What Your Nonprofit Can Do When The Media Won’t Bite

Recently we helped publicize an amazing project with a nationwide scope. We were excited by the possibilities and came up with lots of ideas for pitches and outlets we could approach. As we started talking to reporters, however, we ran into a frustrating wall: our project was deemed too “political” for the arts reports and too “featurey” for the news reporters. It just didn’t fit in with the typical distribution of stories for print, tv or radio.

Then, just when the program launched, the news of the Sandy Hook shootings broke. Like everyone else, we were shocked, horrified and disturbed by the tragedy. But we knew we had to persevere. We believed in the project and at the end of the day, we wanted people to know about it and think about the issues that it raised.

So we went back to the drawing board to  reevaluate our approach and reconfirm our goals. And it became clear. Why not have the project director, a talented and passionate leader with an impressive resume, write an op-ed? We could get across all the points we wanted to make and guarantee that a wide audience would read the article.

After thinking about it carefully, we decided to place the editorial in the online-only opinion section of a widely-read newspaper. While a major publication like The New York Times or The Washington Post always provides an excellent platform, popular online outlets can have a huge reach, too. In many cases, they have broad readerships and an active comment section where you can get reader feedback on your idea or project mission. The article we placed received over 50 comments — nothing to sneeze at, especially for a topic that wasn’t particularly newsy!

There are so many great blogs, aggregators, social media platforms, and news sites where your article can be posted, re-posted, quoted, and rehashed. Before you know it, you’ve actually reached more people — and perhaps more of the right people — than if you’d gotten an article in a traditional publication.

Don’t give up! There’s always a way to work with a project that’s a tough sell. And remember — if you believe in your cause, someone else will, too.