NONPROFITS - CAPITALIZING ON CRISIS

Smart nonprofits are using news events to further their causes.

The recent shortage in flu vaccines sparked a national outcry and resulted
in endless lines of potential flu sufferers snaking outside pharmacies and
doctors' offices, hoping the supply wouldn't run out before they reached the
front.

But for the American Lung Association (ALA), the shortage provided a strong
opportunity to push its message.

For years the ALA has promoted a 'Find a Flu Shot Locator,' garnering
limited coverage by publicizing that flu shots are not only safe, even for
asthma sufferers, but they greatly reduce hospitalizations during flu
season.

While planning for last year's flu season nearly a year in advance, the ALA
saw its corporate funding dwindle, though it did secure a key partnership
with Maxim Healthcare Services.

The 2004 campaign brought together several ALA divisions (national policy
and advocacy, program, scientific affairs, and marketing and
communications). The program was staffed by more than 50 Flu Shot Locator
local administrators, powered by Maxim Health (the Flu Shot Locator hosts,
including a searchable database), Donordigital (online marketing
consultants), Fenton Communications (PR component), and a list of online
partners - key among them the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC).

'However, we couldn't have planned for the flu vaccine shortage,' says
Michelle Sawatka, director of media relations for the ALA. 'We quickly
scrapped our messaging and developed new messages and engaged our
spokesdoctors for an intense month of interviews. Our goal was to create
per- spective around the events and provide health messages that would
hopefully calm the flu shot frenzy.'

This revised strategy included media outreach to newspapers, online
publications, and radio and TV stations, positioning the Flu Shot Locator as
the best and most convenient resource for consumers to find where to get the
flu shot, with Fenton positioning the ALA as an expert on the shortage
crisis.

As a result, the Find a Flu Shot Locator was by far ALA's most successful
online promotion ever. From September 15 through October 31, there were 1.85
million searches or requests for clinic locations. In addition, the
locator's homepage received more than 1 million page requests, in excess of
755,000 users on the site, with approximately one in five users returning.
And the organization added at least 16,000 new subscribers to its flu
e-newsletter in October alone.

'The Lung Association has found that when we provide 'news you can use' that
is relevant to a developing story, the media is very interested in including
it,' Sawatka says. 'We now live in a world with a 24-hour news cycle.
Reporters need to make fast decisions about the quality of information they
are putting in the paper or on TV or radio. The most credible news
organizations use the most credible sources.'

Consider, for example, three seemingly unrelated stories - Janet Jackson's
'wardrobe malfunction,' Mary-Kate Olsen's spell in rehab, and Mel Gibson's
The Passion of the Christ. What they have in common is that they were all
major news stories of 2004 that Focus on the Family piggybacked on to
promote its own agenda, which the Colorado Springs, CO-based nonprofit
Christian ministry espouses as preserving and sustaining families worldwide.

Tapping into the media's appetite to flesh out stories with sources having
some tangible link to the subject, Focus on the Family commands a phalanx of
spokespeople (psychologists, bio-ethicists, entertainment experts, marriage
counselors, apologists, broadcasters, etc.) ready to respond at a moment's
notice.

For Jackson's wardrobe malfunction, the group commented on its
appropriateness for an event that boasts family viewership. Olsen's eating
disorder prompted advice to parents on talking to their teens and preteens
about eating disorders. And when Passion hit theaters, it weighed in on
whether or not parents should let kids see the movie.

'My team pitches regularly to national and regional media on topics that
affect the family, and we've found that interest is high, especially if it
pertains to breaking news,' says Lisa Anderson, Focus on the Family's
director of publicity. 'Interest is also high if we're willing to provide
one side of a debate.'

Winning coverage

Nonprofits clearly have an edge when it comes to manipulating the media, as
reporters often view pitches about issues as more newsworthy than pitches
about for-profit products and services. Reporters and news producers are
particularly receptive to hearing from reputable nonprofits that can offer a
new angle to a developing or breaking story. Experts from nonprofits also
come with built-in credibility, saving reporters the time it takes to vet
sources.

For the nonprofit limber enough to get itself into position to be sourced
for a breaking story, the more compelling the news, the sharper the
spotlight.

Still, though you might not generate national coverage in every major
market, adopting a strategy of integrating your cause with breaking news or
other like-minded programs can pay substantial dividends.

As account manager at Graham & Associates, Kate Rapson coordinated a
campaign for the Institute on Aging, a large nonprofit offering services to
the elderly and their families. Rapson was not afforded the luxury of
breaking news, but did successfully link her campaign to another national
event.

