Pitchin' Ain't Easy

I'm starting to get involved with writing and pitching national media for a local Iraq and Afghanistan memorial, and I'm facing the same issues I've faced with my last few pitching adventures...

1. Who gets this?

2. How can I get you to read it?

3. Please, please run it? Please?

While running the press release through a syndicate would help ensure plenty of coverage and help with credibility, the price (over $400) breaks the bank for a group of locals who care about properly memorializing veterans and those we lost in Afghanistan and Iraq. On the other hand, it would take hours upon hours to personally call the editors of newspapers nationwide, asking them to pretty please run this release. It's a catch-22; either you spend a lot of time, or a lot of money; and neither features a guaranteed outcome.

Has anyone else run into this problem? How did you overcome it?

Chase Community Giving: Round Deux

Since I don't want to be the BP oil blogger (there are way too many others that blog about it much more informed than I do), here's something more PR and less oily...

Chase Community Giving starts up its second round of charity donation voting on June 15. After the last round ended with fraud accusations aimed at one of the nonprofits, hopefully this time around, supporters of the nonprofits will play fair.

Unfortunately, some nonprofits were denied access because they weren't informed of the contest quickly enough. One Orange County nonprofit tried to contact Chase as recently as yesterday and was denied entry into the rankings. A search of Chase Community Giving last week showed nothing more than the fraud accusations for the last round. Why was there so much less press this time, Chase? To avoid fraudulent submissions? Or because you'd already determined which charities were allowed to participate?

In any case, a good cause (or several) is well served from the Chase Community Giving initiative. I hope to see this cause marketing via social media continue.

"10 Twitter Tips for Nonprofit Organizations"

At my current internship at a local nonprofit, I'm working on using Twitter to get publicity for a specific event. Starting out, it's been daunting - looking at less than ten followers and having trouble getting retweeted or communicating with the people that can help my cause. This article by Heather Mansfield for Change.Org has given me some really helpful tips and hopefully I'll be able to get the message out even further!

http://nonprofits.change.org/blog/view/10_twitter_tips_for_nonprofit_organizations