This is a document I made in 2011 before I left my job managing PEPY, an education and youth leadership organization in Cambodia. It combines a few tools we had made over the years - from writing guidelines to our views on do's and don'ts in international development marketing. Another former PEPY team member just sent it back to me, and I realize some of it is still relevant in my current job, so I thought I'd post it here in case it might be useful to others.

1. PEPY Writing Guidelines Workshop

2. PEPY Writing Guidelines
Workshop
1) How we write & speak about PEPY
2) The PEPY Voice
3) Editing Process
4) PEPY Writing Do’s and Don’ts
5) Social Media/Web Do’s and Don’ts

3. How We Write & Speak about PEPY
Pretend PEPY is you.
Wait, it IS you!
So speak about it humbly as you
would about yourself.

4. Keys to Successful PEPY Writing
1) Be Humble
2) Focus on our Work
3) Focus on the Impact
4) Be Accurate
5) Be Clean and Clear
6) Be Cogent
7) Know your Audience
8) Know the PEPY writing standards

5. Keys to Successful PEPY Writing
1) Be Humble No one wants to hear how great
we think we are!

6. 2) Focus on the Work: If it is going to be in
print, on the web, or in our newsletter, imagine
that many of our donors will read it. What would
someone who has given some of their hard
earned money to our projects want to read--the
party last night? Or the programs they are
funding? Make sure the overall emphasis of our
messaging is on our work here in Cambodia.
Keys to Successful PEPY Writing

7. 3) Focus on the Impact
Its not about HOW MUCH MONEY we raised.
Its not about the new motorbike we just
bought or the school we just built, it’s about
the impact on people. Writing “Help us
reach our $50,000 goal!” on twitter is
focusing on money. Adding “so that we can
expand our child club program to three more
communities” lets people know WHY
funding matters. Keep impact as the focus of
our messages, our newsletters, and our
work!
Keys to Successful PEPY Writing

8. 4) Be Accurate: Check your facts! If you are
not sure, ask! Or don’t write it! We need to
make sure we are giving a consistent message
and that our facts are correct in order to be a
credible source of information.
Keys to Successful PEPY Writing

9. 5) Be Clean and Clear: And by that we mean
that the grammar/punctuation/spelling should all
be correct. Triple check! Always have three eyes
read the final version before printing as
sometimes it is harder for an author to find those
errors. (We don’t want to tell people we are
“improving children”!)
Keys to Successful PEPY Writing

10. 6) Be Cogent: People should be able to read
the first paragraph and understand the theme of
the piece. This is especially important for
articles where there will be a “read more” link to
connect people to the rest of your piece. In
longer pieces, the final paragraph should
summarize the key themes. If appropriate, end
with a call to action. We want to change the way
people give, travel, and live – so inspire them
first to read all the way through and second, to
take action!
Keys to Successful PEPY Writing

11. 7) Know Your Audience: Consider who will
be reading your final work. Is it someone in the
industry? A potential donor? An interested PEPY
Tours participant? A PEPY veteran? Make sure
you are addressing them as appropriately as
possible.
Keys to Successful PEPY Writing

12. 8) Know The PEPY Writing Standards:
- American not British English
- Single space after a period
- Use a comma before “and” when listing
- Use a comma before “which”
- Make sure to use parallel structure
- Minimize “is” and “get”; use action verbs;
avoid a passive voice
Keys to Successful PEPY Writing

13. The PEPY Voice
So, you are writing for PEPY... how exciting!
How do you know what “voice” to use,
when it is ok to use your own style, and
what to include in your writing? You know
by reading this document!

14. The PEPY Voice
To determine how much flexibility you have with your
writing, first determine if you are writing with your
own voice, or with PEPY’s.
-------------------------
YOUR VOICE: Your own Facebook/Twitter/personal blogging
about PEPY, emailing PEPY people in a non-formal capacity
YOUR VOICE, BUT WITHIN PEPY-IFIED LINES: Team
Journal/newsletter articles which have your name or are written
in the first person, emailing PEPY contacts in a work capacity
THE PEPY VOICE: Team Journal/newsletter articles which
are not in the first person, grants, any PEPY materials for print or
presentations

15. The PEPY Voice
YOUR VOICE: Your own Facebook/Twitter/personal blogging
about PEPY, emailing PEPY people in a non-formal capacity
If you are writing for any of the above reasons, you are free to
use your own voice. We still want you and the organization to
come across professionally and dedicated to our mission, but
your own personal writing style can and should shine through in
these pieces.

