How to Enhance Your Cause's Public Relations

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Effective public relations (PR) can significantly boost awareness and understanding of your cause, helping to attract more supporters and increase your impact. Incorporating platforms like iGive into your PR strategy can further enhance your fundraising efforts. Here are some strategies and tips to help you build strong PR for your cause and seamlessly incorporate the iGive message.

Establishing Your Cause as a News Source

As leaders dedicated to making a difference, your organization can provide journalists with compelling stories that inform, engage, and inspire their audiences. By positioning your cause as a reliable news source, you increase the likelihood of media coverage.

What Journalists Are Looking For

To capture media attention, it’s essential to understand what makes a story newsworthy. Journalists and news outlets typically look for:

  • Newsworthiness: Stories related to current events, trends, or significant observances.
  • Timeliness: Stories about upcoming, ongoing, or recently completed events or projects.
  • Proximity: Stories that relate to local issues, people, or events.
  • Prominence: Stories involving local public figures, business leaders, or media personalities.
  • Human Interest: Stories that evoke an emotional response.
  • Visual Impact: Dramatic, action-oriented images.
  • Supporting Data: Statistics and research to back up the story.

Building Relationships with Journalists

Developing strong relationships with journalists can lead to more consistent coverage of your activities and events.

Steps to Get to Know Reporters

  1. Compile a Media List: Develop a list of journalists’ names, contact details, and the topics they cover. Include local bloggers and social media influencers.
  2. Understand Their Preferences: Learn how each journalist prefers to receive story ideas—via email, phone call, or another method.
  3. Engage Regularly: Keep in touch with journalists, providing them with useful information and responding promptly to their inquiries.

Tips for Working with Journalists

  • Pitch Strategically: Ensure your stories are a good fit for the journalist’s publication.
  • Respect Preferences: Use the reporter’s preferred method to submit story ideas.
  • Provide Timely Information: Understand publication schedules and be ready with all necessary materials.
  • Respond Promptly: Always be quick to respond to media inquiries.
  • Engage Informally: Take advantage of chance meetings to introduce yourself and share information about your cause.

Crafting and Pitching Your Story

When pitching your story to journalists, ensure it is newsworthy and relevant to their audience. Be concise yet informative, and follow up appropriately.

Steps to Pitch Your Story

  1. Email First: Send an email with a news release and a brief note.
  2. Call to Follow Up: If you don’t receive a response, follow up with a phone call.
  3. Recap if Necessary: If you still don’t connect, send a message about the event’s success after it concludes, including photos and key outcomes.

Sharing Published Stories

Share any published stories on your social media channels and website to amplify your reach. This helps in building credibility and further engaging your audience.

Incorporating the iGive Message

Seamlessly integrating the iGive message into your PR efforts can enhance your fundraising campaigns.

Boilerplate Messaging for iGive

Include a standardized message about iGive in your press releases and communications to ensure consistent promotion. For example:

“Support our cause effortlessly by shopping through iGive. Each purchase you make through iGive’s partnered retailers contributes to our mission, helping us achieve more without any additional cost to you. Learn more and join us at [iGive link].”

Tip: Be sure to include your cause’s unique iGive link to track donations. Get that link here.

Writing News Releases

News releases should be one page, written from a third-person perspective, and include all essential details about your event or accomplishment.

Key Elements of a News Release

  • Headline: Capture attention with a compelling headline.
  • Lead: Start with a strong opening sentence that provides the most critical information.
  • Body: Include the who, what, where, when, and why. Use quotes, statistics, and background information to support the story.
  • Boilerplate: Add a standardized paragraph about your organization and iGive.

Letters to the Editor and Opinion Pieces

Letters and opinion pieces can reach a broad audience and provide an opportunity to highlight your cause’s impact and call for support.

Tips for Effective Submissions

  • Follow Guidelines: Adhere to the publication’s submission policies.
  • Be Concise: Keep your letter or opinion piece to 500 words or less.
  • Focus on One Message: State your main point clearly in the first sentence.
  • Support with Facts: Use data and references to strengthen your argument.

