This post is guest-written by Matt Hooper, Director of Corporate Engagement for the Greater Southeast Affiliate of the American Heart Association. He was awarded Communications Director of the Year and knows more than a thing or two about successfully advancing the mission of a nonprofit organization. 

This blog post was written as part of Swell's e-series on event fundraising. Want more like this? Sign up here: 

You work for a nonprofit? Let me guess, not enough people are connected to your mission and you can’t afford to fix the problem through paid media marketing? You are not alone. We’re all looking for a lower-third with our name on it, but few of us have the cash needed to buy our way on stage.

There is no magic potion for earning media or scoring in-kind publicity. It depends on the mission you’re promoting, the size and temperament of your media market, and so on. But, regardless of your circumstances, it is possible to improve your odds of scoring some free publicity. Here are three simple ways to do so:

Be passionate about your product.
In order to convince others to believe in your product, you first have to believe in your product. It’s both a tired cliché and the truth. Herd immunity is strong among directors, producers, editors and marketing professionals. Their inboxes and mail cubbies bulge with pitches about saving this thing, walking to raise awareness of that thing, bake sales and collection drives and lemonade stands and food trucks amassing.

What can you do? First, go see these people face-to-face. Passion is not transmittable via email. Wedge your way into their office, woo them with coffee and scones, whatever it takes to square them up in person and tell them what you’re about and why it’s important. Second, if you are truly passionate about your product and/or cause, make sure your pitch is well-honed and effective. If it is not (and it probably is not), then role play with your colleagues and friends until it is. Finally, if you cannot come by that passion naturally or artificially…then, are you in the right place?

Be a gleaner.
Here in Birmingham, Ala., where yours truly is based, there is a non-profit food charity called the Alabama Gleaning Network. In this age of industrial farming, where harvesting is done largely by machine, a significant amount of crop is left behind in the fields. AGN volunteers, with permission from local farmers, pick through the leftovers by-hand. In a year, they produce about 20 million pounds of fresh produce, which is subsequently delivered to hungry folks within 48 hours. Pretty impressive for leftovers, right?

As it relates to in-kind publicity, you need to develop a gleaning mentality. In case you have not noticed, local television and radio stations are awake 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Many PR and marketing folks focus only the most coveted time slots, morning and afternoon drive-times. That leaves news holes in mid-morning, mid-afternoon, on weekends, during holidays...and, believe it or not, producers often struggle to find stories to fill those holes. That’s where you come in, fellow gleaner. When you show up to that aforementioned face-to-face coffee-and-scone meeting, you’re going to ask about slow times in the newsroom, right? And you’re going to commit to helping fill those news holes, right? Right. It may cost you a weekend morning or two, but free publicity is not always personally convenient.

Encountering resistance? Evolve.
In September of this year, The New York Times Magazine featured an intriguing long-form article on antibiotic resistance. Not to alarm you, but doctors are frequently encountering bacteria that are no longer succumbing to antibiotic treatment. This is due primarily to overuse of these drugs, both in human and animal populations. In the not-to-distant future, we could find ourselves in the post-antibiotic world…which would look nearly identical to the pre-antibiotic world, whereupon an ill-timed knee scrape could be fatal. To counteract this, researchers are investing in ancient plant-based cures…literally traipsing through shin-deep swamplands in search of certain plant roots that may have bacteria-killing potential. 

There’s a lesson or two here for you, believe it or not. First, guard those knees. Second, consider evolving your pitch process. Remember those aforementioned bulging inboxes? Media gatekeepers get almost as many emails as Vietnamese catfish get antibiotics. And, as would be expected, they have developed Non-Profit Email Resistance (NPER). Did you send a producer an email this morning? Frightfully sorry, but she didn’t read it. She has NPER.

How do you fight NPER? Crawl around in the primordial communications swamp and tug on some ancient roots. Do you remember how we communicated with one another before email and text messages? We sent analog mail and talked to one another on the phone. How many analog press kits did that same producer open – physically open – this morning (before she trashed your email)? My guess is none. What if she arrived at work to find a pie box full of interesting materials and swag promoting your product or cause? She’d open that, right? Humans are genetically predisposed to open pie boxes.

In short, when it comes to communicating with the media, your peers are likely swimming with the current. Why don’t you swim against the current? It worked for bacteria and it can work for you.