Editorial rules
The Nonprofit Herald publishes stories about America's nonprofits: their missions, the people who started them, and what their work has changed. These are the rules every story and every notice follows.
How a story is written
- An organization sends us material through our form: what happened, a few answers, its photos. Or we invite it to, and talk to its founder or director.
- We write the story ourselves, in our own words. A story is never the organization's text as it was sent, and never a copy of its website.
- Our editors check the story against what the organization told us and approve the final text. Nothing is published without that approval.
News
Some stories are news about nonprofits rather than about one organization: a new law or rule, a government program, a large gift or grant round, a study, a change many organizations will feel. Our editors write these themselves from public sources, list every source with the story, and approve them the way they approve any other. They run on the desk of their field and in the states they are about, marked News above the headline. Nobody pays for one or asks for one.
What it costs
Nothing. Stories and notices are free for the organizations in them and free to read. We do not accept payment for a story, a notice or a place on the page.
What a story will not do
A story describes the work. It does not ask readers to donate, and it carries no donation links and no fundraising appeals. The one link to the organization goes to its own website; a news story links only to its sources and to the organizations it names.
Soliciting donations for a charity is regulated by state law, and we are not the charity's fundraiser. That is why a request for money sent with a story's material does not appear in the story.
Links to your story
You are welcome to link to your story from your website, and every story page has a badge you can copy for it. Linking is never a condition of being featured, and nothing about the story changes either way.
Photos
Photos come from the organization and carry a credit. We publish photos the organization has the right to share, and people who can be recognized in them agreed to be photographed. A news story uses our own photos, works in the public domain such as those of the federal government, or photos released for reuse, each with a credit.
Corrections
If something in a story is wrong, write to [email protected]. We correct it and show the date of the update on the story.
Notices
Organizations can send short notices: an anniversary, a new program, a call for volunteers. They are free. We edit and approve each one before it runs, and the same rules apply.