Charities: Harness the News Media All Year Round

The news media usually do well by charities during the holiday season. Feel-good stories about organizations that help the neediest in society abound, both in print and on television. In some cases, a charity doesn’t even have to propose an idea — the press just comes looking for it.

The rest of the year, however, is quite a different story. While politicians and corporations are fighting to manipulate the news, knowing that whoever does the best “media work” can change the public’s perception of a particular issue, non-profit groups typically sit on the sidelines.

That is unfortunate. Given the great importance of the work that non-profit groups do, it’s time that they, too, harnessed the power of the news media year-round.

To be effective, non-profit organizations must continually offer journalists additional opportunities — in the right packaging and at the right time — to cover charitable causes and issues. It’s easy to break into the news media once, particularly during the holiday season, but only repeated media exposure — plus continuing broader communications efforts — will change the direction of our society.

However, shedding illusions about the media that keep non-profit groups out of the news — and absent from public discourse — won’t be easy for non-profit professionals, who are filled with justifications for doing things the way they’ve always done them. In addition, there is a formidable hurdle that’s seldom acknowledged: Non-profit managers are scared to take the plunge and even try to reach out to journalists more aggressively. In light of today’s media-hyped analysis of “spin,” strategic leaks, and power news conferences, it’s easy to understand that fear.

But if non-profit groups ultimately are going to deal effectively with the news media, they need to make a sustained commitment to their communications programs, dedicating scarce money and staff time over the long haul. Every non-profit group should have a simple media plan that outlines the logic of its efforts to make news — for example, a targeted audience and message — and a long-term communications plan that explains how the organization wants itself and its issue to be perceived by its core supporters and the wider public. A charity’s public face — from lectures and newsletters to media events and annual reports — should advance its long-term communications goals.

If non-profit groups are going to enter the media battleground, however, non-profit professionals — especially those at small and mid-sized organizations — have to shed widely accepted illusions about the news media. These include:

* Getting media attention is a distraction from mission. With that attitude, non-profit groups are left struggling to save the world in the dim light of obscurity and wondering why more people don’t value what they do. The truth is, getting media coverage can contribute to every aspect of a nonprofit group’s so-called real work: Foundations are impressed, volunteers feel as if they are part of a winning organization with legitimacy in the community, and staff members enjoy recognition for their work. Most important, news coverage about problems of concern to non-profit groups can lead to long-term solutions by attracting more attention, more interest, and more dollars. Indeed, charities that refuse to try to work with the media are shirking their responsibility to help their communities spotlight social ills and find answers.

* The news media won’t cover non-profit groups. That is true only for charities that are boring. Instead, charities need to be relevant, opportunistic, bold, creative — and, if necessary, confrontational. More charities need to copy the techniques of non-profit groups that successfully break into the mainstream media. For example: the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence garnered national media coverage by placing on the Washington, D.C., mall the shoes of thousands of people killed by guns; with television cameras rolling, Greenpeace activists dressed in pig costumes to make their point that making nuclear bombs was a “pork barrel” waste of money; and, pushing the limits of “spectacle,” Don Bruno, principal of Cotton Creek Elementary School, in Westminster, Colo., generated a mini-media event when he kissed a pot-bellied pig as a payoff for students’ meeting his challenge to read for 14,000 minutes in one month. The possibilities are endless if you use your imagination.

* The antics would damage charities’ credibility. Unlike non-profit groups, businesses and politicians learned long ago that carefully selected — yet entertaining or provocative — imagery and symbols are the best means of communicating to Americans, who get the majority of their information from television. Aggressive and funny media events are used by all kinds of credible public figures in our culture. In the 1996 Presidential campaign, for example, “Buttman,” a Democratic party activist dressed in a cigarette-butt costume, dogged Republican candidate Robert Dole around the country, linking him to tobacco interests — not exactly sophisticated, but effective nonetheless. And Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Republican of Colorado, even raffled off the privilege to cut off his ponytail, which garnered him tremendous publicity. If a stodgy image meant much these days, we’d have more William F. Buckleys on the tube.

* Reporters will get our story wrong. Between deadlines, reduced staffs, information overload, and other complications, journalists inevitably make mistakes. But by being media-savvy — for example, offering easy-to-digest information and helping journalists cope with deadline pressures — and by proceeding with reasonable caution, charities can eliminate many mistakes before they happen.

* The news is too simplistic for our complex concerns. Any complex issue can be simplified. In fact, if a charity hasn’t figured out how to simplify its message enough to talk to journalists about it, then it probably can’t communicate that message to anyone outside its office.

* We don’t have time to deal with journalists. A bare-bones media-outreach program doesn’t require much effort — though the more resources a charity can commit to such a program, the better. One simple approach is to train staff members to cultivate relationships with journalists and to contact reporters when a non-profit organization is doing something that’s visually interesting or newsworthy. A huge budget and lots of staff time aren’t essential to get things going at a minimal level.

Charities that still are hesitant should take the advice of the I-Ching: Get help at the beginning of a new endeavor. Getting together with allied organizations and discussing media work is a good place to start. Get advice, if possible, from someone who knows your issue and how to navigate the media territory.

Then move ahead. You’ll gain confidence once you get going. And you may even find some answers to some of society’s most pressing problems.

Jason Salzman is the author of Making the News: A Guide for Nonprofits and Activists, published by Westview Press. He is president of Cause Communications, in Denver, and co-founder of Rocky Mountain Media Watch, an advocacy organization that seeks to improve local television newscasts.