Article Writing Guide

Practical guidance for sharing clear, credible and useful insights with the Business Fights Poverty community.

Thank you for contributing

Thank you for considering writing for Business Fights Poverty.

More than 95% of our content is created by members of our global community. By sharing your experience, evidence and perspectives, you can help thousands of practitioners better understand complex challenges and identify practical ways business can contribute to positive social impact.

Our aim is simple: to help readers understand an issue better and apply the learning in their own work.

Your contribution also becomes part of Business Fights Poverty’s growing knowledge base. Alongside being published and promoted through our community, articles can be discovered through Aura, our AI assistant. When Aura uses your article to help answer a relevant question, it will reference the article and link users back to the original content on the Business Fights Poverty website.

1. Who are you writing for?

Business Fights Poverty is a global community of more than 30,000 professionals working across business, civil society, government, donor organisations and academia. Around 60% of our members work in business.

Our readers are experienced practitioners looking for:

• credible ideas and thoughtful analysis
• practical insights they can apply
• examples from real-world experience
• evidence and emerging thinking
• perspectives that recognise complexity
• constructive ideas about what can be done

They are not looking for promotional content.

As you write, keep asking:

What does this mean for the reader, and how can they apply it in their work?

2. What makes a strong Business Fights Poverty article?

The strongest articles combine five things.

Insight

Offer an idea, lesson or perspective that helps readers see a challenge differently.

Practical relevance

Give readers something they can apply, explore or think about in their own work.

Evidence

Ground your argument in experience, examples, case studies, research or data.

Balance

Recognise complexity. Avoid presenting difficult social, environmental or business challenges as having simple answers.

Constructive thinking

Focus not only on what is wrong, but on what businesses and their partners can learn, change or do differently.

Collaboration is also central to our perspective. Where relevant, explore the roles of business, civil society, government and communities rather than treating business as acting alone.

3. Find a clear angle

A strong article is usually built around one central idea, rather than trying to cover an entire topic.

Your article might explore:

• an emerging challenge or trend
• a lesson from practical experience
• findings from new research
• insights from a partnership or initiative
• three or four lessons others can apply
• an assumption that deserves rethinking
• the implications of a major development for business
• learning from a recent event or discussion

Before you start, try completing this sentence:

“After reading this article, I want the reader to understand that…”

If that is difficult to answer clearly, the article may need a sharper focus.

4. Share what you have learnt, not just what you have done

First-hand practitioner experience is particularly valuable.

Where possible, go beyond describing an initiative or announcing a result. Tell readers:

• what worked
• what did not
• what surprised you
• what changed your thinking
• what you would do differently
• what others can learn from the experience

The strongest contributions tell readers something they could not get from a generic overview of the topic.

If you are drawing on existing research, add your interpretation. Explain what you think the evidence means and why it matters.

5. Make the human and business relevance clear

Business Fights Poverty sits at the intersection of business and human impact.

Where relevant, connect large-scale systems and business practices to their implications for people’s lives, livelihoods and communities.

Keep people visible. Consider whose perspectives matter, who is affected and whether impacts differ between groups. Avoid discussing people only as abstract “beneficiaries”, “consumers” or “workers”.

At the same time, make the implications for business explicit.

Consider:

• Why should businesses care about this issue?
• How could it affect strategy, operations or relationships?
• What opportunities or risks does it create?
• What can companies realistically do?
• Where is collaboration needed?
• What can others learn from experience to date?

Do not leave the reader to work out the business relevance for themselves.

6. Structure your article

You do not need to follow a rigid formula, but most strong Business Fights Poverty articles have a clear narrative.

Start with why it matters

In the first two or three paragraphs, tell readers what the article is about, why it matters now and what they will learn.

Avoid long scene-setting introductions or several paragraphs about your organisation before reaching the central issue.

Explain the challenge

Give readers enough context to understand what is happening and why.

Use relevant evidence, trends or examples, but avoid turning the article into a literature review.

Share your main insights

This is the heart of the article.

Three to five clearly differentiated insights or lessons often work well. Give each one an informative subheading.

For each insight, consider:

1. What have you learnt?
2. What supports that conclusion?
3. Why does it matter?
4. What can others take from it?

Our articles commonly organise their core argument around three to five insights or lessons grounded in experience, examples, partnerships, research or practice.

Explain what it means for business

Translate your analysis into implications for practitioners.

This does not always mean providing a checklist. Sometimes the most useful contribution is identifying better questions that businesses should be asking.

End by looking forward

Finish with a short reflection on what needs to happen next.

Avoid simply repeating the introduction. Leave readers with an implication, opportunity, question or practical next step.

7. Write for online readers

People often scan an article before deciding how closely to read it. Make your article easy to navigate.

Get to the point quickly

Make the main subject and argument clear early in the article.

Keep paragraphs short and focused

Aim for one main idea per paragraph. Most paragraphs will be around two to four sentences.

Use descriptive subheadings

Subheadings should tell readers something useful about the section.

For example:

Less useful:

The Challenge

Better:

Small Suppliers Face a Growing Climate Finance Gap

Use lists where they help

Bullets can make complex information easier to scan, but do not force every argument into a list. The structure should serve the idea.

Use clear language

Prefer simple, direct language to unnecessarily technical or corporate wording.

8. Write in the Business Fights Poverty voice

Aim for writing that is:

Thoughtful. Clear. Constructive. Credible. Professional but accessible.

The writing should feel informed and reflective, rather than academic, corporate or promotional.

