9 TIPS FOR PITCHING THE MEDIA

Pitching the media can be a tricky balancing act. Along with competing with the good works of thousands of other charities, nonprofits need to come to terms with the fact that what is often relevant in their circle is not necessarily groundbreaking to the larger news media.

Short of a pulse-stopping news story, nonprofits can take a variety of angles to gain media exposure according to Author Katya Andresen, in her book Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes.

• Provide an exclusive. Media outlets may assign more significance to a story if it can report it as an exclusive. Scooping the competition makes a station or publication look good
• Make it different. A story that is new, novel or original is news due to a “gee whiz” factor, which lands stories on the front page or top of the hour.
• Involve a big name. We live in a star-obsessed culture where celebrities can add pop to what the media would normal consider a less interesting story.
• Be at the extreme. Any kind of superlative helps, such as first, biggest, smallest, oldest.
• Play up the stakes. Most types of controversy or conflict are news. The media loves stories with a protagonist and antagonist and the drama and emotion each brings to an issue.
• Be part of the solution. The media often reports on the negative. Nonprofits can positions their causes as a “good news” story that provides solutions to an existing problem.
• Put a face on the story. Make a compelling human-interest case with a human face.
• Make it local. A national story given a local angle can be pitched to community outlets.
• Provide pictures. Great visuals always enhance a story for television and print media.

Communications ...
7 messaging roadblock questions

Taking an honest, searching look at your organization's message is a necessary task. One result of examining the message could very well be a decision to modify the message to develop it the best way possible, or simply to leave it as it is and put a renewed emphasis on conveying the message.

Although this process might seem straightforward, Rebecca K. Leet, a strategic consultant to nonprofit organizations, cautions that there could be roadblocks to success in terms of developing a strategic message.

Those roadblocks can be overcome if an organization is willing to answer the following questions:

• Will we involve an interdisciplinary team in the message-development process?
• Will the team include top leadership of our organization or programs?
• Will we use the strategic message that is developed for a sustained period of time?
• Will we be disciplined about how we use the message, for example, refraining from changing it because of boredom?
• Will we commit to stating an organizational expectation that everyone in the organization, including board members and volunteers, will learn to use the strategic message?
• Will we refrain from telling our audiences what they should want or do?
• Will we practice linking what we want them to do with something they desire?

Donors and nonprofits separated by a common language

Even as it faces the new challenges of the 21st century, the nonprofit sector must withstand the ageless challenge of staying alive and relevant.

Lack of information, or even misinformation, can prove to be a barrier to nonprofits in trying to fulfill their missions, just as awareness will be a big help.

Irv Katz, president of the National Human Services Assembly in Washington, D.C., has offered several suggestions that he thinks can help to better position the sector:

• Adopt more descriptive, precise common language. Terms like “nonprofit enterprise” and “civic sector” could be better understood through common usage.
• As those in the sector adopt such language, stop using the word “charity,” especially when it does not apply. Many top “charities” do not distribute resources to those in need.
• Weave together the strands of effort in which many in the sector are engaged in their organizations to attract and develop talent.
• Strive collectively to reframe and reintroduce the civic sector and civic enterprise as integral to people’s lives – as citizens and potentially as a career focus, both for young people and for people seeking encore careers.

Grow the pool of talent for each individual field and for the sector. Strive diligently to meet the talent challenges of individual organizations, but join in collective efforts.

Letting donors know about your accomplishments

One good way of attracting new donors or getting existing donors to keep giving is by telling prospects about the accomplishments that the nonprofit organization has to its credit.

As consultant Tom Ahern pointed out at a recent national conference on fundraising, however, what nonprofit insiders might look at as a glowing accomplishment could leave donors yawning.

Donors are interested in end results: hungry people fed, homeless people sheltered, some wrong righted. Industry standards such as increased capacity don’t usually rank high on donors’ “Attaboy” lists.

With that in mind, Ahern listed several items that will be viewed as accomplishments by nonprofit managers but not by donors.

This list will use a Hypothetical Nonprofit Organization, HNO:

• HNO membership has grown over 300 percent since its first year of existence.
• HNO (in conjunction with Nearby University and Local Savings Bank) recently completed a statewide salary survey of nonprofit organizations.
• HNO successfully established its Management Assistance Services Department.
• HNO introduced a searchable online card catalog in support of its resource library.
• HNO introduced an online grassroots advocacy and messaging system.
• HNO developed a statewide meeting of nonprofit organizations called “The Nonprofit Summit” and seen the event grow into a major annual educational conference.

4 tips for a seamless e-newsletter

To make your organization’s simple HTML e-newsletter appear (relatively) alike across platforms, one tip from the experts: code like it’s 1999.  This means:

• Decide which email clients are a priority. One expert prioritizes Outlook, Thunderbird, Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail, and recommends against prioritizing Lotus unless your organization uses it (“It’s a pain in the neck to standardize.”).  Set up email accounts with each of the email clients to test your email.
• Also for seamlessness, use tables for layout, not cascading style sheets (CSS). Many email clients don’t understand CSS.
• Again, don’t depend on CSS. Use inline styles.  This means going back to the old-school style of formatting: putting tags for color, font, decoration, margins, etc., directly on links, paragraphs and images.  (Example: <a style=”text-decoration:none; color:#00ff00; font:Arial”>.)  According to one expert, you can put styles into the header, but make sure to define them in the body of the email as well.
• Don’t use Javascript, Flash, video or anything a 1999 Web browser couldn’t handle.