Nonprofits and the media

It's no secret that the more attention a nonprofit gets, the more likely it is to grow and succeed. The trick the book tells us is to start with a good communications department. Though having a sound communications program will not solve all issues of being noticed, it will have a leg up on how to put the nonprofit into the right light. To start, everyone needs to have a connected understanding for what the organization stands for. The mission statement is a tagline that people will remember, especially when they hear it over and over again. http://gettingattention.org/articles/136/message-development/guidelines-nonprofit-taglines.html
The website above talks about Smokey the Bear’s tagline “Only you can prevent forest fires.” It talks about being simple and to the point, a tagline can’t cover everything but it can engage audiences and raise interest. The goals of name recognition and reaching influential’s I find more intimidating. Building solid relationships with people in the media takes time and patients. I found a lot of good information from this site:
 http://www.free-pr-advice.co.uk/buildrelationswithmedia.htm The site talks about giving journalist exclusives, and the book supports that along with returning phone calls quickly and efficiently.

The best quote I read was on pg 13, “The more money and resources your organization can devote to media relations, the more coverage you will receive.” Well yeah! The hard part is convincing an organization to spend that kind of money. The 1 to 10 scale is one way, and making sure everyone is on board and making sure the ones who aren’t won’t be roadblocks.