16. The PEPY Voice
YOUR VOICE, BUT WITHIN PEPY-IFIED LINES: Team
Journal/newsletter articles which have your name and are written
in the first person, emailing PEPY contacts in a work capacity
Perhaps you have been asked to write an article about your
recent visit to a PEPY project or a trip you lead... GREAT! You
can write this in the first person, but as it is specifically being
requested of you, there is likely a specific message that we are
looking to get out to our readership. Make sure you find out what
that message is before you invest a lot of time in writing. Also,
be flexible with editing for this type of article. If you feel like it is
losing your personal voice, see if it is possible to remove your
name from the by-line.

17. The PEPY Voice
THE PEPY VOICE: Team Journal/newsletter articles which
are not in the first person, any PEPY material for print or
presentations
These pieces will likely be edited, edited, and edited again.
Words will be argued over, dictionaries will be consulted, “You
don’t know how to punctuate!” might be yelled out in the heat of
the moment... and the end result will be a fabulous conglomerate
of PEPY voices. When writing a piece like this, please be
prepared from the beginning for a long and arduous editing
process and make sure to write with passion, sincerity, and
professionalism. Thank you for adding yours to the PEPY Voice!

18. Things I Usually Edit
I went through old newsletters I have edited and racked my
brain to come up with a list of things I most often edit out of
our public material (newsletters, brochures, emails to
supporters, etc). These are things that bother me, are
important to PEPY branding, or are just incorrect which I
wanted to share with you to help keep the PEPY voice
consistent, humble, transparent, fun, and honest.

19. Exaggeration about the state of Cambodia, PEPY’s
program, or any other issues
We should avoid saying:
Cambodians are poor. Cambodians are a happy people.
Cambodian’s have great smiles.
These are stereotypes, so we can acknowledge them as such, but not
propagate them. We could acknowledge the stereotype by saying
“Most people believe Cambodians are poor.” or, “As if fulfilling the
Cambodian stereotype XXXX seems to always be wearing a smile.”
Or, use “in general” before statements which are indeed both a
perceived and true generalization: “In general, people in the most
rural villages of Chanleas Dai are farmers, many of whom look to
Thailand to find ways of making an income after the harvest season.”
Things I Usually Edit

20. Ego
UGH. This is the NUMBER ONE worst offense to me in our
newsletter or in the works of others. AVOID SAYING HOW
GREAT YOU THINK SOMETHING-PEPY IS! Talk about it, but
let OTHERS decide for themselves if they think it is great or
not.
You will see red lines over these words if you write them in a
PEPY newsletter article:
PEPY’s amazing programs
We are so proud of our success
Our programs are successfully pulling people out of poverty
Things I Usually Edit

21. Ego
What we can say:
We are honored to have had the chance to work with
XXX partner, or be recognized by XXXX organization
for our work – Just like if someone tells YOU you are
great, it’s not ok to respond with “Yes, I am, thank
you!” We should express why we are honored to
have been called so, or, if the compliment was for
something we feel is still a work in progress (like Yut
would remind us that we each are!), then let’s
acknowledge that!
Things I Usually Edit

22. Ego
We are proud of Sarakk, PEPY’s Supplemental Program Mananger,
for xxxx -- It is ok to complement staff, but not Daniela or PEPY’s
top management? Why? Because, for all general purposes, the
newsletter and writing of PEPY IS the voice the the management.
There is nothing more irritating that opening a website or a newsletter
and having the writing be about how awesome the founder or director
is, as they are the ones whose voice it is meant to be coming from!
(Side note: I interviewed a guy for the Managing Director position
whose website for the NGO he had run before said across the top
“Created in the vision of founder, Joe Smith…”. I knew he wasn’t
going to be hired before he even started speaking!)
Things I Usually Edit

