Are white papers only appropriate for businesses that are operating to earn a dollar? Can non-profits actually benefit from a white paper?

This is a quick summary of a question that came in from writer Whitney Potsus.

She asked:

Could a white paper be written and published by a non-profit? If so, can you think of any areas in which, or reasons why, the white paper would have to be handled differently than if it was being written for a corporation?

Whitney, you will be happy to know that white papers are very applicable to non-profits.

In fact, just today, an executive director of a software organization contacted me about a white paper.

If you are looking at this from the angle of a freelance writer looking for work, I would go after member organizations that benefit from establishing thought leadership on an idea.

I will give you an example, a while back a life insurance organization contracted my firm to produce a white paper that was ultimately delivered to its members and used as a marketing tool to help them sell a very specific service.

One thing to realize is that not all member organizations have budgets for producing a white paper. I might advise you examine organizations in either the technology or financial services space.

You treat the project no differently than any other white paper project. Just realize that the motives behind the paper might be to assist members rather than generate a lead.

Hope this helps!

(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 6th, 2007 at 5:02 am and is filed under Writing White Papers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.