Whatchu talkin’ 'bout Willis? – A well-crafted quote

Using the media can be an effective tool in influencing policy. Kerra Bolton, former Capitol bureau chief for the Asheville Citizen Times and principal of Lightning Bolt Meda, contributed a series of posts on communications for non-profits.

If you were a child of the 80s, “Diff’rent Strokes” was about as close as you were going to get to a primer for life.

The television show boasted an interracial cast, a guest appearance by Nancy Reagan urging kids to “just say no”, daring topics like child abuse, and memorable catchphrases such as “whatchu talkin’ 'bout Willis?”

It’s the last point that’s important for writing press releases. You want your quotes to be memorable…so memorable that they get in the newspaper.

When writing quotes, it’s helpful to remember the 3 C’s. Quotes must be: clear, concise, and cogent.

Clear – In a story where many people are interviewed, you’re going to be lucky to get in three sentences. You want to maximize your quote so that it’s clear and makes the strongest argument for your case.

Concise – Don’t ramble or you’ll increase your chances of being misquoted. The three-sentence rule applies here. If you can’t make your argument in three sentences, you may want to rethink your argument.

Cogent – Always bring the argument back to what it means for the general audience. Who cares if your budget is being cut by $10 million? But if cutting your program means that people won’t get services or will slow your delivery time, say so. People care about what happens to them or how something will affect their friends, family, and community members.

Maybe these tips won’t get the attention of some Park Avenue businessman who wants to adopt you. But if your quote can be clear, concise, and cogent, you have a better chance of being picked up by your local newspaper. After all, it takes diff’rent strokes to move the world, yes it does.

The one thing your intern shouldn’t do

Using the media can be an effective tool in influencing policy. Kerra Bolton, former Capitol bureau chief for the Asheville Citizen Times and principal of Lightning Bolt Meda, contributed a series of posts on communications for non-profits.

It was an annual ritual in our office. Right after I gave the summer intern a tour of the office, I e-mailed our gigantic media list to update.

However, my laziness cost me an important opportunity. Updating the media list is a great excuse to reach out to reporters, build relationships, and get the latest gossip.Reporters are paid to know what’s going on. They may have information about a piece of legislation or the position of an important state lawmaker on your bill before your government relations person. Reporters are a valuable resource.

Sending blind press releases without any kind of personal contact before or after sending it also damages the credibility of your organization. You want to show that you’ve done your homework and you know what reporters care about and the stories they like to cover. It also gives you an opportunity to answer any questions they may have.

Your media list should contain a few elements: the media market; the type of media (radio, television, daily newspaper, etc.); the first and last name of the reporter; e-mail; office and cell phone numbers; website; Twitter handle (if applicable); the name of the supervising editor; and a few notes you’ve scribbled while chatting with the reporter.

Get more than one name, especially in medium and large media markets. For example, if you’re a health care organization, get the names of the political and health care reporters. If the political reporter is swamped and can’t cover your event, you could always pitch the story to the health reporter as a local impact story.

The media list should be updated annually. Reporters change jobs, get downsized, or are promoted. So, you want your media list to be the most accurate snapshot of who is covering you at this moment in time.

Interns can help you with a myriad of tasks for your organizations. But updating media lists – that’s your job.

Grants 101 Part II: Tracking the Wild Grant

Securing government grants is at the top of many organizations' government relations goals. John McHugh from North Carolina's Office of Economic Recovery and Investment contributed posts to help non-profits understand the basics of government grants.

So you’ve already talked to your group about grants, gone to the Secretary of State’s office and created a corporation to apply, registered with CCR, gotten a DUNS number, and now you’re ready to apply for a grant from a federal, state, or local governmental source. Step 1 is deciding what it is you want to do.

This sounds a good deal simpler than it actually is. “Help the homeless” is a noble wish, but “open a 50-bed shelter with attached soup kitchen” is a goal that might get funded. The trick here is to walk the line between wish and goal.

The most frequent thing I tell to groups looking for ARRA-funded grants is that they will never be a ‘perfect’ grant. So the goal is not to wait for the exactly right grant to come along, but to adjust the program to fit the grant that exists. I call it ‘finding a way to fit into the funding stream.’ That homeless shelter might need to have counseling or an educational component, or partner with a group that does, in order to qualify. Keep an open mind when looking for opportunities.

A word of advice: it is always helpful to partner with other organizations when applying for grants. A partner can increase both the grants you can apply for, and the ability to successfully win those grants. Governmental entities, school, universities, religious institutions, and other local groups are good places to look for partners. So while looking, don’t just think ‘what can I apply for’ but also ‘who can I partner with.’

