Deepen Relationships, Broaden Reach
A non-profit’s primer for Medium
Medium is a place on the Internet where people share ideas and stories. It’s designed for beautiful little tales and transformational manifestos. Personally, I work at Medium because I believe that a better system for exchanging these stories and ideas will positively change the world.
If you’re a non-profit, you’re likely strapped for resources, time, and donors’ attention (we’re lucky if you’ve even read this far).
You also have some of the most compelling, under-shared, and under-appreciated stories in the world.
We built Medium to help you do something about it.
If you want to jump in, it’s quite easy, and you can start right now. If you want to learn more, here are a few things to know about how Medium is a different experience.
I. Medium is a context shift.
On Medium, you aren’t publishing on an island in the web to the same audience. You’re publishing into a thriving, pulsing network alongside non-profit leaders — from The Rockefeller Foundation’s Judith Rodin and Harvard’s Jonathan Zittrain, to charity: water’s Scott Harrison and the ACLU. Your content is also appearing alongside leaders in other industries — like Jon Krakauer, Brian Chesky, Elon Musk, and the World Economic Forum.
“Medium is not about who you are or whom you know,
but about what you have to say.”
— @Ev, Medium CEO
II. It’s the best writing experience online.
Medium’s composing tool is truly “what you see is what you get” and has just the right amount of formatting (recent updates here) to tell your stories without getting in the way. It’s simple, beautiful, and collaborative. There are no gratuitous sidebars, plug-ins, or widgets. There is nothing to set up or customize. When you write on Medium, you’ll know that your words and pictures will look great on any device courtesy of the responsive design.
“A Platform and Blogging Tool, Medium Charms Writers.”
— David Carr, New York Times
III. Find, grow, and return to an audience.
When you join Medium, you can both bring and build your audience — one to which you can return to publish any time. Posts get spread around (and beyond) the Medium network based on interest and engagement, with the help of algorithmic and editorial curation. And we want you to win, so we’ll do what we can to make sure stories that matter get seen.
“There’s a community of people on Medium who can share the story on their own,
rather than just us sharing it with the same audience over and over.”
— Tyler Riewer, Content Strategist @charitywater
IV. Storytelling fuel for communications.
Medium is a beautiful, powerful, low-maintenance storytelling tool that you can use anywhere. You can post your Medium content on your blog, repost your blog content here, or simply build a presence with us. The important thing to note is that you own it in any case (our terms are quite user-friendly).
V. A few tips and tricks can go a long way.
Memorable titles. A quick copy edit. Embed your Medium content on your blog/homepage. Powerful images, especially good use of image grids. Linking to your Twitter and Facebook accounts to expand your reach. Promoting your own stories beyond the Medium network will help them gain traction within the network. And those are just a few helpful hints.
“The questions we’re always asking are ‘How do we inspire people? How do we get them to care?’ We’re looking to create life-long relationships with them,
and stories on Medium are one way we do it.”
— Scott Harrison, charity: water CEO
Bring your stories and ideas.
We built Medium for organizations like yours.
So sign up, and give it a try.
Your audience awaits.
You can also read about Medium’s features, and follow @medium on Twitter and Facebook for updates.
[cover image by Ales Krivec]
