Intended audience: DataKind Volunteers
What’s the DataKind blog? What’s the purpose?
Humble. Mindful. Experts. Approachable and fun. Transparent. Diverse. At DataKind, we’re driven by these values and all united by a common mission to use data science and AI in the service of humanity. From highlighting our talented volunteers from around the world to featuring stories about the collaborative projects our global network of pro bono data scientists have worked on with social change organizations, the DataKind blog was created to tell the story of the work we do through engaging content that demonstrates our impact and strengthens our long-term ties to our supporters. People connect with stories, and the stories we share should paint pictures and evoke emotions. Blogs are featured on the Blogs page of our website.
Who reads our blog?
Our blog reaches a broad audience:
- Global Chapter Network / volunteers
- Funders
- Corporations
- Social sector actors (nonprofits, NGOs, government agencies)
- Data science community-at-large
- Members of the media
- General public
What types of content do we feature?
Below is a list of the types of content that we prefer to feature, along with examples. We encourage you to use this list for ideas and inspiration. If you have a blog idea that’s not captured below, but think would be a good fit, please do reach out to the Communications team (contact information provided below).
- DataKind Announcements, News, and Events
- Chapter Highlights and Happenings
- Impact Practice Updates, Insights, and Learnings
- Other Project Updates and Showcases
- Profiles (Chapter Leaders, Other Volunteers, Board Members, Staff)
- Partnerships
- Commentary on Case Studies: Our case studies are featured on the Projects page of our website and are a chance to tell the story of DataKind’s work. The blog could be a great place to provide commentary (explaining the “so what” of the project) on a case study. Examples include (but not limited to): a project volunteer’s first hand experience, learnings or updates from a past or ongoing project, etc.
- How-To’s and Tutorials (that would be helpful to our readers, specifically our pro bono data scientists and partners at social change organizations)
- Tips, Resources, Cheat Sheets, or Checklists (that would be useful to our readers)
What types of content will not be considered?
- Promotional pieces
- Sensitive / controversial material
What types of content will not be considered?
- Promotional pieces
- Sensitive / controversial material
What are some great examples from our blog?
- Celebrating National Volunteer Week 2020 at DataKind San Francisco
- DataKind UK Ethics Committee: Our First Year in Review
- DataKind DC’s First Citizen Science DataDive
- Using Data Science to Improve Mental Health Services for Diverse Communities
- Applying AI to Societal Challenges in Cities & Communities: Highlights from DataKind’s Virtual DataDive With Microsoft
- DataKind Joins Partnership on Artificial Intelligence
- A Step Change: DataKind Raises $20M Investment to Support the Data Science for Social Good Ecosystem
What are the style and formatting guidelines?
- Word count: Generally, 1,000 – 2,000 words. However, write just long enough to inform, inspire, engage, and enrich our readers. We don’t have a word count limit or goal.
- Tone: As we mentioned above, our blog reaches a broad audience. The challenge is to give enough detail, so that it’s interesting and robust, but not use such technical language that it alienates readers without data science backgrounds. Your mom should be able to read this and understand at a high level what the story is about and why it’s important. (If your mom is a data scientist, then think of someone else!) Keep in mind that our voice is a balance of casual, funny, friendly, and enthusiastic mixed with expert, practitioner, and authority on topics. For more information, please check out our existing blogs”> and our Voice and Style guide for direction.
Linking:
- Internal linking: We encourage you to link to existing blogs, case studies, and articles featured on DataKind’s website. It’s great for search engine optimization.
- External linking: If the blog is about a specific project, please be sure to link to the project partner’s website. We encourage you to link any publications, articles, and media related to the project as well.
- Links to commercial products and services are not acceptable. If you’re unsure, please reach out to the Communications team (contact information is below).
What’s the topic submission and content review process?
- If relevant, share the topic with your Project Manager, Data Ambassador, Chapter Leader, and/or partner organization representative for discussion/approval.
- If the above doesn’t apply to you, reach out to the Communications team with your blog idea (contact information is below).
- If your topic has been approved by one of the parties above, you’re ready to write your first draft. Share the draft with your Project Manager, Data Ambassador, Chapter Leader, and/or partner organization representative for review and approval. If you’re working directly with the Communications team, share the draft with them for review and approval.
- Once reviewed and approved, please make sure to send the updated draft in a Google doc with any supporting visuals to the Communications team for final editing and review and to get it published and promoted.
- The Communications team will also ensure that the final version of the blog is saved appropriately.
What should you send with your submission?
- Details: When reviewing your draft, prior to submission, please make sure dates/timeframe, locations, names of project partners/volunteers, etc. are accurately captured. (Put on the journalist hat! Have you covered the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your story?)
- Bio: If this is a specific byline* and isn’t a byline by a Chapter (example: “by DataKind San Francisco”), then we require a short author bio of 3-5 sentences with all submissions. Here’s a great example (scroll to the end of the article).
- Social Media: Please share your social media handles, so we can properly tag you. We’d also love to highlight our partner organizations, so if there’s a partner organization or other organization that should also be included in our social media messaging, please share their handles as well.
- Headshot: Please submit a high-resolution headshot.
- Images: If you have images that support your post visually, please send them as separate attachments along with your post (ensuring permission to use and including where to give credit). Images may include: photos from the project partner, charts, visualizations, event photos, etc. Please make sure they’re high-quality images!
- Funders: If your blog is about a specific project that’s been supported or funded, please include details about the funder in your draft. Ex: “Support for this project was provided by (name of funder)”
*The byline tells the reader who wrote the piece.
What’s next?
How should you share your published blog? Once published, we encourage you to share broadly, including social media and any local press contacts and bloggers you might know. If you’d like to repurpose and re-share your content elsewhere, please contact the Communications team for permission (contact information below). Contributors must wait one month before re-sharing and repurposing content, and acknowledge in writing that the post originally appeared on DataKind’s blog.
Questions?
Reach out to DataKind’s Director, Communications at melissa@datakind.org or use the button to the left to “Provide Feedback, Ask Questions!”. Thanks for working with us on content for our blog!
Contributer(s): Caroline Charrow, Melissa, Rachel Wells
Contact us
If you would like to learn more about us, partner with us, or get in touch, email us at community@datakind.org
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