'To raise awareness of the institute and its suicide awareness and
prevention program, we timed our major outreach around the National Suicide
Awareness Week,' Rapson says. 'We wrote a news alert notifying TV and radio
stations of the upcoming Suicide Awareness Week, as well as the institute's
experts on the topic and the fact that the elderly are one of the highest
risk groups.'

The results were respectable, generating some national coverage, but mostly
hits in the institute's home base of the San Francisco Bay Area. For
example, the director of the program, plus a client and a volunteer, were
interviewed on many Bay Area TV and radio stations, including KNBR-FM, NBC
3, and ABC 7.

Hitching your wagon to another event might often not even require much
additional effort. While handling PR for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial
Quilt, Andrew Hayes, then a freelance PR consultant, now director of
communications for real-estate brokerage firm Baird & Warner, was staging an
exhibit of sections of the quilt's panels of Chicagoans who had died from
complications associated with AIDS. As the exhibit's launch neared, the CDC
issued a report about the staggering numbers of HIV and AIDS cases in the
African-American community.

'I immediately spun all my PR to include the CDC report,' Hayes says.
'Within days, we had all the TV stations and both major dailies coming out
to do a story on the quilt exhibit.'

However, not every nonprofit is a fan of this approach, as the speed with
which you need to act to capitalize on breaking news can often be an issue.

'Most of the nonprofits that I have worked for are cautious and reticent to
quickly change focus and jump aboard a hot topic for a variety of reasons,'
Hayes explains. 'Many have boards that have to approve communications
vehicles and, as a result, can't act as fast as is necessary to approve this
change. And, in this day of reduced funding and support, many nonprofits are
concerned about offending or alienating a funder and tend to not want to
rock the boat.'

But for those still not sold on the idea of leveraging compelling news to
power their campaigns, consider that in its 2004 State of the Nonprofit
Industry survey, Charleston, SC-based researcher Blackbaud reported that 59%
of the 1,300 nonprofit professionals polled indicated their organizations'
overall budgets increased in 2003. At the same time, 83% of funding from
individual donations either increased or stayed the same, and 96% expect
executive/management staffing levels to either increase or stay the same
this year.

With organizations expanding operations and recruiting heavily, nonprofits
will have to work hard to stand out.

CASE STUDIES

For some organizations, capitalizing on current events has proven a viable
strategy for generating media coverage. Here are some success stories:

- The MindOH! Foundation

Mission: To provide character education programs and resources to the
community

News events: 9/11, Columbia Space Shuttle crash, the US invasion of Iraq

Tactics: Created activity worksheets, family discussion activities, and
classroom lesson plans. Materials are posted to a website in conjunction
with a media campaign to get the word out to schools and the community.
Experts are on call throughout campaigns.

- The MansGland Campaign

Mission: To promote prostate cancer awareness

News event: In fall 2004, there was a widely published story about the PSA
blood test that screens for prostate cancer. The first doctor to identify
this marker for cancer nearly 20 years ago proclaimed the test nearly
useless. When the story first came out, there were no opposing views.

Tactics: This nonprofit responded by launching an 800-PSA-Test call-in
service, promoting it to women, who more often than not are the impetus to
get men to the doctor for prostate screening.

- The Polly Klaas Foundation

Mission: To encourage California and other states to issue Amber Alerts when
children are abducted

News event: After a 5-year-old child was kidnapped and murdered in
California, Mike Smith of Fenton Communications urged The Polly Klaas
Foundation to use the unfortunate episode to generate publicity to help
force the issuance of Amber Alerts.

Tactics: An op-ed was secured in The Sacramento Bee, calling for the
governor to issue an executive order for Amber Alerts. He did, and six days
later, the alerts saved two teens from a convicted rapist. With that
nationwide attention, a national campaign was launched, including Amber
Alert Now (www.amberalertnow.org) that called for statewide plans in all 50
states and a national bill to coordinate them all. An op-ed was placed in
USA Today, and the effort received national hits like Nightline and CNN
Headline News. In April 2003, Bush signed the national bill, and now only
Hawaii remains without them.

TIPS

Rules to get coverage for your nonprofit during national news events:

- There must be a genuine cause or connection between your nonprofit and the
news event

- Don't just restate what's happening and your opinion on the matter.
Discuss what you are doing about it or provide a new angle that isn't
already being covered

- Don't wander to pet issues. Stay focused on the issue at hand

- Don't engage reporters in a long policy discussion about the issue

- Don't offer spokespeople who are not readily available to drop everything
for a media interview.

In PRWEEK, January 10, 2005