Does Your Organization’s Newsletter Need A Host?
Guest post by: Jeanne Lee
“Hosts” are a recent concept that spilled over into newsletters from other content forms. With the massive growth of podcasts and creator-based media in the past decade, readers evolved to respond well to newsletters that have a bit of personality alongside their information. Some newsletter platforms, like Beehiiv, Ghost and Substack, began referring to their writers as hosts, leaning into this approach. Today, it’s common for newsletters to have a persona attached, with a warm and conversational tone. Newsletter host has even become a label that writers might call themselves in their bio or sign-off.
Historically, organizational newsletters were faceless missives with an institutional voice. A logo at the top, a few announcements, maybe a photo of a check being handed over at a gala. The tone was formal. But with the rise of personality-driven content, readers have gravitated toward wanting to hear from a person, not a communications department. A genuine human being with something to say. The best newsletters today feel less like bulletins and more like letters from a knowledgeable friend who knows what you care about and includes the details that matter to you.
For nonprofits, this evolution is significant. Your newsletter can seed a deeper human connection. When done well, a newsletter host reminds donors why they gave, turns casual supporters into advocates and motivates them to give again. This happens naturally when your newsletter is written from the perspective of an individual, who could be your executive director, your development officer, or a staff member with a strong sense of mission.
The key is to let their personality come through in the writing. Quirks and humor aren’t unprofessional, they’re human. They create a relationship. A host who opens with “I’ve been thinking about something one of our students said to me last week, and I can’t get it out of my head,” makes the reader feel like they know this person.
In the business world, a newsletter host is often the founder, CEO or a subject matter expert. With nonprofits, there’s a bit of a difference, since an organization’s strength often lies its community. Instead of a single voice, nonprofit newsletters can have a rotating host, where a different staff member or volunteer takes the helm for each issues. The executive director might anchor the year-end fundraising issue, while a frontline program staffer hosts the summer edition. Each voice tells a different part of the story. This lets organizations showcase their team, and it also protects continuity in case of staff turnover.
A nonprofit newsletter that combines a human host with effective storytelling can easily become a fundraising engine, because they naturally answer the donor’s most important question: Did my gift matter?
