Submit Topic

Want to contribute to our Be The Change blog? Propose your topic idea to our blog editorial team here! We will endeavour to review your idea within 48 hours.

Editorial Guidelines – for when you write your blog

1. Our blog’s objectives

• To inspire powerful citizen action, thought leadership, and transformative conversations to bring forth an environmentally sustainable, socially just, and spiritually fulfilling human presence on this planet.

• To give readers another way to come into contact with Be The Change, our programs and our community — and get involved. Ideally, Be The Change (including its members and affiliates) would be seen as thought leaders and change agents.

2. Objectives of our blog content

• To promote actions and initiatives that fulfil on Be The Change’s purpose, and providing members a place to share how they are “being the change” through individual and collective contributions.

• To engage people in transformative conversations in their daily lives (in the physical world) to help others see these issues in a new way.

• To outline opportunities for action in a format that is easy to engage with and understand. Actionable advice – at least one key takeaway about ‘how to be the change’.

• To inspire with an element of transformation (that people potentially may see the world differently after reading, gain a new perspective).

• To connect with humanity — speaking inclusively and accessibly, in a way that bridges social and cultural barriers — allowing the reader to get in touch with something universal in us all that wants a better world, a healthier world, a more just world, and a more fulfilled and conscious way of life.

3. Our audience

• People who are concerned (or are beginning to be) about our impact on the world environmentally, socially and spiritually, and seeking inspiration and guidance on what they can do to make a difference, including current BTC community members.

• Members of the Be The Change community who are social change agents / active as citizen educators working to shift public consciousness

• And if we reach others – great!

4. Approval, writing & review process

• Topics and drafts must be approved by at least 2 people on the editorial team.

• Schedule for writing and approval:

  • Contributor presents topic before starting the writing process.

    • Be The Change may also suggest topics for the contributor to explore.

  • Editorial team to review presented topic within 48 hours; at least 2 members to approve.

  • Contributor to prepare first draft within 14 days.

  • First draft to be reviewed within 7 days; at least 2 members to approve.

  • Contributor to make amends (if any) within 7 days.

  • Final approval by at least 2 members.

• (If reviews or amends happen more quickly, there will be time for more than one iteration.)

5. Some examples of great blog content

• Pachamama blog: http://www.pachamama.org/blog

• SpiritScience: http://thespiritscience.net/

• David Suzuki: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/

• 350: http://350.org/

6. Linking, re-posting, and copyright

• Linking to other blogs is allowed if they are aligned with our purpose. Linking to similar blogs is encouraged, as it positions us as a useful, dependable resource for relevant content about making a difference.

• Initially, while we are still building our own “content ecosystem”, feel free to link to other websites as needed, where relevant. As we build up more posts, we will encourage contributors to link to Be The Change’s own content more.

• Links to business sites are subject to approval by the GC.

• Contributors may re-post their entries from BTC Blog on their own blogs, as long as they provide a link back to BTC Blog.

• Contributors may also re-post their blogs onto our blog. If we are publishing a post from another blog, we must give credit and link to them.

• Original author retains copyright, giving Be The Change permission to post their content. Original authors are responsible for the content of their contributions.

7. Images

• Only photos taken by the contributor, or those we’ve been granted permission to use by the photographer.

• No stock photos or free images until further review, unless the author owns them. We are open to considering these as an option once we work out any potential complications and/or costs, but in that instance, blog posts should contain a maximum of 1 of such photos.

8. Style and formatting

• Write in short sentences.

• Use headings to break up sections, or summarise main points in a bullet list, in a way that if the headings or bullet points are the only items seen by the reader, they will get your message across.

• Our audience is made up of a mix of very concerned ‘global citizens’ and culturally mainstream citizens becoming concerned about their impact and the course of our society etc. So the language needs to be accessible to all of them. Please avoid overly academic (or, on the flipside, condescending) language – use accessible language, and if academic language is necessary, explain in layman’s terms.

• Word limit: 800 words.

• Tone: optimistic and bright, yet informed and grounded. Be factual and matter-of-fact, but be present to possibility always.

• A conceptual link (at least implicit) to how your blog post is relevant to Be The Change and/or its mission and activities.

• You can provide stories.

• Please make sure that key thoughts and ideas are clearly referenced and any scientific evidence is included, to help ensure that the content is inclusive and not alienating.

9. Headlines (title) and first sentence or two

• Almost as important as the body content, headlines are the means whereby a potential reader decides if they are going to take the time to read your article.

• Make headlines count! You have a few seconds to pull someone’s attention.

• First few sentences: introduce topics/concepts (‘help me understand’), explain importance (‘why should I care?’), get people intrigued (‘sounds fascinating’).

Disclaimer:

• Be The Change Guardianship Council (Board) and Be The Change Editorial Team reserve the right to alter or refuse any submitted/proposed content or topics at our discretion.