Seven common PR mistakes charities and non-profit organisations make

The doom and gloom financial news of the last 12 months has even the most established non-profit and charity organisations shaking in their boots, tightening their belts and keeping their hands in their pockets.
In an uncertain environment, the public relations budget is often the first to be cut – even though it is, of course, during these challenging times that you most need to promote your work.

The key is learning to be even more clever about your communication. To begin with, Jane Speechley – Director of Canberra-based consultancy Charismatic Communications – has prepared the following list of the seven most common PR mistakes charities and non-profit organisations make.

1. Overlooking the importance of strategy.

This element sits rightly in first position and is probably the most common mistake I see in my work with non-profit and charity organisations.

I can’t impress enough the importance of a sound strategy, yet it is so often written off as ‘something only PR people are concerned with’, or pushed aside for the excitement and appeal of the actual tactics.

Many organisations spend countless hours crafting the perfectly-worded mission, vision or charter – yet without a strategy to guide how these values are integrated and communicated through your everyday work, they’re just words on a page.

A strategy cements your organisation’s purpose and priorities: it provides a roadmap for your future activities, time and resources; and a benchmark against which you can measure ideas and proposals before deciding whether or not to proceed.

Even if you can’t afford to engage a full-time PR professional or agency, find someone to learn about your organisation and develop a strategy that you can implement yourself.

2. Forgetting your non-profit status.

This sounds like a blinding glimpse of the obvious, but many charity and non-profit organisations don’t take advantage of the full range of benefits available to them, to support their communication activities.

These can range from the well-known community service broadcasting to discount rates on advertisements, exhibition stalls and other services, and even access to free online advertising and website analytics. Remember your volunteers can provide vital assistance and fresh ideas throughout the year – not just during peak event and campaign periods.

While not exclusive to non-profit organisations, the internet offers a wealth of useful resources if you know where to look. These might include libraries of free or low-cost images, basic photo and movie editing software, and simple programs to make your own animated web banners.

Share the tricks and tools you find, and ask around for pointers to others!

3. Being afraid to say no.

When a fast-talking, professional and well-intentioned advertising agency rep is on the phone telling you about their big idea for your cause, it can be all too easy to get caught up in the promise and potential without stopping to consider whether this idea will really work for you.

Consumer awareness groups often say, ‘it’s not a bargain if you don’t need it’, and that’s the golden rule here as well.

Hopefully, if you’ve followed step one of this list, you should have a strategy against which you can check your priorities and resources! Regardless, it’s useful to remember there are very few truly free tactics in the world: sometimes the expenses are hidden in the background, and sometimes the greatest cost is to your time and energy.

Responsible management of your resources means sometimes having to say no to those who want to help you.

4. Being unwilling to say yes.

Just in case the previous point leads you down a path of cynicism and defensiveness, it’s important to also acknowledge the value of remaining open to new ideas and being willing to embrace innovation in your communication activities.

Well-established non-profits, especially the larger ones, can be surprisingly bureaucratic in their approaches. However, the way people access information continues to change at a rapid pace and your tactics must keep up if you wish to remain at the forefront.

Some of the most effective and cost-efficient strategies require you to take a small risk and try something that’s new or even a little ‘scary’. In this category you might find social networking, mobile communication, new fundraising ideas and less-common forms of advertising.

It’s unlikely you’ll be able to rely on the same old methods, no matter how well they’ve worked in the past - sure, you might get by, but you’ll never really thrive.

5. Not accounting for human hours.
Often, communication tactics that are low in cost are heavy on the time required to implement and maintain them. Many a cost-effective strategy has stumbled because an organisation hasn’t allowed for the human hours needed for these ideas to reach their full potential.

I’ve prepared numerous strategies for organisations where the available financial resources are minimal or non-existent. When this is the case (and even when it’s not), I ask the client to give me a ‘human hours budget’ – to tell me up front how many hours per week, per person, they’re able to dedicate to implementing the strategy.

I then manage this budget, prioritising and apportioning hours against each tactic, in exactly the same way as I would handle a dollar allocation.

If you wish to take this approach a step further, you might even consider placing a dollar value on your time so your final evaluation more closely reflects the real cost of each strategy?

6. Skipping the evaluation.

Even the most skilled and experienced public relations professionals are guilty of occasionally skimming over the monitoring and evaluation section of their communication plan – and it’s a mistake you make to your detriment, especially when resources are tight.

Put simply, evaluation is how you know what’s worked and what hasn’t, which allows you to best determine where to direct your time and energy in future.

In a pinch, evaluation methods don’t need to be particularly sophisticated but should always focus on outcomes (that is, indications of behaviour or attitudinal change) rather than outputs, such as the number of posters produced or hits on a website.

Simple tricks such as ‘keying’ your communication – that is, using slightly different contact details on each tactic so you can clearly and immediately identify the source of any enquiry – can provide very accurate results at no extra cost.

7. Underestimating the appeal of a good story.

Don’t worry too much if you can’t afford hi-tech gadgets, special effects and flashy campaigns. Research consistently shows potential supporters are most affected by real-life stories and testimonials. Don’t just tell people that you’re doing good work – show them the difference you’re making.

Work out what is unique and compelling about your cause and use it. Can you illustrate your work with images of cute animals? Can you show the improvement you’ve made to one child’s life? Can you provide useful information to benefit a large portion of the community, for example, in preventing bushfires or lowering the risk of cancer?

A well-written, relatable story or example of your work is likely to be your most powerful tool. Include the whizz-bang gimmicks if you must, but not at the expense of your story.

This article was originally published by the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) in December 2009 (and can be viewed online here).