Non-profit Public Relations
Non-profits have to go about their public relations in different ways then normal businesses. Because they are non-profit they do not have the funds for advertising so they have to make themselves known in other ways.
Normal businesses can take their profits and budget them for advertising and other needs but non-profits cannot. They have to go about it in different ways. One way is to make sure that everyone working in the organization understands the organization's mission.
If everyone there knows what they are about and it excited to do their part then the things they do will be a lot more effective. It will also make all the "employees" so excited that they will want to share it with the people they meet. In this small way they can spread it by the word of mouth.
Once a few people spread it to a few people who spread to a few more people, that is a lot of people who now are aware of the business just because people are talking about it and doing things to help.
Something else that non-profits can do is to have volunteer spokespersons for the organization go around and talk to people. They can go around to different events and such and share information about their organization with people all around.
These would have to be people who are excited about the mission of the organization and who understand it well. They would have to be people who are willing to go around speaking to different people. Otherwise they message may not be spread well and people may not catch the spirit of it.
If you have spokespersons that are not excited about what they are doing, people will hear them speak and they will not be inspired to help. If your own volunteers do not like it then the general public will not know why they should be. They need to be enthused by your enthusiasm.
Another way to spread the word around is to contact your local media. You can do public service announcements or you can contact the local radio and TV stations. They may not give you a free advertising space, but maybe they would be willing to tell some of your stories.
Radio and TV people are always looking for wonderful stories that they can share. If you can give them great stories about human interest and service things that have happened they would want to share that with the public.
Say your organization helps a family get into their own home and furnish it. That would mean a lot to a family who did not have the power to do so themselves and it would be a great story to share. Radio and TV stations would be more than happy to share these kinds of stories on their stations.
You can also use the web. If you create your own website you can direct people there and they can go there to find out about your organization and read stories of people that you have helped. They would be able to find out for themselves what you are all about and they would be more inspired to join in.
Lastly, you just want to make sure that all your staff knows your budget. With the little you have you want to make sure that your staff stays informed about that. You may not think that it has a lot to do with public relations but it is surprising that if actually does.
If you would like to learn more about non-profits and public relations then you can go to the following links to read more:
http://101publicrelations.com
http://www.publicrelationsideas.com
