{"id":1683,"date":"2011-06-23T22:33:53","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T04:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.periniassociates.com\/?p=1683"},"modified":"2011-06-23T22:33:53","modified_gmt":"2011-06-24T04:33:53","slug":"what-is-the-role-of-public-relations-in-fundraising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/periniassociates.com\/index.php\/2011\/06\/23\/what-is-the-role-of-public-relations-in-fundraising\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is The Role Of Public Relations In Fundraising?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Michael B. Perini, ABC<\/a>
\n perini & associates<\/a><\/p>\n

In today’s economy successful fundraising is difficult at best.<\/p>\n

Making it even harder is the strategy used by many organizations to jump right into to what is commonly called, “the \u00a0ask”. \u00a0In other words, to figure out the simplist way of getting the donor to give, i.e. by check, credit card, payment \u00a0program, any amount is ok plan, etc. \u00a0This effort is often followed up with the promise of recognition of some sort, i.e., name on a banner, flyer, program, brief mention in remarks during a post campaign event. \u00a0All these elements are necessary, yes, for successful fundraising, but \u00a0have limited long-term value without first building a foundation with the potential donor by\u00a0creating and facilitating conversations<\/em> around the “who” and “why”. \u00a0This critical component, that \u00a0will result in achieving better fund raising results, is the role of public relations experts partnering with fundraisers and using well tested strategies and techniques.<\/p>\n

We all need to remember: The choices supporters make about which charity to donate to today can be won or lost on establishing the right messages –– this important task needs to be left to experienced public relations professionals.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here are 10 important reasons why fundraisers need to give more attention to public relations strategies and methods.<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Well lead PR program<\/strong>s (message development, story placement, marketing, advertising, use of social media) can raise awareness.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0PR programs can reinforce and build<\/strong> on the messages that fundraisers are giving to supporters by garnering media and public support.<\/p>\n

3. PR professionals can help find and target potential<\/strong> fundraising audiences and encourage the conversation and thus commitment.<\/p>\n

4. PR can be the cornerstone of telling a good story<\/strong> about how the fundraising made a difference to transform the way people think about \u00a0the next fundraising campaign.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Fundraising aims to encourage donations.<\/strong> Strong PR supports \u00a0that “call to action” by showcasing the charity’s integrity, need for funding and benefits from how the money was spent. \u00a0PR can help develop a strong and effective case study library that will help motivate fundraisers and donors alike.<\/p>\n

6. The PR and fundraising teams<\/strong> (or individuals depending on the size of your group) should be pulling in the same direction. \u00a0Meeting and sharing information on a regular basis is vital.<\/p>\n

7. \u00a0PR experts can help fundraisers think about the difference<\/strong> between donors (those who give donations) and supporters (those who give their time to volunteer or help raise funds). \u00a0Both these groups have stories and they need to be recognized.<\/p>\n

8. \u00a0Worth repeating from #1: use of social media.<\/strong> Social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter are useful PR tools and growing in usage every hour. \u00a0Your PR expert can develop a strategy tailored to generating income.<\/p>\n

9. \u00a0Using PR in fundraising campaigns<\/strong> can be measured to determine how much it contributed.<\/p>\n

10. \u00a0PR should always be practiced.<\/strong> This is a strategic discipline and not a tactical technique. \u00a0Fundraising, in my view, should be viewed as a specialization of public relations, not the other way around.<\/p>\n

Times are tough. \u00a0The pot for giving is small. \u00a0Therefore, great communication is even more important. \u00a0Now it is especially important to let supporters know about your organization, cause or special donor event BEFORE “the ask” as well as following up afterwards.<\/p>\n

I know from experience that \u00a0a strong and integrated public relations component will result in persuading more supporters to come your way. So, please think about the role of PR in fundraising. \u00a0We would like to hear how you have used PR in your fundraising efforts.<\/p>\n

Call us as we can take your fundraising efforts to new levels by integrating public relations.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Michael B. Perini, ABC perini & associates In today’s economy successful fundraising is difficult at best. Making it even harder is the strategy used by many organizations to jump right into to what is commonly called, “the \u00a0ask”. \u00a0In other words, to figure out the simplist way of getting the donor to give, i.e. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[211],"tags":[168,31,182,203,204,205,206,207,208,209,210,102,49],"class_list":["post-1683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-volunteer-sector","tag-advertising","tag-associates","tag-audience","tag-awareness","tag-church","tag-donations","tag-donor","tag-fundraiser","tag-fundraising-2","tag-giving","tag-non-profits-2","tag-perini","tag-pr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/periniassociates.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/periniassociates.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/periniassociates.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/periniassociates.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/periniassociates.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/periniassociates.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/periniassociates.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/periniassociates.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/periniassociates.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/periniassociates.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}