So where do I find those opportunities? There are numerous online resources available:

Grants.gov is the federal government’s one-stop shop for all grants. This is good, because that means grants.gov has lots of opportunities, but it’s bad because it means there are A LOT of information to sift through. Grants.gov has improved a lot over the last few years, with FAQs and assistance and a search function that actually works, but it can still be a bear to go through.

Recovery.gov is the website of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. While the ARRA’s grant making days are over, it may be helpful to take a look at the website, since the openness of Recovery.gov is going to be how public programs are going to be handled from now on.

NCGrants.gov is the State of North Carolina equivalent to Grants.gov. It’s still under construction, so some opportunities will still be available only on various NC state agency websites.

NCOpenBook.gov is the State of North Carolina’s government transparency website. NCOpenBook.gov has a grants page with links to NC grant making agencies, and a searchable data base of North Carolina Funding Opportunities.

Google.com is…well, you know. Google can help finding out about existing grants and more importantly current grant winners. Reaching out to a current or past grant recipient can be very helpful to understand what the grant makers are looking for in a successful applicant.

And that’s it for grant searching tools. Up next: Grant writing and you!

A fish called Wanda or Committing News Pt. 2

Using the media can be an effective tool in influencing policy. Kerra Bolton, former Capitol bureau chief for the Asheville Citizen Times and principal of Lightning Bolt Meda, contributed a series of posts on communications for non-profits.

Wanda writes press releases – a lot of them. They don’t ramble and are confined to a single page.  The text is written in 12 point Times New Roman. They are sent to the right reporter. She’s even called the reporters to make sure they received the press releases. But her stories don’t get picked up. Why?

It’s probably because Wanda’s press releases lack a hook. By hook, I mean there is no story, no impact, or compelling set of facts to distinguish your press release from the myriad of others reporters get in a day.

A statewide action day to raise awareness about the importance of funding for afterschool programs, for example, should encompass local examples for each media market. This should include: the number of programs headed for the chopping block, contact information for each media market, the number of children affected, the statistics for juvenile crime before and after the programs were implemented.

These examples tell reporters, policymakers, and the general audience about why your program is important. Most importantly, the hook draws the audience to your story and hopefully will make them want to take action.

When possible, add personal stories to your facts and figures. A budget proposal that cuts Medicaid by 5 percent this year and 15 percent next year may raise eyebrows. But if the cuts mean that a family can’t afford to get home health care for their disabled child, that’s a story.

Timing is also important when pitching stories and writing press releases. You want your story to hit during critical points of legislation, preferably when a bill has been introduced or in committee. This is an opportunity to talk about the broad implications of the legislation and how it will affect your constituency.

The last thing you want to do is wait until the bill is on the floor for your first story to hit. By then, it’s too late and your moment has passed.

Don’t be a Wanda. Follow these tips and your press releases won’t swim with the fishes.

Grants 101: Part I, Grants in the Wild

Securing government grants is at the top of many organizations' government relations goals. John McHugh from North Carolina's Office of Economic Recovery and Investment contributed posts to help non-profits understand the basics of government grants.

President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which passed in early 2009, increased many federal, state and local governmental grant making opportunities, and my office was on the forefront of drafting funding opportunities, writing applications, reviewing applications, and overseeing compliance.

So what are grants? Most simply, a grant is a gift, or as the man in the ugly jacket yells, ‘Free Money!” But, as you might imagine, it’s quite a bit more complicated than that.

Generally, grants are opportunities where organizations receive support from a governmental source for a specific purpose (there are grants available for individuals, usually for education or research, and non-governmental grant making entities, such as the Gates Foundation, but that’s beyond the scope of these posts).

The purpose usually depends on the grant-making agency: the Department of Energy is going to fund research grants, while the EPA might fund a wetlands clean-up. A good rule of thumb is that an agency is going to want to fund a grant that furthers that agency’s mission. Grants are a good way for an agency to explore a new way of doing business, or allow an entity who has close ties to a community to solve a given problem (for example, the Federal Department of Justice doesn’t want to open a woman’s shelter in Durham, but they’ll be happy to help fund one).

With that in mind, here are a few things that are generally universal to all governmental grants.

Grants don’t give money up-front, because almost all grants work on a reimbursement basis. You’ll have to submit various documents during the reimbursement process, a process that can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

Grants go to organizations, not to people. In almost all non-educational settings your group will have to be a corporation of some kind in order to apply. You’ll have to set up your corporation with the North Carolina Secretary of State, and you’ll have to have a valid tax ID and DUNS and/or CCR (that’s Central Contractor Registration, not Credence Clearwater Revival, although that would be much cooler) number to apply.

Grants come with rules. All grants will have some sort of laws, rules, regulations, and policies attached to them. The more hands the money passes through, the more of those there will be. So a state agency making a grant with money from the federal government will have more rules than a grant from a federal agency. The statutes/rules/regulations/directives will be referenced in the application and the grant agreement, if you’re lucky enough to receive a grant. Read them. Know them. Love them.

