A deeper dive into PR for the charities sector
Public relations (or PR as it’s known) is the charity sector’s best friend on the marketing communications front because it’s all about building reputation, growing awareness and providing value for money.
Whatever cause your charity serves, one of the main challenges you face is likely how best to promote your mission and vision to supporters and beneficiaries in an extremely competitive climate and against a background where all spending needs transparency. In a not-for-profit organisation, the purchase of outside assistance could be seen as a luxury rather than a necessity.
But in terms of value for money, the enhanced awareness the right PR agency can create should enable your charity to meet or even exceed its targets, as well as presenting you in the best possible light. So, while a case will need to be made to justify the upfront cost, the rewards are likely to speak for themselves.
Empica has worked with the charity sector for over 35 years, achieving coverage in broadcast, print and online media for a wide range of causes and campaigns, promoting awareness, boosting fundraising efforts, recruiting volunteers and helping educate key stakeholders and influencers about our clients’ causes.
We are a proactive and creative full-service PR agency whose preferred style is to work as an extension of your own team, all pulling together to achieve the charity’s goals.
What are some of the questions that charities are grappling with?
PR provides the answer to many of the challenges facing charities today. Frequently asked questions include:
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How do you ensure your voice is heard via the media when ‘hot topics’ relevant to your cause are up for debate and it is difficult to stand out amid a clamour of competing voices?
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How do you ensure your presence on the internet and in media outlets is consistent and positions you as experts in your field with valuable contributions to make?
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How do you lobby and influence decision-makers, including politicians, to promote or protect issues central to your charity?
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How do you overcome ignorance and apathy by educating those who matter to you about what you stand for and/or what you do - and persuade them to engage with you?
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How do you secure evidence that will satisfy the scrutiny of trustees, the public and The Charity Commission with regard to your activities and your finances?
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How do you ensure your charity stands out when there are so many other charities and organisations each eager to promote their own cause?
Whatever your charity does – from providing direct help, such as hospice work, advice hotlines, community foodbanks or re-homing abandoned animals, to promoting social causes, supporting disadvantaged groups, improving the environment or artistic, cultural, historic or scientific advances - a well-planned PR campaign can provide a reliable and sustainable way to meet your goals.
How can PR be used to benefit your charity?
One of the great things about media coverage achieved for you by your PR agency is that the viewer/listener/reader will perceive the story as having been produced by an impartial third party - unlike advertising which is universally understood to contain unfiltered messages from the party who has paid for it.
Given the importance of trust and transparency to the charitable sector, this ‘third party endorsement’ is of critical importance. Positive and supportive media coverage is hard to achieve without expert guidance from PR agencies who know which journalists to approach and how best to do so.
The focus of a specialist PR agency like Empica is on how best to choose and use the many, varied and ever-expanding communications platforms for the benefit of our third sector clients.
While traditional print and broadcast media continues to play a significant role with certain target audiences, having the right sort of presence on social media and elsewhere on the internet is increasingly important and often vital, to achieving a charity’s aims and enhancing its reputation.
However broad or narrow your remit, PR can help educate your target audiences about what you do, why and how; publicise campaigns; assist with lobbying; promote your charity as an information resource; create awareness of your fundraising needs and activities; and support you in engaging peoples’ interest in whatever else it is you wish to share with them.
The effectiveness of your PR campaign can be monitored and measured by tracking your media coverage, evaluating your social media engagement, and tracking any increases in donations, volunteer sign-ups, and other relevant key performance indicators.
How can a PR agency support a charity in promoting its cause?
Even if your team includes people with expertise in PR, unless this is their exclusive remit at your charity, they often lack sufficient time to run a full PR campaign for you. And depending on your objectives, even a dedicated in-house PR officer might require support to achieve the desired results.
The right PR agency will act as an extension of your team and you will find that having easy access to them will free up time of volunteers, executives and trustees who could arguably be more effectively employed in doing other aspects of the charity’s work.
