SolveYourProblem
eBusiness Series:
Fundraising
Essentials For Your Non-Profit:
How To Raise All The Money You Want
( 34 pages )
Raising
Money & Fundraising
Press Releases
Press releases
are essentially announcements to the media about an important
even that is taking place. You should be able to write good
press releases in order to cheaply advertise your non-profit’s
fundraising efforts. In general, you will want to write a
press release to announce the start of your group, another
press release to mark the opening of facilities for your
group, and other press release to announce fundraising efforts
such as marathons or fairs.
There is a specific
way of writing press releases. Sometimes, the media will
use actual quotes from the pres release in their articles
or news items, so you need to make sure that your press release
is written in an engaging style. Consider the following press
release:
Media
Release
Contact:
J. Doe
Director
Felicitations Child
134 Acme Ave.
London, ST USA
Phone: 555/ 555-5555
FAX: 555/555_5554
Email: j.doe@felicitaions
August 12, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
New Non-Profit Group Defends Childhood Reading from Development
(London, ST, USA)
- Felicitations Child, a new non-profit organization established
in London, has announced a fundraising effort to bring a
Bookmobile into the inner areas of London. According to J.
Doe, director of Felicitations Child, “This is a very exciting
time for us. We have long noted that our city does not support
many libraries, and children’s literacy skills seem to be
falling as a result.” Recent reports on the state of education
in the inner city have suggested that literacy among children
is quite low and test scores in reading and writing are well
below average.
J. Doe blames
development, which three years ago claimed the old library
building, which was torn down to make way for new condo complexes.
Annie Law, a volunteer at Felicitations Child, notes that
the newly developed organisations “have received many calls
from worried educators and parents who feel that the children
on inner city London are not reading enough. A library is
badly needed, as many of the children in these areas come
from families who simply cannot afford to buy books.” According
to Law, the bookmobile would travel to all the neighbourhoods
between Upper Ninth and Upper West a few times a week in
order to bring reading material to these areas. Although
children’s books would be plentiful, reading material for
adults and non-fiction books would also be made available.
In the future, Felicitations Child hopes to raise enough
money to bring books to house-bound readers and to outlying
areas of the city. As Law notes, “In the future, we imagine
several book mobiles that will bring books to anyone who
needs or wants them in our area.”
Felicitations
Child was founded by Doe three months ago after the director
of the current non-profit group read about the falling rates
of book reading in London. As Doe notes, “I grew up on Upper
Ninth and we had an old library there. I can’t believe it’s
gone, and I can’t believe no one seems to have cared about
the tearing down of the library.” Incensed, Doe founded Felicitations
Child to encourage literacy among school-aged children. Already,
Felicitations Child has found some support in Acme Company,
publisher of Children’s books. Felicitations child will be
holding a book sale on Feb 18 at the Old Town Hall and will
also host a marathon on March 19 in the Old House Park.
This press release
does several things that you will want your own press release
to do:
- It provides
full contact information for the non-profit so that the
media can contact J. Doe with questions
- It provides a title that can
be used “as is” as a newspaper or article headline
- It gives a date for the press
release and notes that the release can be used at once.
This means that the media can use this report at once.
- It immediately tells the reader
what the press release is about.
- It provides quotes that media
outlets can use in their reporting
- It is short enough to be readable
but provides enough information for a short article or
news report
- It lists the major fundraising
efforts (including dates and locations) so that readers
can take part in these.
 
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