International Aid Groups Get Most Media Attention of Nonprofit Causes, Study Says

Title: Mediamarks 2016

Organization: Marketing firm M+R

Summary: The median number of media mentions in 2015 for large U.S.-based nonprofits was 93, according to the study. International aid groups led the way with a median of 261 mentions by news organizations, driven by major events including the deadly earthquake in Nepal and the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis.

Groups that battle poverty in the United States saw the least coverage, with a median of 42 media hits in 2015.

The weakest month for news coverage: January, for groups in all categories. This may be because nonprofits ease up on outreach to journalists following their all-absorbing year-end fundraising work, the study says.

The study was based on a sample of 40 nonprofits from The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of the 400 biggest U.S. charities. Researchers studied how many times those 40 groups were named or cited by 50 major news outlets including the Associated Press, NPR, and Fox News.

Analyzing Media Coverage

When groups assess their media strategies, leaders should look at what types of media are providing the most hits and if there are specific times of year when there are gaps in coverage, among other things, the study concludes.

Among other findings:

• Poverty groups saw their media hits peak in November, including a slew of national feature stories on holiday bell-ringers.
• Daily newspapers gave nonprofits the most coverage: They published stories mentioning nonprofits at a rate six times that of major broadcast-news shows and 16 times the rate of national magazines.
• Nonprofit have a harder time scoring feature stories. Fewer than one in 10 media hits were features, while the balance were just mentions.