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Contributor Guidelines

Submitting guest blogs is open to Global Washington’s members of the Atlas level and above. We value a diversity of opinions on a broad range of subjects of interest to the global health and development community.

Blog article submissions should be 500-1500 words. Photos, graphs, videos, and other art that supports the main themes are strongly encouraged.

You may not be the best writer, and that’s okay. We can help you shape and edit your contribution. The most important thing is that it furthers an important conversation in your field, and that it is relatively jargon-free. Anyone without a background in global development should still be able to engage with your ideas.

If you include statistics or reference current research, please hyperlink your sources in the text, wherever possible.

Have an idea of what you’d like to write about? Let’s continue the conversation! Email comms@globalWA.org and put “Blog Idea” in the subject line.


Five Painful Pitfalls to Avoid on Donor Trips

By Katherine Redington, Vice President of Social Impact Journeys, Elevate Destinations

Photo of woman holding pot

Donor trips, journeys that take funders to see the work they are investing in abroad, have long been used as a catalyst for transformational giving, donor retention, and cultivating more meaningful relationships. However, not all donor trips achieve these outcomes. That is because the outcomes from trips directly result from how a journey’s priorities are implemented before, during, and after the trip. After designing 300 donor trips with over 80 different organizations, I have seen a lot of mistakes that can derail these desired outcomes. Below are five of the most common mistakes nonprofits make when designing their donor trips.

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Gender Equity: A World Where We All Win.

By Randi Hedin, Board Member, buildOn

View of men and women mixing concrete

Men and women mixing concrete to build a school; Malawi. Photo: buildOn

On the surface, the fight for gender equity seems to be making tremendous strides. Women are graduating from college in record numbers—as many as 46 percent of women aged 25-34 in the U.S. currently hold bachelor’s degrees (up from only 8 percent in 1970.) Across the world, 41 percent of women hold post-secondary degrees. Here in Seattle, at the University of Washington, 56.7% of all undergraduate and graduate degrees were awarded to women. Women wield considerable economic clout, too. Within the next five years, women are expected to control as much as 75 percent of all discretionary spending worldwide. 

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Pangea Site Visit to Guatemala – October 2024

Group photo

Summary prepared by Janet Pearson on behalf of the site visit team that also included Betsy Hale and Diane Logan.

Pangea site visits are unique opportunities to further a core element of our mission, which is to engage in trust-based partnerships with grassroots organizations. Our recent visit to Guatemala provided the opportunity for careful listening and deep conversations.

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