There are thousands of charities registered nationally. With numbers like that, how can a non-profit stand out from the rest and communicate information in an effective and meaningful way?

First, the staff and volunteer leadership needs to be educated about the value of marketing and public relations programs. It is important to underscore the connection between the public relations strategy and the organizational mission.

Assess your public relations needs and tailor your plan accordingly. Prioritize your communications messages. Do you need to educate the public about a program? Do you need a call to action for volunteers or donations? Or, do you need to encourage attendance at an event?

Make your strategy match your budget. If creating one television public service announcement uses up your entire budget, it would be wise to first analyze if that is the most effective way to communicate your messages. This also is a good reason to create co-marketing activities with other non-profits or private organizations. This kind of partnering will increase the resources available.

Utilize the media (news story placement) as often as possible. The media is always looking for new and exciting people or stories to cover. Non-profits are full of wonderful human interest stories that the media would love to help you tell. Take the time to get to know the reporters that cover features and non-profit news and don’t hesitate to pitch them with your ideas.

Communicate to leadership on a regular basis the results of the public relations plan, such as press clippings, audience exposure and funds raised. It is critical to measure and analyze the results of specific communications efforts so that you can improve upon or alter the effort as needed.

It is important to remember the majority of donors contribute to benefit the public good, and generally not for a direct benefit that may be received. It is this reason that a non-profit’s approach to a public relations strategy must differ from that of a for-profit organization.