How to get media to cover your nonprofit 

It’s ironic: Despite having many more ways to communicate with their constituencies today—through social media, email, webinars, Zoom, and in-person events—many nonprofits still struggle to reach a broad audience. They still rely on external media outlets to help get the word out about their work and raise their profile. 

But not every nonprofit has a public relations team or a communications or media relations specialist who keeps track of local and national media outlets. Here are some tips from a longtime nonprofit news editor on how to get on the radar of nonprofit news outlets that care about the social sector. 

Know your audience—starting with editors 

If your organization has a full-time communications specialist or an external PR team, those professionals understand that “know your audience” means different things for different groups. But among the first audiences they need to get to know are nonprofit news editors. And that means finding out what kinds of news a specific publication or outlet is interested in covering. For the many smaller organizations that don’t have specialists, it’s still worth doing what you can with limited resources to determine which outlets are a good fit. 

Which publications and outlets—and I’m including blogs and podcasts here—will want to hear from your organization? If you’re new to nonprofit communications, spend some time learning which ones are focused on your field. Research their websites for previous reporting on the topics you’re looking to pitch. Identify patterns. Look for guidelines for unsolicited pitches. 

For specialized publications, the topics you should pitch may seem obvious. A publication focused on health care, for instance, may be interested in your health-related nonprofit. But a gala event that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for a local nonprofit hospital is not a slam dunk for the editor of a national business publication that covers health care. 

Even topics that appear relevant may not be of use for that publication. At Philanthropy News Digest, for example, we publish summaries of philanthropic news: announcements of new initiatives, grants, and major gifts, as well as job opportunities and requests for proposals (RFPs). However, we no longer publish interviews, commentaries, or book reviews or do long-form original reporting. We announced this change last December to longtime PR contacts and posted it on our website. Yet, I still receive pitches for such features every week. To avoid wasting editors’ time and your own, know what they want and what they don’t want. 

Pitch selectively, take ‘no’ for an answer, but don’t give up 

Once you know which publications and outlets are a good fit, you also need to know what assets you’re bringing to the table. In other words, why should the media outlet take up your news announcement or interview your executive director? What kinds of expertise can she share? Is she comfortable being interviewed? Are there others at your organization who have specialized knowledge who may be of interest to the publication? 

But even when you’ve done your research and know that your nonprofit news announcement or interview proposal is an excellent fit for that specific outlet, the editor may still say no. Why? Perhaps they’ve recently interviewed the leader of a similar organization and don’t want to look repetitive, or the publication is taking a different tack on the topic.  

The fact is, you never know what else an editor is working on, and you may never learn why your pitch was declined. But it doesn’t mean your next pitch won’t work. By developing long-term relationships with those editors, you can help keep your organization front-of-mind when future opportunities arise.  

Remember: Editors like to be first—whether with a major announcement or an exclusive interview. It’s worth cultivating a relationship with the editor where you’re willing to provide an “exclusive”—so both your nonprofit and the media outlet benefit. 

Be a partner and a resource  

What works best for both the organization and the publication is a strong partnership. Be a resource. Offer connections that might benefit the editor even if it may not immediately help your organization. Be honest, accessible, informative, and open to options, and editors will learn to trust you—or even to reach out to you proactively. 

What not to do 

What should you avoid when trying to get on the radar of media outlets? Scattershot approaches—emailing every outlet in the field regardless of their specialized area—have never worked well and still don’t. And consistently sloppy pitches have the potential to hurt your organization’s reputation. Let someone else read the pitch before you click send. I won’t name names, but I’ll never forget a pitch addressed to one of our competitors but sent to me instead. It happens more often than you might think. Of course, I assume you’re also pitching other outlets, but please double-check your emails. Typos and grammatical errors aren’t the only things that make you and your organization look bad. 

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