Here at Third Sector we're really proud of our Comment section. Regular contributors include charity sector leaders Debra Allcock Tyler and Paul Streets as well as sector specialists such as Zoe Amar, Ian MacQuillin and Kirsty Marrins.

On any given day, we receive about five requests to write opinion pieces for us. Some of these requests come directly from people working within charities, but the majority come from suppliers/consultants to the charity sector who want to raise the profile of their work or have a say on a particular topic. We have therefore put in place some rules:

One-off articles

We accept one-off opinion pieces only from people who work directly in the charity sector. We ask people to send over a brief synopsis of what they plan to say and a proposed date when they intend to send over a draft version of the article. Articles need to be between 500 and 600 words in length and a high-resolution landscape photo of the author needs to be supplied as well. In the first instance, please send a synopsis to emily.burt@haymarket.com. We no longer accept one-off articles from commercial organisations/consultants. However, we do offer such organisations a range of affordable sponsored writing opportunities. To discuss the fees and availability, please email robert.aldhouse@haymarket.com.

Regular columnists

We do occasionally add regular columnists to our line-up. As a minimum, we ask contributors to commit to writing at least six articles a year. Regular columnists come from both the charity and the private sectors. If you’re interested in becoming a regular columnist, please email emily.burt@haymarket.com stating what areas you'd like to write about.

Payment for articles

Most of our columnists write for Third Sector for free. However, in some instances we do offer a payment. Payment is normally reserved for those working for smaller charities, or for professional writers. We normally pay about £150 for a 500-word opinion article.