Non-ProfitFree
Nonprofit Jargon to Plain Language Checker
Paste a grant, appeal or report. Sector jargon is marked in place, with a plain question about what you actually mean.
River's nonprofit jargon checker marks the sector language that gets between your reader and your work, right where it appears. Paste a grant section, appeal, report or web copy. Each jargon term gets a comment with a plain question about what you actually mean, using your own material where it has the answer.
Who is reading matters. A program officer may expect 'logic model' or 'theory of change'; a donor reading an appeal does not. Words like capacity building, stakeholders, leverage and underserved often replace a specific fact. The comments are tuned to the kind of document you choose, so funder vocabulary is left alone in a grant and flagged in an appeal.
This suits development, communications and program staff writing for donors and the public. It does not rewrite your text.
Why plain language raises more money
Jargon is shorthand for people inside the sector. To a donor, 'we provide wraparound services' says less than 'one caseworker helps each family with housing, food and school enrollment'. Plain language is usually more specific, not less sophisticated.
Some terms are unavoidable in grants because funders use them in their guidelines. Use the funder's own words where they ask for them, define them once, and keep them out of appeals and newsletters.
A quick test: would a neighbour understand the sentence if you read it aloud? If not, ask what actually happens, who does it, and for whom, and write that.
How it works
Paste your writing
Paste a grant section, appeal, report or web copy, or attach the file.
River marks the jargon
Each jargon term and unexplained acronym is commented in place, with a plain question.
Review the comments
Each comment sits on the exact words, with a short reason and a question or suggestion.
Revise in your voice
Make the changes you agree with, then ask River to check the new version.
What you get
- Sector jargon marked in place, anchored to the exact words
- A plain question for each term about what actually happens, for whom
- Funder vocabulary left alone in grants and flagged in donor writing
- Unexplained acronyms flagged at first use
- A summary of the terms to fix first, with any you should define instead
Common questions
Will it rewrite the jargon for me?
No. It marks each term and asks what you mean, because the plain version usually needs a fact only you know. Your text stays exactly as written until you change it.
Should grant proposals avoid all jargon?
No. If a funder's guidelines use a term such as logic model or outcomes, use it and define it once. The checker leaves funder vocabulary alone when you mark the document as a grant.
What counts as jargon?
Words a general reader would not use or would understand differently, such as capacity building, stakeholders, leverage, wraparound, underserved or collective impact, and acronyms that are not spelled out.
Does it check grammar or spelling?
No. It only looks at jargon and acronyms, so the comments stay focused.
Nonprofit Jargon to Plain Language Checker
Describe what you need, add any files you have, and your workspace opens with the work already underway.