Nonprofit Blogs

The Chronicle on Philanthropy has an article titled “Blogs on the Rise” (subscription required) about nonprofit blogging. They list the following blogs as “Nonprofit Blogs That Get Attention”:

• The Agitator
• Beneblog
• The Charity Governance Blog
• Donor InSite
• Donor Power Blog
• Don’t Tell The Donor
• Gift Hub
• Redeeming Hope
• Trent Stamp’s Take
• White Courtesy Telephone

These are all great blogs, most of which I read regularly. I find the list interesting in the way it highlights two themes I’ve talked about 1) The need for “donor focused” philanthropic media and 2) The lack of differentiation between nonprofit blogs and philanthropy blogs.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy is really a chronicle of the nonprofit world. Most of the content is not of interest to donors. The fact that the excellent, philanthropy blogs Philanthropy 2173, Philanthromedia and We Are The New Radicals did not make the list, highlights the paper’s nonprofit focus.

On the other hand, it seems to me that Gift Hub and Trent Stamp’s Take both offer a lot of donor focused content. While I am sure they both have many nonprofit readers, it seems to me that they are more “philanthropy blogs” rather than “nonprofit blogs” (although as I noted recently, I think the distinction isn’t very important at this point in the maturation process of Giving Blogs).

The Chronicle of Philanthropy does a great job covering nonprofit news. However, philanthropy is desperately in need of a media coverage that is donor focused. Here’s to hoping that Generocity, Good, Contribute, Benefit, and Giving are successful and that other donor focused media emerges in the near future.

(On a side note, I’d like to head a round of applause for Duke Smith, whose Donor InSite blog made the list even though he only launched it in August!)