Tone of voice
Our tone of voice describes the way in which we write and speak, what we say and how we say it. We should follow it in all writing for the Development Guarantee Group (DGG) and our companies and projects. This common approach will make our communication professional, easy to read and distinct from other companies.
Our unique company
We also demonstrate our uniqueness with our distinctive:
Our distinctive voice
The voice used by DGG, and our companies and projects, also singles us out. It conveys the unique character of our brand – built on our vision, mission and values. We want our voice to reflect the five key attributes of our brand personality – creativity, knowledge, trustworthiness, reliability and engagement which reflect our brand personality.
How we communicate
Adapting our voice
Our voice, like our values, remains consistent. However, we can adapt it to reflect the topic, purpose, audience and channel of what we are saying or writing.
A consistent editorial style makes our voice stronger.
The foundations of our style are:
The DGG editorial style guide outlines the mechanical aspects of our approach to writing, such as punctuation, spelling and capitalisation. By following these guidelines, we can ensure that the way that we write comes across as professional, easy to read and uniquely ours.
How we communicate with our main audiences
Governments and NGOs
With our primary audience, governments and NGOs, we focus our language on delivering positive outcomes. We emphasise that we are a reliable partner that understands sustainable development and focus on mutual values like social impact, long-term results, and community resilience.
Credit and capital markets
With our secondary audience, credit and capital market participants, we adopt a more technical, results-oriented tone. We emphasise how our guarantees stabilise investments, manage risk and open up underserved markets, and demonstrate our expertise, credibility and commitment to transparent, measurable outcomes.
Editorial style guide
The style rules in this guide reflect best editorial practice. We should follow them in all writing for the Development Guarantee Company (DGG) and our companies and projects. This common approach will make our communication professional, easy to read and distinct from other companies whilst it will ensure that draft documents are being written in the same style which will result in efficiencies.
Golden rules
Writing about our company
We can refer to the Development Guarantee Group (DGG) as just DGG after we have written the name out in full and given its acronym in brackets.
When writing the name out in full, we preface it with ‘the’. We do not use ‘the’ before ‘DGG’.
We are a friendly, non-hierarchical company so, where possible, we use the pronouns ‘us’, ‘we’ and ‘our’, rather than referring to our organisation as ‘DGG’, ‘it’ or ‘the company’.
Where we do use ‘the company’ it is in lower case, unlike ‘our Group’, which is in upper case.
We do not use the noun ‘firm’ to refer to a company.
We refer to DGG as the management company of our businesses i.e. the Green Guarantee Company (GGC) and projects i.e. Nautilus, the Blue Guarantee Company, Sustainable Alternative Funding for Entrepreneurs (SAFE), DGG Technical Assistance Fund for GGC projects, etc.
Unless we start a sentence with the Development Guarantee Group, the Green Guarantee Company or Nautilus, the Blue Guarantee Company, the definite article ‘the’ is always in lower case.
When mentioning Nautilus for the first time, we always:
Follow it with ‘the Blue Guarantee Company’, i.e., Nautilus, the Blue Guarantee Company. Subsequently, we can just refer to Nautilus.
Write that DGG has developed it in partnership with the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA).
DGG, GGC and Nautilus are private limited companies registered in the UK but, in our external communication, we do not follow their names with ‘limited’ or ‘ltd’. That is, we just write, ‘the Development Guarantee Group’ or ‘DGG’.
Writing about colleagues
Reflecting our team-based culture, we refer to colleagues in a collaborative, non-hierarchical, way e.g. ‘our people’ or ‘the DGG team’. ‘Employees’ is acceptable, but we do not use ‘staff’ or ‘workers’.
We write a person’s name in full the first time we mention them. After that we refer to them by their first name, e.g., ‘DGG is pleased to announce the appointment of Christopher Bredholt as Chief Underwriting Officer. Christopher brings a wealth of experience…’
Generally, we write the person’s title alongside their name, with initial capitals: ‘Lasitha Perera, CEO, and Co-founder of DGG, said…’
We can abbreviate familiar job titles, such as CEO and COO.
We capitalise Board, as in ‘Board member’ and Committee as in ‘Committee’ member’.