23. Ego
So in otherwords, don’t say “Here is a piece written by our (INSERT
POSITIVE ADJETIVE HERE) Director, Daniela Papi”. It’s nice that
you are trying to be nice to me, but there is no room for brownnosing
and no need to say anything other than the title!
The xxxx program has had these detailed results this year…. But we
know there is still more to be improved, and we are excited about
working towards these new goals next year, etc
Things I Usually Edit

24. Things I Usually Edit
With each new person we add to our team, PEPY changes slightly,
and the dynamic of how we work is adjusted. We think that’s
GREAT. We welcome new ideas, look for people who are going to
take actions to make improvements, and believe we need to be
flexible and open to change. But, there are some things that make
PEPY “PEPY”, and those are things that the founding team holds
close to their hearts. These things are open to change as well, as
needed, but only upon discussion and agreement with the PEPY
board and wider PEPY family. These are the things we believe in,
and help keep us all working together towards the same goals.
In order to help preserve the PEPY Brand, please keep these
things in mind:

25. PEPY Writing Do’s and
Don’ts
We Don’t Use We Use Why?
"our schools",
PEPY Schools
schools in Chanleas Dai,
our partner schools, PEPY
partners
These are government
schools (not “our”
schools), and we should
use vocabulary that
recognizes our
partnership

26. We Don’t Use We Use Why?
Not only is "poverty"
subjective, it also
doesn’t always apply to
everyone in the areas we
work in. Use more
concrete descriptions
relating to specific cases.
"poor people"
disadvantaged
communities (at the most
extreme vocab choice),
rural communities
PEPY Writing Do’s and
Don’ts

27. We Don’t Use We Use Why?
Most of us are from a
"village" somewhere, but
wouldn't describe people
from our areas as
"villagers"
"villagers”,
“the locals”
members of Chanleas Dai
community, the people
from xxxxx village, etc
PEPY Writing Do’s and
Don’ts

28. We Don’t Use We Use Why?
No one would want to be
the "before" shot in a
teenage magazine - or
the "poor person" photo.
Avoid using any photos
which you would not want
to put up if it were YOU in
the photo.
heartbreaking
photos of "poor
people"
honest photos of our work
which highlight our
programs successes and
failures
PEPY Writing Do’s and
Don’ts

29. We Don’t Use We Use Why?
One of PEPY's hallmarks
is fundraising in non-
traditional ways. We
focus on tours/
engagement. Our biggest
criticism & least response
came when fundraising
via our newsletter rather
than engaging.
"fundraising"
strategies
"engagement" strategies
PEPY Writing Do’s and
Don’ts

30. We Don’t Use We Use Why?
We believe NGOs should
admit mistakes & donors
shouldn’t be trained to
expect constant success.
Transparency about
process engages donors
in a learning process
hopefully benefiting the
larger NGO community.
our egos,
excessive praise,
constant focus on
successes
honest appraisals of our
successes as well as our
failures, humble
vocabulary
PEPY Writing Do’s and
Don’ts

31. We Don’t Use We Use Why?
We don't want to highlight
sad stories, especially of
children, which could be
considered exploiting
individuals for fundraising
or publicity. It’s not our
place to share people’s
stories if we don’t have
that permission.
allow press and
visitors to highlight
stories of individual
students
our staff's stories if they
want to share, and our
overall program
information
PEPY Writing Do’s and
Don’ts

32. We Shouldn’t We Should Why?
We speak a lot about
“focusing on impact” so
our voice and the topics
we choose to speak
about should reflect that
Focus only on
things going on in
the office (among
English speakers)
Have a process from
which we connect with the
people and programs and
make sure our voice is
focusing on programs and
impact
PEPY Social Media/Web
Do’s and Don’ts

33. We Shouldn’t We Should Why?
This is our voice. We
don’t want people
associating PEPY with
“young kids” via the
vocabulary we choose
Use colloquial or
potentially offensive
vocabulary or
statements or slang
which might come off
as very
unprofessional:
coolio, dude, rockz
Be professional, young,
fun, and transparent!
PEPY Social Media/Web
Do’s and Don’ts

34. We Shouldn’t We Should Why?
Because that is one of
the things that makes us
US – BE HUMBLE!
Talk about how
great we are or
focus only on
successes
Talk about our failures and
lessons learned
PEPY Social Media/Web
Do’s and Don’ts

35. Adventurous Living. Responsible Giving.TM