Breaking Through to The Heart: Getting Them to Give
by Emily Bernard
April 27, 2010
So, you’ve got a great nonprofit cause and you want to promote it. Now what? Partnering with charitable organizations can be an extremely rewarding endeavor, but it takes a lot of creativity and persistence to ensure that your efforts pay off in the end.
With the number of registered charities growing by the day, the nonprofit sector is becoming increasingly crowded. As a result, public relations professionals are challenged to break through the clutter and differentiate a nonprofit client’s mission in an effective yet meaningful way. With minimal budget wiggle room, nonprofit campaigns require careful tactical planning, outside-the-box thinking and a lot of communication.
At Pierpont, we maintain an ongoing relationship with several nonprofit organizations, and supporting their admirable endeavors gives us an opportunity to improve the communities we serve. Over the past several years, San José Clinic has enlisted our expertise in promoting their annual “Art with Heart” event. San José Clinic is one of the nation’s longest standing charitable organizations, and its mission is to provide quality healthcare services to Houstonians who lack access to such resources.
Every year, the Clinic and its supporters host the “Art with Heart” fundraising event to help support the Clinic’s mission. Throughout the evening guests can enjoy food and live entertainment while browsing paintings, sculpture and jewelry donated from local and professional artists that are available for purchase through silent and live auctions. This year’s event will take place on May 15th at the InterContinental Hotel in Houston.
Because the clinic operates solely on volunteer medical assistance and donations, this event is a crucial element to the Clinic’s sustainability and growth. Thus, it’s more important than ever that we get the word out about this event. Here is how we are doing it.
HAVE THE RIGHT MESSAGING
Before any non-profit campaign can be implemented, you need to determine what exactly needs to be communicated on behalf of the organization. In the case of San José Clinic, our objective is to drive attendance to the “Art with Heart” event while simultaneously encouraging audiences to donate their time and resources to the cause. We need to make sure that every program and project we implement for the event is rooted in this messaging. Ensuring that all parties are in line with this message provides us with more champions to get the word out, increase visibility and bring our mission statement to life in the community.
INCREASE COMMUNITY AWARENESS
Throughout our work with the Clinic, we have discovered the best way to gain support is to instill Houston’s residents with a desire for community involvement. With that in mind, we chose to become an information resource for the media, focusing on doctor-patient interest stories that emphasize the organization’s impact on the Houston community.
In addition to these human-interest pieces, we have also increased community awareness by promoting the Clinic’s recent move to a new facility in Midtown. This presents a great story of growth and expansion of resources. Reporters at several Houston television stations, including Channel 13, have featured news of this development. Click here to view the coverage.
TARGET THE RIGHT AUDIENCE
The “Art for Heart” event requires that we target the right audience. We’ve noticed that Houstonians as a whole have an eye for philanthropy and are very receptive to the Clinic’s message. As such, our efforts are geared toward targeting Houston-area churches and local newspapers to encourage participation and develop a broader awareness of the Clinic’s mission.
This year, “Art with Heart” is honoring prominent Houston figures, such as Carolyn Farb and the Charity Guild of Catholic Women. In order to reach a demographic that we had not previously targeted, we’ve opted to focus a majority of our efforts on securing coverage in Houston’s social publications. Our graphic designers prepared an elegant, full page advertisement that will appear in publications such as Prime Living Magazine and more. Coupled with feature stories and calendar listings, this eye-catching advertisement will add valued visibility to our campaign.
AND THE RESULTS?
We are roughly a month away from the event and growing increasingly excited. We have received overwhelming support from the Houston community and are confident that the event will be a success. If you’re interested in supporting San José Clinic or attending the event on May 15th, please visit www.sanjoseclinic.org for more details.
Creating public awareness for a nonprofit comes with its challenges, but it’s important to remember that the majority of people willing to support a cause do so because their involvement benefits the greater public good. For this reason, PR campaigns for nonprofits have to be assessed in a slightly different way than for-profit campaigns, but that does not mean they can’t succeed. If you’re ever faced with this particular challenge, keep in mind that passion goes a long way. Combine that with patience and creativity, and you’ll find the experience to be a rewarding one.