretty confident we’ll be able to choose a nice topic and create an engaging digital white paper our audience will love.

We’ve picked the topic:

“3 Easy Changes You Can Make to Help Reduce Plastic Pollution”

Create Catchy White Paper Headlines with an AI Title Generator

Next up, let’s create a catchy title for our white paper. For this, we turn to the AI-Powered Title Generator. The title of your white paper is important to catch people’s attention wherever you promote your white paper. Be sure to take the time to create a great title and don’t just focus on your main headline. Every page of your white paper needs to entice people to read on. Make sure your sub-headlines are also inviting people to read more.

Let’s fire up the Title Generator. Our input was the topic we’ve just selected:

“Founders Story the journey of the founder”

Here’s what the Title Creator Generated for us on the first run:

Title output examples the AI Tool generated for us:

•  3 Simple Steps to Reduce Plastic Pollution Now
• Reduce Your Carbon Footprint – 3 Quick Tips to Help You Go Plastic Free
• Reduce Plastic Pollution: 3 Simple Changes You Can Make Now
• Reduce Plastic Pollution: 3 Easy Changes to Make Now
• Reduce Plastic Pollution: 3 Simple Changes That Make a Difference

Usually, we would run the title generator a couple more times to really get the creative juices flowing. For this example, we’ll just move on to creating introductions with the help of AI.

Create Great White Paper Intros with an AI Intro Generator

We got our idea, we got our main headline. Let’s create an Introduction for our white paper with the help of AI.

For this example, we chose the following example that we generated:

“Reduce Plastic Pollution: 3 Simple Changes That Make a Difference”

White paper intro examples AI Generated for us:

•  When it comes to reducing plastic pollution, little changes make a huge difference. Every time you refuse a single-use water bottle or skip the plastic bag, it may feel like a drop in the ocean — but when millions of people participate, this small act can lead to significant environmental change. If we want to make an impact on global plastic pollution levels and accelerate our journey towards sustainability, each of us must take responsibility for our actions. Small efforts such as using reusable shopping bags add up to remarkable transformations over time. Here are three simple changes that will reduce your plastic use and help save the planet!
• While many people know that buying and using more environmentally-friendly products is key for protecting our oceans from plastic waste, there are actually some other easy ways to reduce your personal contribution as well. Making even small lifestyle adjustments can really add up over time –– so here’s how making three minor changes can help cut down on plastic pollution. +Are you aware of just how much damage human activities cause by throwing away millions of tons of plastics every year? It’s not too late to reverse course: By combatting marine debris with conscious consumerism and smarter habits, everyone has the power to contribute positively toward saving the ecosystem in meaningful ways – starting today! In this blog post I’ll discuss 3 simple strategies you can use right now in order slow down or eliminate further destruction due to pointless single-use plastics

We can now choose to:

• Re-run the intro generator;
• Take one of the ideas we like, add our unique human touch, and perfect it.

You can use the intro generator for all your chapters and fill in the skeleton of your white paper in minutes instead of days.

Other related articles

• What are the best Content Creation Platforms
• Top Digital Marketing Tools
• Tips for Creating Better Blog Post Titles

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