INTRODUCTION
Is your company raising money and looking for ways to promote it? While every company has a story to tell, using public relations can help your organization engage a broader audience, increase awareness of your cause, raise money and/or build partnerships.
Here’s how to use public relations in your fundraising campaign.
WHAT TO DO BEFORE PITCHING
Before you start pitching local media, make sure you have a PR plan in place. This means including your campaign goal(s), target market, how you will reach your desired audience and who may help support this campaign. Make sure to develop talking points that cover the purpose of the fundraising campaign, who the campaign benefits and why the general public should care.
Also, determine who will be your spokesperson. This person should be well-versed in your company’s key messaging and the fundraiser details itself. Traditionally a CEO/President is a logical choice but don’t shy away from thinking outside the box. For example, if your story is about raising money for a new add-on to a senior center, maybe you use a senior citizen who might benefit from the funds being raised.
WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR PITCH
Now that you have a PR plan in place and you’ve chosen your spokesperson, it’s time to develop your pitch topics. Make sure to have a variety (3-4) of unique pitches that will appeal to different media outlets. A good pitch is informative, relevant, proofed, tailored to each publication and includes key messages. Avoid being too promotional.
Break the key messages up into different themes, such as project-based, community-based, and fundraising-based. These messages can also be used elsewhere, like on the project website, in collateral and on social media.
WHICH OUTLETS TO PITCH
Choose media outlets whose readers/viewers/listeners match your intended target audience for your fundraising campaign. Often you can get this information from the outlets’ media kits, which help inform advertisers during their media buys. If a media kit isn’t available, you can usually make an educated guess on who the reader/viewer/listener is based on the topics covered.
Avoid sending the same pitch to all media outlets (e.g., spray and pray). In other words, take your unique pitches and tailor them to each media outlet’s reader/viewer/listener.