Are you a great storyteller? Do you have a passion for educating the public about the world’s most pressing social issues? Do you want to spread the good news about how far we’ve come in the fight against poverty?

If your answer is yes to these questions, you’re the one we’re looking for! 

When writing an article for the Blog, you’ll get the opportunity to showcase your work to more than 700,000 monthly website visitors and educate them about the topics you’re most interested in. For example, how technology helps the world’s poor, what U.S. politicians can do to end poverty or even a first-hand report from the field.

Goals for Our Blog

• Educate the public about important poverty-related issues.
• Make the issues relevant to people who aren’t typically interested in global poverty. To do so, you can combine them with other topics such as sports, music, movies or games, or tell the fascinating biography of a celebrity (e.g. Trevor Noah). Get creative — the sky is the limit.
• Increase traffic to our website by writing SEO-friendly articles. Include the organization’s name a few times, link to different pages on our website and make sure to include important key terms we frequently use on our website.
• Attract repeat visitors. By constantly updating our Blog with captivating articles, we encourage people to regularly check out our website and learn more about global poverty.

How to Write an Article for Our Blog

1. Think of a story idea. Please watch this video to understand what type of articles we cover. You can also find inspiration here and take a look around our Blog to get a feel for the types of articles we publish.

Next, propose your topic pitch for approval by going to the News Team & Assignment Desk where you will find monthly tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

Pick the current month and click on the link at the top of the tab that will lead you to the Article Proposal Form. Fill out your synopsis in the form, and it will be added for approval at the bottom of the current month’s tab.

Check back in a day or two and we will have added a note as to whether your topic has been approved, denied, or approved upon conditions.

Short on ideas? Don’t worry! You can cover one of the “Practice Article” topics from the News Team & Assignment Desk.

2. When your topic has been approved, you can start writing your article.

The Writer’s Guidebook has all the information you need to know about writing articles for The Borgen Project. Make sure to read the guidebook before submitting your article!

A few pointers:

• We recommend using Google Docs to write articles as your work will be saved automatically.
• Find and save reputable sources, and tell the reader a brief story written in your own words. Avoid Wikipedia, Quora or any other user-generated articles for source material. Our team will cross-reference your work and your sources. Copy-pasted articles will not be accepted.
• Your articles should be at a minimum of 500 words and at most 900 words.
• Articles should have subheadings that help pace the content. Download a free tool like Grammarly and check the grammar and spelling of your article before submitting it.
• Include an article header, indicating the SEO key term, the number of articles written so far, noting that your piece is a practice article, as well as the city and state where you are located.
• Ensure the article has a clear introduction and conclusion. Additionally, ensure your article uses at least three sources.
• Make sure to eliminate the use of the Oxford comma and passive voice.
• Make sure to include solutions to the problems being presented, such as the work of an NGO or a government initiative. You should also include information about how it was implemented, what it set out to do, how many people it has served and what the results have been (back your statements with data from reputable sources).

Submit the article to [email protected] in the proper format with the subheading: “Guest Contributor, [first and last name].”

3. Wait for a reply from the editorial team. We’ll let you know that we’ll be publishing your article, or we’ll ask you to give it another shot.

4. Repeat this process as many times as you like!