Timely Responses To News Are Important To Fundraising

In all charitable fields – from education, animal and human rights, immigration rights/advocacy, health and mental health issues, or international affairs – news items and crises occur.  As a fundraiser, I believe it is important for a nonprofit to be able to respond in a timely manner to current events related to its mission.

I believe our audiences and donors expect us to have an expert opinion and response to events, tragedies, or discoveries related to our work.  Being a voice in a local, national, or international dialogue only helps to position our organizations as critically-needed, and the “go-to” places to make a difference and take action.

In our day and age, news can sometimes be a minute-to-minute phenomenon.  Responding to an event or news item a month after its occurred makes us seem out-of-touch and unorganized.  Here are some tips for how to be “response” ready:

1. Designate a person to be responsible for writing and preparing responses to news items, events, tragedies, etc.  Trust this person and do not set up a large chain of command that needs to approve the response and the voice this person uses.  That being said, designate one person to be the “editor” and “advisor” of this team member, so s/he is not forced to respond in a vacuum.
2. Select the outreach tool you will use to send responses to your audiences – your e-newsletter will likely serve you the best for this type of outreach.  But, sharing articles, and blogs, on Facebook can also be very effective and timely.  A number of our clients and nonprofits friends already do this well.  Here are some nonprofit responses to high profile news items over the past year:
   • The rape in Delhi, India this past winter
   • The Oak Creek tragedy to the Sikh community
   • RightRides For Women’s Safety frequent sharing of relevant news items and articles on Facebook
   • The Steubenville, OH rape case

Make writing, sharing news articles, and conversing with the public part of your every day.  It is easy to do this now-a-days.  You can use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to get your point across to a large audience quickly.  In the recent past (some of you remember these days), you had to send out a hard copy letter to your entire list to be heard – which, of course, had to be written, printed, stuffed, stamped, and sent through the mail for a few days.  Or, you had to hope that your Op-Ed was chosen to be included in the next daily or weekly publication.  But, now you control your audience, your voice, and how timely and relevant you are in the larger world.

That is a beautiful, and powerful, thing.