Once your agency has a good understanding of your key messages and goals, and who your key audiences are, they will research the most effective media to help deliver that information to those people and introduce (or step up) the communications you have with them.
The impact of PR is often likened to a ‘drip, drip’ effect – meaning that it is credible and effective repetition of key messages (presented in various creative ways to avoid tedium) which leads to successful audience engagement.
Your agency will therefore work with you to identify and produce compelling news stories for sharing as frequently as possible and, if appropriate, will develop a network of contributors throughout your charity with whom they can liaise to develop these stories.
The key to engaging the interest of your target audiences will be to pitch and supply compelling content and deliver it in the appropriate format.
Your PR agency will develop and nurture media relationships, especially with the most valuable contacts, which will boost your media presence leading to greater public awareness and a growth in support for your cause.
Your PR campaign inevitably needs to include an impactful social media campaign, featuring considered engagement with the most appropriate platforms. Your website may need a revamp in order to maximise the potential offered by social media and your agency will be able to advise on this.
Collations of the media coverage that emerges can be used to keep stakeholders updated on the work being done by the charity, its impact and the way donations are spent. Media coverage helps with public transparency about what the charity does and how it does it.
Events organisation is another responsibility your PR agency can relieve you of, ranging from awareness-raising shows, talks, webinars, or panel discussions, local or national community engagement or fundraising events such as charity walks or volunteer days, to an annual ball or a House of Lords reception.
Neither of the adages ‘all news is good news’ and ‘there’s no smoke without fire’ are necessarily true, as many organisations know to their cost, but your PR agency can help you anticipate and be prepared for any negative press or crises by developing a comprehensive crisis communication plan with you, to cover any reasonable eventualities.
Hand in hand with this goes media training which, as many unprepared executives have been dismayed to discover, is a necessary and reassuring investment.
Ideally your PR agency, like Empica, will include experts who have both proven expertise in providing professional media training, and real-life experience of what it takes to create a positive impression and succeed in delivering the desired message when the opportunity to be interviewed by the broadcast media arises.
What opportunities are there for PR in the charity sector?
An effective PR campaign can help establish your charity as:
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a go-to source for media needing a spokesperson on issues relevant to your cause;
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an information resource for those who are intended to benefit from your charity;
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a source of knowledge for decision-makers, politicians and members of working parties dealing with issues in your field;
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a worthy and desirable recipient of financial and in-kind donations.
Your ‘story’ can be told and re-told using a variety of approaches. Experience shows that one approach which works well and stays fresh is the sharing of stories of those who have benefited from the work your charity does.
This ‘human interest’ approach allows people to identify with your service users, and sharing input from beneficiaries and advocates is often a brilliant way to bring your charity to peoples’ attention for the first time and persuade them to engage.
Alternatively, if your main message is a campaigning one, recruiting a series of commentators whose lives are affected by your cause can similarly fuel a string of varied and interesting reasons why the changes you are fighting for are needed.
If you are looking to recruit more volunteers, case studies can be shared about existing volunteers, with quotes from them about what they do, why it matters, how rewarding they find it and how others can sign up.
Similarly, if you are looking to recruit more trustees the case studies can feature the views, aspirations and experiences of existing trustees and be targeted at media read by your target audience.
The importance of a joined up approach
PR works best when it is fully integrated into your broader marketing and communications strategy. Whether it’s a modest plan for a small charity or an ambitious, multi-channel, multi-discipline plan for a large global organisation, values, key messaging, positioning and so on, all need to be aligned to ensure consistency and credibility – whatever medium your PR, marketing and communications is delivered through.
Our PR team works very closely with our Content Creation team to deliver a consistent and joined up approach. We provide as much or as little support as required, from media relations through to copywriting, asset design and creation, video production and training.
To find out more about how we can support you with your PR and content creation, please get in touch by calling 01275 39 44 00 or emailing contact@empica.com