Media

The ACE blog was created to offer a place where news, ideas, and discussion relevant to our mission—to find and promote the most helpful ways to help animals—can be shared in a less formal venue than on our main website. Our audience is comprised of animal advocates and effective altruists, as well as academics and researchers.

Submission Guidelines

What we publish

Submissions must be original and not submitted elsewhere, including online platforms. Content must be relevant to effective animal advocacy (EAA). Guest bloggers are welcome to pitch topics of their choosing, but below is a nonrestrictive list of topics we are particularly interested in:

• Opinion pieces presenting an EAA take on news items
• Opinion pieces discussing potentially impactful interventions
• Ideas on high-impact careers or volunteer opportunities to reduce animal suffering
• Opinion pieces on movement-level strategies
• Discussions of interventions or strategies between experts from different angles

The best way to become familiar with the kind of articles we post is to read our blog. More specifically, you can view our guest blog archive for examples of acceptable content. Below are a few examples of successful guest blog posts:

• What Is The Most Effective Way to Advocate Legally for Nonhuman Animals?
• Should Animal Organizations Conduct Their Own Research?
• Animal Advocacy Lessons from the 2016 Democratic National Convention
• Is the Percentage of Vegetarians and Vegans in the U.S. Increasing?

We also welcome sponsored posts from companies that want to share branded content relevant to ACE’s mission on our platform, as long as it does not promote a product or service. For more information on fees and guidelines for sponsored posts, please contact ACE’s communications team at communications@animalcharityevaluators.org.

What we do not publish

• Content that does not pertain to effective animal advocacy
• Articles that promote a product or service
• Syndicated/unoriginal content

Submission process

If you would like to submit a pitch or post for consideration, please send an email to our communications team using the following subject line: “ACE Guest Blog Submission.” While we do accept post submissions, we strongly recommend pitching your topic to us first.

Please wait at least two weeks for us to review your pitch before contacting us again to inquire about your submission. We do our best to respond to all submissions, but are not able to offer significant feedback as to the reasons your pitch was rejected.

Drafting process

Once your pitch is accepted, you will receive a link to a Google doc in which to write and submit your first draft. We prefer posts around 800–3,500 words in length. If you refer to online materials, please include links to them. Always cite your sources. If you wish to include images, attach them in the email along with your draft in JPEG, PNG, or SVG format in the highest resolution available. Please provide captions and credits for any images. We cannot publish images unless you retain rights to the images or submit proper attribution.

Along with your post draft, please send a short biography of no more than 50 words. If you’d like, please also include a headshot of yourself (uncropped, high resolution), as well as references and links to your professional website and/or social media accounts (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn).

All guest posts are edited for content and style—see the “Style Guidelines” section for our style standards. ACE staff will review your post draft and then contact you with feedback and suggestions for revision. You will have an opportunity to respond to feedback and approve the final, edited version of your post before publication. We reserve the right to refuse a post at any time throughout the process if we determine it is inappropriate for publication on the ACE blog.

After your post is published on the ACE website, you should not cross-post the content elsewhere unless given express permission from the ACE staff. If permitted, subsequent posts must link to the originally published post and give credit to ACE as the original source using language such as, “This post was originally published on Animal Charity Evaluators' blog.”

Style Guidelines

Grammar and Mechanics

We don’t expect your writing to be perfect. However, please proofread your submission for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors before sending it to us. We will address any remaining errors with you during the revision phase.

Spelling

You may use U.S. or British English. Please be consistent in whichever one you choose.

Voice and Tone

One of the great benefits of guest contributors is that they present an opportunity for our audience to hear a new voice—one with new opinions and perspectives. We want our guest contributors to write in their authentic voices while considering the appropriate tone. Aim to strike a balance: professional, but not overly formal. Avoid complex or obscure terms, but also try to stay away from overly colloquial language or jargon. 

Links

You can link directly to web pages from your own website or websites of organizations you are affiliated with without including a footnote. When embedding hyperlinks, please select only the text itself—exclude spaces or punctuation on either side of the word(s) you are selecting. 

Do not include links to products or services. Links to your own website or organization should be clearly identified so that the reader understands any conflicts of interest.

Reference Lists

ACE includes a reference list for every piece of research-related content that we publish. It’s not necessary to include a reference list if you are primarily referencing your own work or the work of a charity you’re affiliated with; however, please include a reference list if you cite more than five external sources (e.g., journal articles, reports, studies by other organizations) in your writing.

Reference lists should contain every source you used in your writing, including sources cited in footnotes, tables, and graphs. Please format reference lists in APA Style, 7th edition. (Purdue OWL and Columbia College offer useful APA citation guides.) If possible, include digital object identifiers (DOIs) or source links in every citation. Note: If we decide to publish your piece on the ACE blog, any in-text citations in author-date format will be changed to footnotes.