Diversity, equity and inclusiveness (DEI)
Punctuation
Full stops
We:
use full stops to end statements
insert a single space after a full stop, before the next sentence
We don't use full stops in:
bullet point lists
headings, titles or action links
common acronyms (BBC, EU, NHS, URL) and titles (Mr, Mrs, Dr, St)
names using initials, eg, PD James
URLs
Abbreviations
When abbreviating unfamiliar names, we write them out in full and then follow with the acronym in brackets. After that, we use the acronym without the brackets. A name does not always require capital letters, although the acronym usually does: ‘Government officials in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDE) met with us…’
If the acronym is universally known, we can use it from the start, e.g., ‘The UN’s efforts to address climate change…’
We don’t use full stops in abbreviations:
In country names, i.e., US (not U.S.), UK (not U.K.)
In the names of well-known organisations, e.g., USAID, EU, UN
With common Latin abbreviations, including, e.g. (not eg), i.e. (not ie), etc. (not etc),
For familiar abbreviations, such as, ASAP, PTO, Mr, Mrs
Accents
We use accents in words that normally have them, such as in communiqué, and in proper names, like Malmö.
Ampersand (&)
We use an ampersand where it is part of a proper name, as in the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and where it is accepted use, as in R&D.
We don’t use ampersands in a sentence, e.g, we would say, ‘We are delighted that Dianne, Jiwoo and Mike have agreed to serve as DGC Board Directors’ (not Dianne, Jiwoo & Mike).
Apostrophes
We use apostrophes to show belonging or possession: ‘DGG’s plan is to…’, ‘His ten years’ experience of capital markets…’. And where letters have been omitted: ‘We’ll be in touch’. We don’t use apostrophes for plurals. It is MPs, VIPs, 1990s, not MP’s, VIP’s, 1990’s.
Bullet points
We may use bullet points in lists. The opening clause should begin with a capital letter and pause with a colon. Bullet point texts start with a lower-case letter and do not have a full stop, comma or semi-colon, or use ‘and’.
For example, ‘The new Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance seeks USD 1 billion for projects focused on:
Climate adaptation
Food systems
High-integrity carbon
Sustainable energy
Zero-carbon buildings
(When writing lists, stack them in a way that makes most sense to the reader, e.g., alphabetical (as above), risk level, size, timing etc.)
Capitals
We capitalise the initials of:
acronyms, like US, UK. Try not to overuse acronyms as they can impede easy reading. Generally, define on the first use, e.g., ‘the Green Guarantee Company (GGC)’. Don’t use quotation marks or full stops within the brackets. It is fine not to define an acronym if an audience will understand it easily, such as IT or FAQs
compass points where they are part of a proper name, e.g., South-East Asia, North America
legislation and legal terminology, including Articles of Association, European Climate Law
We avoid using solely capitals in words. We use sentence case (that is, a capital letter at the beginning followed by lower case letters) both in headlines and main text. The exception would be proper nouns, acronyms and initials.
We don’t capitalise:
headings, subheadings or document titles, after the first capital letter; as with the headline, ‘Green guarantees to fill financing gaps for climate projects in developing countries’
names of external bodies or boards, so, ‘The World Economic Forum’s managing board met today’
seasons, e.g., it would be ‘summer 2022’. However, try to avoid references to seasons as they mean different times of year in different regions. Months or full dates are more helpful
web and email addresses, e.g., guarantee.dev, jane.brown@guarantee.dev
Colons
We may use a colon to introduce a list: ‘Our culture is built on: humility, patience, empathy and teamwork.’
Commas
We use commas:
where a natural pause for breath would occur
to separate items in a list
after the start of a sentence, e.g., ‘Small island developing states, which are particularly at risk…’
We don’t use commas after the penultimate item in a list, e.g., ‘Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Dominica and Grenada’.
Hyphens
We use hyphens:
to join words that, together, describe a single noun, e.g., ‘DGG has a long-term strategy’
to separate words that would otherwise be difficult to recognise, e.g., pre-agreed, non-affiliated
to separate double vowels where the same vowel is repeated, e.g., co-operate, pre-eminent
We don’t use hyphens:
for a simple adjective that defines (or follows) a noun, e.g., we would write, ‘USAID’s contribution is well known’
to separate double vowels that are different, e.g., reinforce, reinvest
for certain web-related terms, e.g., email, website, online
Quotation marks
We use single quotation marks to emphasise a word or phrase, e.g., The ‘developed’ nations will be paying USD 300 billion per year to help poorer countries tackle the impacts of climate change.
We use double quotation marks for direct speech and quoted text, with the final punctuation going inside the closing quotation mark. For example, Christopher Bredholt added “I am thrilled to be joining the team at DGG.”
Spaces between sentences
We use a single, not a double, space between sentences.
