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Want to be published? The Borgen Project accepts articles and research submission for our blog. To be considered, please email your article to [email protected]. Writers are volunteer. Thank you for your interest in submitting articles and research!

 

CRITERIA

1. Properly sourced. Include links at the bottom of the document.

2. Write in AP style (Associate Press).

3. Keep your topic consistent with The Borgen Project’s focus. Visit the issues section of the website for ideas.

 

FINDING STORY IDEAS

Finding content to write about can sometimes be the tricky. We highly recommend signing up for Google News Alerts and E-newsletters.

  1. Google Alerts: http://www.google.com/alerts – Register keywords to receive e-alerts when those words are mentioned in the news. Suggested keywords: Global poverty, world hunger, foreign aid, world’s poor, USAID, international development.
  2. News Search: Search keywords in Google news to find the latest (Foreign Aid, Global Poverty, etc.) https://news.google.com.

 

WHAT TO POST ABOUT?

 

1. Use Number Catching Headlines and Lists

  •  “5 ways to Reduce Global Poverty”
  • “Top 10 Foreign Aid Quotes”

 

2. Give the People What they Want: Oprah.com is very good at doing this (along with the numbers trick above).

  • “Your Biggest World Hunger Questions – Answered!”
  • “What do Legos and Foreign Aid Have in Common”

 

3. Work in Celebs and Pop Culture: Let us be honest, US Weekly gets more readers than Foreign Policy or humanitarian publications. Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Oprah, Bono, etc., there is always a celeb doing something related to global poverty. Covering their visit to Capitol Hill or Sudan is a great way to get people reading about the topic.

“What Donald Trump Could Learn from Aid Workers”

“Gangnam Korea… From impoverished to Gangnam Style!”

 

4. Begin Titles with… How, Why, What, Where and When: These eye-catching titles make people want to read to find out the answer. Think Cosmo magazine, “How to dump your boyfriend?” Also begin posts with “Everything you need to know about (fill in the blank).

 

5. Explain Human Nature: We’re all on life’s journey to understand ourselves and those around us. Articles that give us insight and research into human nature tend to be very interesting. Use psychology/life helper sites (like below) to get summarized psychology research and then re-tweak the article to be relevant toward our issues and cause. For example, an article on how to tell if someone is lying could be tweaked into an article called “5 Ways to tell if a political candidate is lying.”

6. Provide Useful Information: Take information that will help them get through the day or succeed in life and tweak it toward the cause. For example, an article on “8 habits of highly successful people” could be written “8 habits of highly successful political leaders.”

 

7. Teach Computer/Tech Tricks: Create posts like “5 great aps to aid your advocacy.”

 

8. Do Q&A Articles: Ask various experts, organization leaders, celebs or members of Congress if they’d be interested in being featured on the blog. Send them (or their staff) a list of 5 questions relevant to their expertise.

 

9. Innovative Solutions: Find stories like these https://borgenproject.org/innovative-solutions-to-poverty-and-hunger/

 

10. Highlight the Good News in the War on Poverty: News coverage focuses on wars, disasters and famines occurring, so the public rarely hears the slow, quite progress being made. Find data and news about how life is improving for various villages, countries, etc. https://borgenproject.org/victories-fighting-poverty/

“Congress approved a $2 billion increase for fighting TB.”

 

11. Cost Comparisons: Be on the look out for news about the defense budget, military contractors, corporate excess and other big dollar spending that you can compare to poverty related figures (USAID’s budget, cost of giving a million people polio vaccines, etc.

 

Thank you for your interest in submitting articles and research!