Nieman Lab did a six month experiment trying to get nonprofit news in with the Associated Press.
It didn’t work. At all. What went wrong?
Apparently no one knew that this information was on the AP reader. Spectacular stories from various nonprofit news outlets on the high incidence of college campus rape, transportation money for cities, the healthcare lobby and more, did not get picked up.
While the AP may be a bit of a far reach for your nonprofit, how do you get your nonprofit story picked up by the local press?
Do you have contacts at local TV news stations?
Do you have contacts at local newspapers?
Do you have contacts in the local blogging community?
Where do you start?
Well, if you can create a newsworthy event, a drama, something that addresses people’s pain, that will make news outlets want to pick you up. Or you can work together with other nonprofits that have a similar mission to yours, to create nationwide events of note.
This is why your local hospital and your local university can get featured so many times. Think about how many times you’ve read stories in your local paper or seen on your local news channels about kids in hospitals, near-death life-saving services provided by your local hospital, or seen stories about your local sports team, or new discoveries made by your university. That is NO accident. And their big endowments are no accident either. Their PR and Marketing team is inundating the newspaper with stories that bring drama and address people’s pain. The more they are featured in the news, the more likely it is that people will be interested in giving to them.
So what constitutes a newsworthy event? Something that interrupts business as usual. Something that speaks to their experience, something that helps show the community that your nonprofit does a lot to help.
Examples of newsworthy events: A protest, a vigil, a race, a walk, a festival with chalk drawings in the streets that stop traffic, a famous speaker, a controversial stance on topics that affect your donors, getting a large grant from a foundation or a large gift from a major donor, etc.
Another way to get more people to notice your nonprofit is to think about going where the people are reading news. Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. Newspaper blogs. Huffpost. Could you utilize those outlets more effectively for making your story compelling to potential donors?
For example, a domestic violence nonprofit needed a van to transport women to various appointments. A local car dealer donated a brand new van. The local newspaper came and covered the story, interviewed the dealer, the nonprofit leader, and the volunteer who called around until the van was secured. For this newspaper, addressing a need (a ride) and pain (domestic violence) allowed this story to be newsworthy.
When was the last time your nonprofit was featured in the paper?