July 31, 2018 | Read Time: 6 minutes
If media relations isn’t a priority for your nonprofit or foundation, it’s easy to understand why. After all, nonprofits don’t exist to grab sexy headlines. Your organization exists to solve complex problems and change the world. So most of your resources and staff members are rightfully dedicated to carrying out your mission.
But even the most resource-starved organization should have a well-constructed media strategy. Media relations can help your nonprofit become more visible, better able to advocate for its mission, and more successful at fundraising.
You also need to be prepared to respond aggressively and quickly if you are inaccurately depicted in an article or if you end up at the center of a crisis or controversy. In today’s climate, a slow-footed response can bring disastrous results.
To develop and execute an effective nonprofit media-relations strategy, consider the G.R.E.A.T. approach:
Goal-Oriented. A great strategy starts with clear goals. However, many nonprofits do not take the time to make sure their media-relations activities are in line with their organization’s top priorities.
Identify what your organization wants to accomplish short-term and long-term. It’s important to have a strong understanding of your mission as well as key priorities to support that mission.
It makes little sense to pursue media placements that don’t help advance your most important priorities. Yet too many nonprofits continue to send releases and pitches to reach audiences that won’t really help them move the needle on those priorities.
When we work with organizations to build media-relations strategies, we start by getting a clear understanding the top two or three priorities — then we identify which audiences are most important to achieving those priorities.
For instance, if you work at a foundation looking to improve economic opportunities for poor people in your community, you might decide that you need to build support among local businesses and city government.
Your media-relations strategy would then center on placing stories in outlets that reach those audiences — and convey messages that support your goals.
Responsive. Successful media relations isn’t about pitching stories. It’s about building strong relationships with journalists — and being responsive to their needs.
Nonprofits that excel at media relations plan ahead and designate people who can monitor and capitalize on breaking news, identify and act on trends and arising community needs, and handle potential crises.
Once you’ve determined your organization’s goals, take time to identify reporters who cover the issues you care about and begin to build relationships with them.
If your executive director is an expert on housing issues or if you have a program officer who specializes in early-childhood education, focus more on getting them into the Rolodexes of high-value reporters and less on pitching stories about your next fundraising event.
And make sure you — and your expert sources — can respond quickly when a reporter needs your expertise on a tight deadline. Once you show that you can deliver the goods by helping a reporter get a strong quote or the right data in a timely manner, you can be certain your phone will ring again.
Being responsive is not something you figure out along the way. It requires preparation and the ability to present your nonprofit as having insights and solutions. That means having sources at the ready who understand your organization’s key messages and who are schooled in how to speak intelligently when opportunities arise.
Empowered. Even though you can’t control what the media says or writes, your organization owns its message.
Like many other small nonprofits, Collegiate Directions — which helps low-income, first-generation college students navigate the path to graduation — doesn’t have a media-relations team that can spend hours a week courting reporters or sending out news releases.
But it has a point of view and expertise — and it uses that expertise to create its own content and find opportunities to position its top officials as thought leaders.
When important news happens that relates to its mission, it finds opportunities to write op-eds that it shares with media outlets that reach its key audiences — and it uses its website and social-media channels to share information and perspectives on this news.
By doing so, it takes an empowered approach to media relations — using its voice and expertise to get people talking and to spread the word about its mission.
And it has seen great results. During one recent controversy about college access, the CEO penned an op-ed that the Baltimore Sun picked up — and later led to a featured spot in the New York Times.
By taking an empowered approach, you don’t have to wait for the media to come to you. You can create your own opportunities.
Appealing. Journalists work in a deadline-driven world — and they are getting bombarded daily with information and ideas.
You must make sure the information you provide is presented in an appealing and easy-to-digest format.
Journalists often complain that nonprofit communications are boring and announcements rarely change year after year.
When you have a story to pitch, make sure it’s lively, current, and relevant. Provide compelling information that will get the attention of a journalist and resonate with your intended audiences.
Today’s appealing pitches are typically:
If you want meaningful media coverage, be surgical in your approach. We recommend sending a handful of personal pitches to high-value reporters when you have an important announcement rather than sending a generic release to hundreds of reporters.
Often a more personal note to a few will land more placements — and better coverage than you’d get from hitting everyone on your media list.
By following this framework, you’ll improve your organization’s chances to getting more regular — and higher-value — media coverage. And you’ll ultimately get more bang for your media-relations buck.
Peter Panepento and Antionette Kerr are the authors of Modern Media Relations for Nonprofits: Creating an Effective PR Strategy for Today’s World.
