PR for a nonprofit organisation

Hi all,

I’ve just completed the 18th day of my internship and I’m busy compiling the final report.

I can’t believe that the internship is almost over. At the beginning of it I was thinking that 20 days were way too long. But now I realised how short the 20 days work placement is.

Anyway this would be my last entry and I simply want to share my insight as I am completing my report.

I just noticed the significance of Public Relations contributions to nonprofit organisations. Having worked for more than a month in a not-for-profit organization, I realized that working at the marketing department there is not an easy thing to do. It is challenging though.

The very nature of not-profit-organisations is non financial object and somehow they are seen by the public as “a good guy”. But the reality is that the organizations have to develop all their marketing programs to gain enough funding in order to run their programs. They have to be wise in their spending and they have to compete with other organizations to get funding, donations and even volunteers due to their limited resources. And I can see how important for an organization to work on their image and build their credibility in delivering the services. Their heavy reliance on media to spread out “the good work” is undeniable. In this way they attract public attention and get more donations and sponsors.

Feel free to drop your comment.

Annice

A Lesson from Auslan

Hi fellow PR 393

Most of you must have submitted the final report. But not me, I have just completed the 16th day of my internship.

Anyway I just want to share about the organizational culture in my workplace.

In the WA Deaf Society, some of the employees are Deaf and I can’t talk much with them due to my poor sign language. For those of you who do not know what sign language (Auslan) is, it is simply the language for Deaf people.

At the beginning of my work placement, I never realized how hard it could be to communicate with Deaf. After I have been working there for a month, then a question popped up in my head, “Are we talking in a different language?” :)

Even if I know that I communicate in a different language, somehow in my mind Auslan is simply signs, gestures and body movements. I’ve never really thought that Auslan is a different language, and it is a language.

I was somehow reminded of the organisation’s written values (before they changed into the new ones). One of them is “A respect for Auslan as the language of the Deaf community.”

Every volunteer in the WA Deaf Society has an opportunity to learn Auslan every week. Deaf teacher come to the Society’s office to teach the sign language. Too bad for me, I’ve only attended one class so far. There were events happening around in the office that most of the times the Auslan class was cancelled.

It makes me wonder why the Society even wants to organize an Auslan class for hearing staff and volunteers.

I think it is because a respect of Auslan is one of the organisation’s values. After all if you work for an organization, you have to agree with their values. Well, we’ve learned this in one of our lectures on PR ethics. But I also personally think that PR practitioners in non-for-profit organizations possess stronger organizational culture rather than those in profit sector or consultancy.

Am I right? Feel free to drop your opinion.


Annice

Follow-Up Calls

Has any of you made follow up calls to the media? Did you enjoy it? Let’s exchange some ideas then.

Frankly speaking, I don’t like the idea of calling up people. I always prefer texting or emailing people which I know it would not be effective in following up the media. But I was asked to do follow up calls on the fifth day of my internship after faxing media releases on the previous day.

It was my first time to do follow up calls and I made more than 30 phone calls to media outlets around Perth. At first I could imagine I might be interrupting the busy journalists. I had no idea how to do follow up calls even though I might have learned it in PR 250 (I can’t remember it though). The only question I could come up with was whether or not they had received our media release.

Mix responses were received. One local newspaper said that they would publish the article but were not sure when it would be published. Some responded that they wanted stories with a local angle.

Most phone calls to local paper were received by the receptionist, and some of them offered to ring me back since the reporters were busy at that time. Those phone calls that were received by the editor or reporters are quite a few.

I learned that I got to be quick when I talked with the journalist. Some of them might just politely hang up the phone even though I haven’t finished asking them. Those unexpected responses made me think if there is any guideline to make a follow up call. I usually introduced my name and the organisation, asked if they had received the media release and what they thought about it. Lastly I asked if they needed more detailed information or photos.

I am not sure if that’s the right thing to make a follow up call.

I guess following up calls wouldn’t be easy at first, but it does require practises. As for me, I don’t want to follow up for the sake of following up. I hope I can build a good relationship with the journalists through those phone calls.

In the next hour on that day, I was busy checking some blogs and trying to get practical insight into following up media release. I came across a useful website and gained some tips from it.

I haven’t been asked again to do follow up calls since then. But I am more prepared now to do so. Some practical tips from me

1. Know well your target media and the journalist
Knowing your target media helps you understand their expectation. It is easier to pitch your story when you understand their expectation of a news story.

2. Prepare script to pitch your story
Preparing a short script is useful. Anticipating any kind of responses you might get would make you more prepared to reply back quickly.

3. Be patient, you’re working with the busy journalists
Last but not least, be patient! You might find them rude, but remember they might be on deadline. If they can’t find valuable story in your media release, they can’t be bothered discussing any further.

Annice

WADS – First week tasks

Hi everyone,

I am a Curtin Bentley student and currently doing internship at the Western Australia Deaf Society (WADS). I’ve just started on the 22^nd of September. It’s pretty late when most of you might have done or perhaps about to finish the internship.

I just want to share about what I learned in the first week of my internship. I am working for WADS, a non-for-profit organization providing services and support to Deaf and hard of hearing people.

In my first week I was asked to write a media releases and draft an annual report and a brochure. At first, I found hard to do it since it’s been a while since I have written a media release. I found myself being ineffective and spending too much time on drafting it. I had to read brochures and any other information given by my supervisor to understand the whole idea of the Society’s services.

I had read the previous annual report and checked the Society’s website before I commenced my internship. But it seems that I still lacked information when I was asked to draft the 2009 annual report.

Finally, on the third day of my internship I got back my release. A lot of changes have been made that made me a little bit disappointed. But I had thought of it before. It is a constant learning process, I suppose. Different writing style, deciding on which information should go into a release, and which should not… they are not an easy thing to do. I guess PR 200 alone is not enough =( I don’t know. What do you guys think?

Until my next post.

Signing off,

Annice