This month, we’re continuing our KHS team showcase by featuring one of our Content Managers, Casey McCahill, as she explores the power of recycling your content for maximum value. With a passion for communications, Casey has built her career across corporate communications, public relations, and marketing, working with a variety of audiences. Stay tuned for more posts that highlight the valuable perspectives and unique strengths each of our team members bring to our clients.
Did you know that March 18 is Global Recycling Day? Combined with the start of spring cleaning season, this is a perfect time to reflect on how we can make the most of our resources. And with a background in all things communications, I can’t help but think of this as a great opportunity to freshen up your content. For nonprofits, every piece of content is valuable in elevating your brand, growing engagement, and developing sustainable practices. Using your content wisely can save time, streamline efforts, and strengthen messaging.
By applying the principles of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle to your grant writing, marketing, and donor outreach, you can cut through the noise, maximize your impact, and stay focused on what matters most: your mission. Let’s explore what this means for you:
Recycle
A well-told story or a strong piece of data can have multiple lives, reinforcing your mission without feeling repetitive. Recycling information not only saves effort, but it reinforces your message to donors, funders, and supporters.
Transform One Story into Many Formats
Your nonprofit’s success stories, program updates, and calls to action don’t need to be one-and-done. A single piece of content can take many forms to reach different audiences:
Turn a donor newsletter story into a compelling social media post
Repurpose an impact report into bite-sized infographics or testimonial videos
Adapt a grant proposal’s program description for a corporate sponsorship pitch
Expand a story into a blog post for your website, or condense it into a compelling quote for a fundraising letter of social media post
Turn Data into Storytelling
The key statistics from your Annual Report can do more than sit in a PDF. They can fuel powerful storytelling across multiple platforms:
Use impact numbers in grant applications to demonstrate measurable success
Highlight key metrics in social media posts and donor emails to show tangible results
Create an infographic for your website that visually represents your progress
In this section, we focused on finding fresh ways to present your information. In contrast, reusing content focuses more on directly repurposing your collateral.
Reuse
Make your content work smarter, not harder. Nonprofit work is demanding, and writing grant proposals, donor appeals, and marketing content from scratch every time can drain valuable hours. The good news? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each and every time.
Re-Purpose Grant Content
Many grant applications ask for similar details—your mission statement, impact metrics, and program descriptions. Instead of starting over each time, here’s some ways to streamline your grant proposal process:
Create a grant boilerplate with core sections you can tailor as needed
Keep a running document of strong narratives and statistics that showcase your impact (see how to Strengthen Your Grant Proposal with Correlative Data)
Maintain a list of leadership contact information, organization addresses, and important website and social links for quick copy and pasting
Have common attachments (such as your annual budget, 501(c)3 determination letter, board of directors list, and annual reports) saved in a folder to more easily locate
Maintain a prospecting list with a column dedicated grantee focuses to determine where you can reuse similar messaging
Extend the Life Your Content
When you put the time and effort into creating an important piece of collateral, consider all the ways it can be reused. Think infographic, service maps, or info sheets/brochures about your organization. They can live on from their initial use as:
Links or downloads on your website
Additional collateral in letters to potential funders
Attachments on grants to help support your cause
Printouts at trade shows or industry events
Handouts at meetings or speaking engagements
Below is a great example of the impactful content one of our clients developed for an outreach campaign, that continues to be valuable for grant applications, board recruitment, and so much more. Each piece tells a story and explains their mission, reach, history, and accomplishments in a visual and interesting way.
By strategically re-using content you get the most value out of each piece, while also freeing up some time to focus the rest of your day-to-day priorities.
Reduce
"Less is more!" You hear that time and time again when it comes to writing, but in today’s fast-paced, content-saturated world, it’s never been more true. Your audience (whether that’s a grant reviewer, donor, or social media follower) has limited time. Not to mention shrinking attention spans as a result of constant technology use. That’s why cutting through the noise with concise, impactful messaging is essential.
Grant Proposals
You have a compelling mission, transformative programs, and inspiring stories to share—but so do dozens, or even hundreds, of other applicants. Each grant reviewer has so much information to sift through, and sometimes those key details you want to share can get overlooked. Here’s a few ways to keep your content clear and brief:
Lead with the most critical information first
Use bullet points and short paragraphs to enhance readability
Strip out unnecessary words and jargon (such as acronyms, abbreviations, or internal nomenclature) to keep your writing crisp and direct
End-of-Year Campaigns
Your nonprofit has had an incredible year, and you’re eager to share your impact with donors. But standing out in the crowd might not be so easy when you consider the volume of fundraising emails and letters landing in their inboxes and mailboxes, along with other end of year and holiday mail. To ensure your message isn’t lost:
Use bold headlines and clear, action-driven language
Draw the reader in with your main message within the first few sentences
Make your call to action (CTA) obvious and compelling
Social Media & Email
Staying engaged with your audience is crucial, but long, text-heavy posts can cause them to scroll right past. Instead:
Prioritize eye-catching headlines and emojis or bullets to break up content
Use engaging visuals to reinforce your message (visuals that tell your story by showing the people you serve can have the most impact)
Keep emails short, with a clear call to action that leads to more details if needed (such as your website or a blog post)
The goal of Reducing isn’t to oversimplify—it’s to sharpen your messaging for maximum impact. No matter what content you’re creating, streamlining helps your message to be loud and clear.
Just like recycling conserves resources, recycling your content saves time and strengthens your message. By reducing wordiness, reusing key content, and repurposing data and stories, you create a consistent narrative without starting from scratch. Smart content strategies let you focus on what matters most—your mission and the people you serve.
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