Just how useless is publicity?

Some fundraisers, before they start raising funds, think they need to stir up publicity. Not necessarily, says David Lansdowne, writing at GuideStar: Beware Publicity When Raising Big Gifts. Putting a lot of energy into getting publicity may get you little or nothing in revenue.

As Landsdown points out, "To raise substantial money you must ask people in person, regardless of any well-placed stories." In fact, the only way to raise money at all is to ask people, even if you aren't asking in person.

And that's the problem with publicity. It doesn't ask, with one notable exception: disasters. The story of Hurricane Katrina, for example, was so extreme and compelling that it drove unprecedented giving. Of course, I'm not sure you'd exactly call a monster hurricane that obliterates a major American city "publicity."

In normal situations, publicity will do little or nothing for your fundraising. If you manage to get covered, and it's compelling, favorable, and accurate (a tall order as you know if you've dealt with the press), it will still stop short of asking.

So put your energy in talking to your donors. Be relevant and exciting to them. Not the media. They don't care about your project. Landsdown said:

Those who rely on press releases and feature stories to raise funds tend either to be novices or people who aren't committed in the first place. They hope the media can do their work for them, and when this doesn't happen, they blame the failure not on themselves but on the lack of exposure.

Keep that in mind.

Technorati Tags: publicity, philanthropy

Comments

[Nancy Schwartz]

Jeff, I run into this "blinders" focus on publicity time and time again. It's amazing how many folks -- nonprofit and for-profit -- think that's all marketing and communications is.

My strategy is to educate on what marketing is and briefly describe how various strategies are used to reach various goals -- using concrete examples. It usually takes a few conversations but frequently I do get an "aha."

[Kivi Leroux Miller]

It's all about matching tactics with goals and audiences. Clearly, expecting PR alone to generate donations is not a good match. I've responded with more on my blog.

[J-Mail]

Agree that publicity is over-rated. Two years ago, we had a lot of publicity localized to one area of the country that corresponded exactly with a direct mail campaign we did nationwide. I then compared how that appeal did in the localized area vs. nationwide relative to other appeals, and was surprised to find that the % of donations and dollars from the local area for that campaign ranked just slightly below average relative to other campaigns that had no publicity.