Customer Reviews

Publicity for Nonprofits: Generating Media Exposure That Leads to Awareness, Growth, and Contributions

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a wonderful book. It was pretty to look at, and easy to read. If you are starting a nonprofit or want to improve on your existing nonprofit, then this book will probably help you in either project. It will help your organization generate media exposure that usually leads to awareness, growth, and contributions for your organization. And all at minimal cost. Use this book to create or improve upon your organization's publicity plan.

All nonprofit executive directors and development directors should have a copy of this book! It is broken into four sections:

1. Getting started

2. Tools

3. Tactics

4. The plan

Topics covered in detail include media materials, news releases, and pitch letters. The information provided is light on theory and jargon and heavy on instruction. And if you follow the advice in the four sections you will without a doubt create a solid publicity program for your organization.

The author also discusses alternatives to publicity that amount to traditional marketing techniques. They include:

1. Direct mail

2. Advertising

3. Public speaking

4. E-Newsletters, and

5. Viral marketing

All in all, a great book and one that will get a lot of use by the people who head a nonprofit. 5 stars!

I've worked for a number of years as a communications director for nonprofits and I ordered this book because I was hopeful it would be a tool to help move hesitant decision makers in the direction of more strategic thinking. Sadly, when it comes to nonprofits, communications pros often have to spend more time persuading their colleagues and directors than the public. There's nothing like a book in print to solidify your advice!

This book was disappointing in that it joins the many books already out there that focus on the mechanics, aka "basics," but not the critical thinking that is required for PR in today's competitive and changing information age. Yes, it's helpful to know how to write a proper press release or pitch letter, but the reality is zillions of press releases get faxed into newsrooms every day. Newspapers are dying, TV no longer reigns the news world and the rising go-to news sources - the internet and bloggers - abhor all the traditional basics, such as press releases, making it a time-consuming challenge to insert your campaign into their discussions. This means that more than ever, community advocacy groups and charities -- this author's audience -- have to re-think PR strategies in order to insert their issues and causes into the news stream. Bigger organizations are already there.

To her credit, the author does touch on how to evaluate what is and isn't news, and how to transform your beloved cause into a news item -- that no matter how worthy your cause, newsrooms are about NEWS. As the author is clearly a seasoned pro and a good writer, I look forward to her sequel, which will hopefully offer guidance on how to navigate today's stormy PR waters. I need that book to convince my little groups to make the leap.

Sandra Beckwith has put together a very readable book with practical insights for handling public relations in the real world. This work will help you develop a strategy for getting your organization's message out into the public square. Her step-by-step process even has forms you can use in your PR planning. Public relations is so much more than just talking to media when they happen to be interested in your organization. The author shows how you can become proactive right now in getting your message noticed.