Underlining
We don’t use underlining for emphasis, except for hyperlinks where it is acceptable. (When including hyperlinks, check to make sure they are correct and work.)
Websites
We do not use https:// or www if the URL works without. (Test by typing in your browser.)
Spelling
UK English
We use UK English in our communication, not US English. UK English spellings tend to use ‘s’ rather than ‘z’, eg, generalise, specialise, realise, optimise, recognise etc. However, if the official spelling for a name uses US English, we follow that style, eg, World Health Organization.
Correct spellings for tricky common words
adviser (not advisor)
among (not amongst)
focused (not focussed)
tonnes (metric)
tons (imperial)
web (not Web)
while (not whilst)
going forward (not going forwards)
Numbers
In text, we use words for:
single-digit numbers up to and including ten, with zero (not 0), nine (not 9)
a number that begins a sentence: ‘Three years after DDG was formed, we launched the Green Guarantee Company.’ (Hyphenate numbers above 20 when spelt out at the start of sentence, e.g., ‘Twenty-two investors attended’)
In text, we use figures for:
numbers above ten: 11, 12, 13 etc
weights and measures: 2 million tonnes, 5 metres etc
With numbers of more than four digits, we use commas to separate groups of three figures, e.g., 6,500; 9,814,000.
Currencies
In text, we use the acronym e.g. USD with a space before the figure: ‘GGC will leverage an initial USD 100 million from these investors to provide up to USD 1 billion of guarantees…’ In spreadsheets/graphics, if short of space, we can use the $ symbol, but without a space before the figure, e.g., $400m.
If quoting a local currency, we give the dollar-equivalent sum in brackets.
Dates
We use the global date format (day month year, with no commas), such as 31 July 2025.
We write out dates in text, i.e., 30 July 2024 not 30/07/24. However, three‑letter month abbreviations are acceptable for charts, e.g., 12 Dec 2024.
For date ranges in text, we separate dates with ‘to’ not a dash. That is, July 2024 to July 2025.
We use cardinal numbers (just digits), not ordinal numbers (that have a -st, -rd, -th etc suffix) in dates, i.e., 11 January 2024 not 11th January 2024. However, when referring to a century, we do use the ordinal, e.g., 21st century (with ‘century’ in lower case).
Decimals and fractions
We:
add a zero if there is no number before a decimal point, i.e., 0.5 (not .5)
convert fractions to decimals, when possible, as they are easier to read 0.5 (not ½)
hyphenate fractions when writing in full, e.g., ‘One-third of our Board are women’
Percentages
Generally, we use %, not ‘per cent’. We spell out per cent where a number starts a sentence, e.g., ‘One per cent of the world’s population live in small island developing states.’
Time
We use the 24-hour clock, with a colon to separate hours from minutes, i.e., 19:20 not 19.20 or 1920.
We hyphenate 24 hour when used as an adjective, e.g., 24-hour support.
And Q2 (not 2Q) and H1 (not 1H).
Units
We don’t insert a space between a figure and an abbreviation or symbol, e.g., 300km. However, we do use a space if the unit is not abbreviated, 300 kilometres.
We present a range of figures with an en-dash (a long line), not a hyphen (a short line), i.e., USD 10–20bn, not USD 10-20.
We write million and billion in full in text. For example, 71 million (not 71m), 10 billion (not 10bn). Such abbreviations are fine when space is limited i.e. charts.
We don’t abbreviate an ordinal number within a sentence. That is, ‘We are the first and only company to focus on creating and managing bespoke guarantee solutions’, not ‘We are the 1st…’
Grammar
Colloquialisms
We avoid colloquialism as they that may not be understood in some markets.
Nouns
We use singular verbs with collective nouns. For example, ‘the community is’ (not ‘are’). We try to avoid using nouns as verbs as in, e.g., ‘we will action this immediately’.
Split infinitives (where an infinitive is ‘to’ plus a verb, e.g., ‘to campaign’). It is acceptable to split infinitives, e.g., ‘to enthusiastically campaign’.
Formatting
Font
We use Switzer as our brand font. When working in common office applications such as Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and Email, please use our designated system font, Arial.
Line spacing
Ensure spacing is consistent throughout each document.
Text alignment
Align left.
Text indent
We do not indent paragraphs.
Headings
Use a larger font, bold is acceptable but do not underline.
Logos
Keep the position of the DGG logo consistent. Insert other logos as appropriate or as required by partner organisations according to their guidelines.
Page numbers
Always insert in the bottom right-hand corner.
Templates
Use the applicable word/ppt templates (if appropriate).