Do

• write in clear, natural language
• use active language where possible
• use concrete examples
• explain technical terms
• explain acronyms the first time you use them
• acknowledge uncertainty or competing perspectives
• distinguish evidence from interpretation
• write for an international audience

Avoid

• corporate jargon
• unexplained acronyms
• marketing language
• exaggerated claims
• advocacy slogans
• unnecessary technical language
• sweeping statements without explanation
• language that presents your organisation as the hero of the story

9. Write for a global audience

Our community spans countries, sectors and cultures.

Do not assume readers know country-specific institutions, legislation, programmes or cultural references. Explain them briefly where needed.

Avoid assuming that experience from one market or country applies everywhere. Be clear about the context from which your evidence or experience comes.

10. Use evidence well

We encourage contributors to draw on:

• credible research and reports
• data and statistics
• case studies
• company or partnership experience
• first-hand practitioner insights

Evidence should strengthen the argument without overwhelming the narrative.

Please:

• link to original sources wherever possible
• provide a source for important statistics
• attribute quotations
• distinguish evidence from your interpretation
• avoid making claims that the evidence does not support

Use descriptive hyperlinks rather than “click here”.

For example:

Less useful:

Read the research here.

Better:

The World Bank’s research on informal employment found…

11. Headlines and article summaries

Headline

Your headline should tell readers why the article is worth their time.

Aim for a headline that is:

• clear
• specific
• accurate
• insight-led
• written in language practitioners are likely to recognise

Avoid vague, exaggerated or clickbait-style titles.

Examples of formats that work well include:

The Missing Link in Water Stewardship: Why Gender Equity Is Not an Add-On

5 Insights on Generative AI, Social Impact and the Role of Business

Putting People at the Heart of Climate Action: 3 Reasons Business Must Care

Article summary

Please provide a 40–60 word summary.

In one short paragraph, explain:

• what the article is about
• why it matters
• what the reader will learn

This may also be adapted for newsletters, search and social promotion.

12. Make your article easy to discover

Write naturally for people first.

Clear structure also makes your article easier to discover through online search and through Aura, our AI assistant.

To help:

• use a clear, specific title
• use descriptive subheadings
• name important concepts and organisations explicitly
• explain acronyms on first use
• make individual sections understandable in their own right
• link important claims to credible sources

When Aura uses your article to answer a relevant question, it will reference the article and provide a link back to the original article on the Business Fights Poverty website.

13. Images and accessibility

Please provide one strong accompanying image.

Where the article discusses a particular initiative, community or case study, authentic photography from that context is preferable to generic stock imagery.

Avoid stereotypical imagery or photography that undermines the dignity of those featured.

Please provide:

• permission or consent to publish
• photographer or organisation credit
• a short caption
• names and roles of identifiable people where appropriate
• alt text

Alt text should briefly convey the information or meaning the image adds to the article.

14. What we generally do not publish

We generally do not publish articles that:

• read like press releases
• primarily promote a company, product, service or event
• focus mainly on organisational achievements
• repeat familiar ideas without adding new insight
• make unsupported or exaggerated claims
• describe problems without exploring learning or solutions

The strongest articles use an organisation’s experience as evidence for a wider insight, rather than making the organisation itself the subject of the article.

15. Submission requirements

Articles are typically 700–1,000 words, although a slightly longer article may be appropriate where the subject genuinely warrants it.

Please provide:

• article text
• headline
• 40–60 word article summary
• author name
• job title
• organisation
• 30–50 word author biography explaining your relevant experience or perspective
• hyperlinks and citations for relevant sources
• one accompanying image
• image credit and confirmation of permission to publish
• image caption
• alt text

Every article must have a named author. We do not publish articles under the byline “Staff Writer”.

16. Before you submit

Take five minutes for a final edit.

Insight

Am I telling readers something useful or distinctive?

Focus

Could I summarise the central argument in one sentence?

Opening

Is the main subject, and why it matters, clear within the first few paragraphs?

Application

Will readers understand what this means for their work?

Evidence

Are my important claims supported?

Experience

Have I shared what we learnt, rather than simply what we did?

Business relevance

Have I made clear why this matters for business?

Human relevance

Where appropriate, have I connected the issue to people’s lives, livelihoods or communities?

Balance

Have I acknowledged complexity and avoided overclaiming?

Structure

Does every section add something new, and are the subheadings meaningful?

Clarity

Could any sentence be shorter or simpler?

Tone

Does this sound like thoughtful practitioner insight rather than marketing?

What happens next?

We aim to make the publication process straightforward.

1. Submit

Send your article, author information and accompanying image to:

editor@businessfightspoverty.org

You can send the article as a Word document or share a document link.

2. We review

Our editorial team will review the article for:

• relevance
• insight
• clarity
• evidence
• tone
• alignment with this guide

We may make editorial suggestions or come back to you with questions before publication.

3. We publish

Once the article is agreed, we will publish it on the Business Fights Poverty website and share the live link with you.

4. We promote

Your article will normally be included in our next monthly newsletter, typically published towards the end of the month.

We may also promote it through Business Fights Poverty’s social channels. We encourage authors and their organisations to share the published article through their own networks too.

5. Aura helps people discover it

Once published, your article becomes discoverable through Aura, the Business Fights Poverty AI assistant.

When members ask questions related to your article, Aura may use it as a source in its response. When it does, Aura will reference your article and provide a link back to the original article on the Business Fights Poverty website.

This means your contribution can continue reaching practitioners long after its original publication date.