Swim Like A Shark: Media Outreach For Nonprofits ?

Nonprofit organizations, like sharks, must constantly move forward to stay alive. What do I mean exactly? I?ll give you a hint: it involves media outreach.

I think nonprofits, more than their for-profit counterparts, must ?constantly move forward? to avoid sinking to the bottom of an ocean of obscurity.

And, why is that? Why can?t you just rely upon word-of-mouth and the usual marketing outreach to survive and thrive?

Because there is a crazy amount of competition for the time and attention of donors and volunteers. Back in May 2009, Andrea Ball reported in the Austin American Statesman that there were over 6,300 501(c)(3) public charities in the greater Austin area alone! Given Austin?s rapid population growth, that number has probably increased dramatically. What?s more, an estimated 73% of the nonprofits had annual budgets less than $100k.

Your local area is probably no different.

The take-away is there are a ton of small nonprofits struggling to be found.

That?s where media outreach comes in!

The news media is probably the single best way a nonprofit can get noticed by a large swath of your local population. An article in the newspaper, a report on TV or a PSA on your public broadcasting channel can help spread the word about your nonprofit?s fundraising activities and volunteer needs better than any single email or stream of tweets can possibly hope to accomplish.

Frequent favorable mentions in the local news media put a spotlight on your nonprofit, helping it rise above the background noise. Media mentions educate the public without trying to ?sell? them on your mission. People don?t like to be sold anything, which is why publicity is so effective at winning converts to your cause.

If you truly believe your mission deserves the support of your community, then consistent media outreach should be a key part of your overall marketing strategy.

To survive and thrive, your nonprofit must be a Media Shark.

Want to learn how to swim like a shark?? Central Texas nonprofits are invited to join me on April 10th at the PR over Coffee meetup.? We have partnered with Texas Association of Nonprofit Organizations (TANO) and Sage Nonprofit Solutions to offer a Nonprofit Reporters Panel.

Why is this worth your time? The event features Andrea Ball, nonprofit reporter for the Austin American-Statesman, and Erin Cargile, reporter for the NBC affiliate KXAN. They will discuss their respective news outlets and ways in which nonprofits like yours can reach out to them with breaking news. Plus, there will be an after-party during which you can network with Erin and Andrea and pitch them your news. (Seating is limited so register in advance here if you want a chance to meet Andrea & Erin.)

Dave Manzer is a PR professional who founded PR over Coffee (www.meetup.com/PRoverCoffee-Austin/) as a monthly networking meetup to help small organizations ? both nonprofit and for-profit ? find ways to connect to the hyper-local news media and promote their latest news. PR over Coffee continues to enjoy support from the news media and business/nonprofit community alike. Dave is also the founder of Dave Manzer ? Creative Relations (www.davemanzer.com), a PR agency with a focus on small organizations in need of that special spark to ignite future growth.

?

Like this:

Be the first to like this post.

Source: http://sagewords.net/2012/03/28/swim-like-a-shark-media-outreach-for-nonprofits/

black friday violence il postino il postino online black friday deals college football scores arkansas razorbacks arkansas football