Managing Media During a Crisis

Handling media inquiries proactively during a crisis is crucial for maintaining your cause’s reputation.

Crisis Communication Tips

  • Be Prepared: Have a media crisis plan in place.
  • Respond Quickly: Address media inquiries promptly to control the narrative.
  • Stay Transparent: Provide honest and clear information.

Media Interview Tips

Being well-prepared for media interviews will give you the confidence to communicate your message effectively.

Preparing for Interviews

  • Know Your Key Points: Be clear about the main messages you want to convey.
  • Practice Responses: Anticipate potential questions and practice your answers.
  • Stay On Message: Keep your responses aligned with your organization’s goals and values.

Customizable Templates

Use customizable templates for news releases, media advisories, and letters to the editor to ensure consistency and professionalism in your communications.

Examples of Customizable Templates

  • News Release Template: A structured format for announcing events or achievements.
  • Media Advisory Template: A brief notice to inform the media about an upcoming event.
  • Letter to the Editor Template: A concise format for responding to news articles or discussing issues.

By following these strategies and tips, you can effectively promote your cause through public relations, build strong relationships with journalists, and seamlessly incorporate the iGive message into your communications. This will help raise awareness, attract more supporters, and ultimately increase the impact of your cause.

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Frequently Asked Questions

A shopper starts shopping online by first going to iGive.com.

The shopper, your supporter, identifies your cause as the one they support. If your cause is not already on our list of causes either they or you can add it. This tells us where to send the donation. This only has to be done once unless the shopper wants to stop or change causes.

The shopper then identifies the merchant where they want to shop that day from our categorized list of over 1700 merchants. Once they click on that merchant, they are finished for the day with iGive and taken directly to the merchant’s website. If they have shopped there before, they begin shopping. If it is their first time shopping at this merchant’s website, they will have to follow the merchant’s instructions for registering there by providing their name, delivery address, payment method, email address, and perhaps some other information depending on the merchant.

When they are finished shopping, they check out as usual. They are done and only have to wait for their order to be sent to them.

Meanwhile, back at iGive, a message is received from the merchant which documents the transaction. Periodically the merchant adds up what they owe iGive in the way of commission and sends iGive the money. This sometimes takes a month or more after the shopping trip because the merchants want to take into account returns, exchanges or other modifications to the total amount they collect.

iGive then adds up all of the commissions that they have received that are designated to be shared with your cause and sends you the accumulated portion for your cause. This is usually added up on a monthly basis for the period since the last donation to your cause.

There is no cost to the shopper or to your cause.

iGive works with all types of causes — big or small, local or national, and regardless of whether they are a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit or not.

Merchants pay iGive a commission from the shopper’s purchase because iGive referred the customer to them. They want customers to shop at their store, and shoppers with iGive want to shop at stores that support their cause. iGive utilizes that commission to facilitate a donation to your cause on behalf of the shopper.

The money sent to your cause is the incentive iGive offers shoppers to use iGive.com as the entry to online shopping at our 1700+ affiliated stores.

This is different from when a cashier asks if the shopper wants to round up or add a dollar to donate when the shopper checks out — in that case, the shopper is paying slightly more to donate to the store’s chosen cause—not the shopper’s. With iGive, the shopper pays the same amount they would if they didn’t use iGive. Your cause receives a donation from iGive for all of your supporters who use iGive.

The amount the cause receives depends on how many of your supporters use iGive and the amount of money they spend shopping online. You can increase the amount of the donation by encouraging your supporters to use iGive.com when shopping online. Your cause does not pay iGive anything.

iGive has a wide range of participating stores. These are listed at iGive.com either by category of merchandise or a comprehensive list of all merchant affiliates. This includes popular online retailers in categories such as clothing, electronics, travel, and more. See the list of affiliated stores here.