Grants come with strings. Remember, someone is giving you money to do something, that someone wants something in return. Usually, that’s the good work that someone granted you the money for, but there are always other requirements. Reporting is a big one, compliance with the rules issued for the grant is another one, and transparency is important. You’ll also be prohibited from doing some things, most notably political advocacy as a grant recipient with grant funding. Always remember, grants are public funds, your behavior will be public.

So that’s it for our grant overview, in the next episode, your grant, and where to find it!

Committing News – What Really Matters in a Press Release

Using the media can be an effective tool in influencing policy. Kerra Bolton, former Capitol bureau chief for the Asheville Citizen Times and principal of Lightning Bolt Meda, contributed a series of posts on communications for non-profits.

The single most important thing your press release must do is commit news.

Here’s what news is not:

• An event, especially an event that has already happened. Events happen every day. What is it about your event that distinguishes it from others? Can the public participate? Do they have an opportunity to affect public policy? Are you expecting a large crowd? Will it happen during a crucial point in the public policy process?

• Your board chairman expresses an opinion about an issue without context or relevancy to the issues at hand. Unless the board chairman is Lady Gaga or a well-known public figure, it isn’t news.

• “Grip and grin” pictures. This is usually a photo containing the plastic smiles of an organization receiving money and an individual or a group giving money to heighten their social responsibility street credibility. Unless it’s a lot of money, the donor is well-known or famous, or the collection of donations was inventive such as children setting up an online piggy bank to collect money for children’s cancer causes, it’s not news.

Here’s what news is:

• An upcoming event that will inform, benefit or educate your community and is open to everyone to attend. An advocacy day about a very specific issue is an example.

• A point of view that shifts or enhances public policy debate. Example: The General Assembly is considering shutting down juvenile detention centers across the state. Your organization has proven results of after-school programs that have decreased the rate of youth offenders.

• A report or statistical finding that sheds light on a pressing issue affecting your community and may include a call to arms to act in some way. Your organization releases a study during budget negotiations that finds that governments actually save money when they invest in programs that allow seniors to live independently.

Remembering these simple guidelines will help you “commit news” and get your press releases noticed.

Your press release sucks, but there's hope

Using the media can be an effective tool in influencing policy. Kerra Bolton, former Capitol bureau chief for the Asheville Citizen Times and principal of Lightning Bolt Meda, contributed a series of posts on communications for non-profits.

Your press release was a masterpiece of the English language. It went through five drafts. Your ninth-grade English teacher would have wept upon reading it. You pressed the send button to release your creation to the world. The music swelled…and…and…crickets.

Your press release doesn’t suck. But the way you approach writing press releases and pitching stories may need a little tweaking. Gone are the days of sending a press release to some eager reporter salivating at the prospect of writing your story. Deadlines have gotten tighter. Reporters have gotten fewer. And the expectations placed on journalists have risen in the era of tweets, blogs, and 10-minute news cycles.

With a few simple tips, you can make sure your story gets heard in the chatter. You will learn how to: create and maintain a database of reporters, cultivate relationships with journalists, commit news, pitch stories, and write press releases that get results.

In this series, I’ll share my experiences as a journalist and a communications professional. I can tell you what works having received tons of press releases in a day and how I crafted press releases that got attention.

I’m also interested in your story. What worked for you? You can e-mail me at kerrabolton@gmail.com and share your success stories.

Stewardship is the most important piece

Stewardship is the most important piece to moves management. Elected officials usually hear from organizations only when they need something, but successful advocacy groups maintain regular contact with electeds.

A colleague told me, "The most important work with legislatures occurs not when they are in session, but during the breaks in between."

Say thanks

After an elected official takes an action you asked for, please be sure to say thanks -- again and again.

Make sure your surrogates thank the officials personally. Phone calls, handwritten notes, and personal messages go a long way.

Make sure your advocates/activists thank the officials en masse. Just as you ask supporters to urge action, you should deploy action alerts for "thank you" calls to elected officials who have helped your organization. Hundreds of emails thanking an official can make him or her go, "Gee, I made the right choice here."

Make sure the people you serve thank the officials. Nothing is more effective than getting a note from a person who benefits from or participates in your programs.

Awards
You can take your stewardship to the next level by presenting annual awards to elected officials who have helped your organization. Everyone likes awards, and they will remember that your organization honored them. Presenting awards also gives a press opportunity to get exposure for both your organization and the official.

Restarting Moves Management
Finally, schedule a follow-up meeting to restart the moves management process. Have your surrogates sit down to make an in-person "thank you" and ask for advice for the next round of funding or the next legislative session.

With that follow-up meeting, moves management then becomes a cycle. You continue cultivating that relationship to prepare for a new ask later down the road.