Not all nonprofits can achieve the unparalleled and widespread media success that the ALS Association's Ice Bucket Challenge did, or receive daily media coverage like the American Family Planning Association.

In fact, media coverage, if utilized continuously, is one of the free tactics that can help nonprofits spread their message and prompt stakeholders to take action.

Nonprofits receive a lot of media attention when announcing a new project or hiring a new executive director. However, they later face the same issue with sustainable media coverage that the organization needs to focus on and consider one of its goals to achieve.

To achieve this goal, specific strategies must be followed, including:

  1. Thinking about what journalists might actually be interested in

This stage revolves around convincing a reporter to speak to a member of the organization and listen to them with interest by telling a story that captures their attention and ensures reader engagement with what they will write, while putting the organization in a strong position at the same time. To achieve this, the organization must commit to the following steps:

Communicating the mission the organization adopts in its community:

This step helps inform reporters about the importance of this mission, which may encourage them to pay more attention to what is happening within the organization.

Highlighting strong and experienced personalities within the organization:

This step involves choosing a competent person capable of communicating and interacting on behalf of the organization and prompting reporters to take an interest in its news and everything related to it. In this regard, the organization can ensure the success of this spokesperson by providing them with media training or subjecting them to mock interviews with a reporter.

Aligning the organization’s stories with current events in a way that ensures boldness and impact:

This involves pushing the organization to keep up with current media events and leverage them for its benefit by linking them to one of its stories. This step prevents the organization from relying solely on breaking news to capture media attention.

Regularly inviting the media to all events organized by the organization:

This stage revolves around changing the organization's perceptions regarding media coverage and encouraging it to invite the media to all events it organizes, whether they are significant or not, which may attract the attention of the local press.

Providing data that demonstrates the organization’s broad impact:

This step encourages the organization to provide data that includes numbers, showcasing its accomplishments and affirming its broad impact, knowing that this type of information captures reporters' interest.

  1. Developing a compelling media strategy:

The organization needs to develop a compelling media strategy in order to ensure sustainable media coverage, which requires more than simply thinking like a reporter. In this context, the organization must craft its main story and other supporting stories before reaching out to the media.

Then, the organization should place those stories within a calendar and begin researching what it may need to gather to support each one before contacting the media. This calendar helps attract media interest by leveraging current events without needing to rely on breaking news. Additionally, this calendar includes the announcement the organization will publish and the month in which it will occur, as well as the topic of the article or content it will be associated with.

The organization can also consider reviewing media publications to draw ideas and topics that help formulate the stories it needs. Furthermore, it can look at the stories crafted by other nonprofits. Based on this, the organization can correct some errors and gaps in its stories by relying on these approaches.

  1. Strengthening the organization’s relationships with journalists and the media:

The nonprofit organization can strengthen its relationship with reporters interested in topics related to its stories by sending friendly messages to those who engaged with its stories, even if in a negative way. The organization should take the first step and present itself as a primary source of information, which may encourage reporters to reach out to it even months later.

Direct communication with reporters helps build a solid relationship with them. The organization may also adopt other methods such as sharing content that includes opinion articles about the organization or opinions from its guests. This type of content helps draw media attention, provided it is well-crafted and that the reporter is informed immediately upon publication on social media and blogs.

  1. Being prepared to provide additional comments:

The organization can contact the reporter and provide them with feedback regarding their published article about it. The response should be sent immediately after the article is published, regardless of whether it was liked or not.

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Website: Prosper Strategies

Author: Katie Devilly