How to Conduct Community Relations for a Nonprofit Organization
Knowing the community in which you live may seem like an easy task, but it's one of the hardest jobs you'll ever have if you are a good community relations professional.
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Challenging
Instructions
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1
Know your community inside and out. This may sound easy but it's not. Do you personally know the community relations (CR) person at the major papers where you live? Could you pick up the phone and ask them for a favor if you had to? What about the top 20 corporations in your area? If not, get your respective cities Book of Lists, start doing your research and pick up the phone to set up a face-to-face meeting with each newspaper CR person. Remember, their job is to support organizations like yours in the community. Your job is to let them know you exist.
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2
Create partnerships. Experience your city and get to know who might be a logical partner for your organization. For example, if you are a children's organization, go to the local zoo and see what kind of joint venture you may explore. Bring in a media partner and generate some good community awareness for your organization.
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3
Open your house - literally. Have an "open house" of your organization and invite the top 20 CR people in your community. Invite the media as well; CR people love media attention. Let them know who you are firsthand and tell them of your interest in generating partnerships in the community.
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4
Involve your board of directors. Make them understand your community mission so their companies can help your cause. Ask them if you can join in on any of their media time for the coming year, which would allow them to do some "cause marketing." Many times they will have the budget for this exact purpose - it's there for the asking.
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5
Excite your internal staff. There are no better cheerleaders for your mission than the people who work for the organization. Make them feel like they are a part of the mission and ask them to get out into the community and be your ambassadors of a sort. Let them sit at your organization's booth when you are involved in community events. Let the people who can speak the loudest and the clearest about your organization be the face and voice of your nonprofit.
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