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With fewer resources, limited communications capacity and a competitive news market, public interest groups and nonprofit organizations often struggle to earn meaningful attention for their issues. Increasingly, however, foundations are recognizing that they can play a unique and critical role in building issue awareness through strategic investments in media partnerships that integrate organizing and mobilizing opportunities for grantees.
At a recent luncheon hosted by the Benton Foundation in Washington, D.C., two senior communications officers from the
Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, Joe Marx and Vicki Weisfeld, shared experiences and lessons learned from two unique media outreach campaigns that addressed obesity and end-of-life care—“The Shape We’re In” and “Finding Our Way.”
The campaign for media outreach began with the premise that if the foundation could use its resources and knowledge to assist in generating substantial print media coverage around a program issue area, the visibility could serve as an organizing catalyst for grantee partners and their potential allies. The key challenge however was finding a method that would guarantee substantial and sustained coverage over a year’s time.
Connecting Newsroom Needs with Issues
With reduced newsroom budgets and media consolidation, the foundation enlisted Jane McDonnell, who at the time served as the managing editor at Knight Ridder/Tribune Information services (KRT). This for-profit news wire service reaches 45 million readers each day, bridging two large newspaper chains, Knight Ridder and the Tribune Co. KRT provides subscribers with high-quality feature articles and packages that can be accessed online
through www.krtdirect.com.
McDonnell, an award-winning journalist with 20 years of reporting, editing and writing experience, saw an opportunity to bridge the needs of the foundation—responsible coverage of critical issues, with the needs of the wire services—timely and evergreen content that newspapers can easily access. After working with the foundation on “The Shape We’re In” and witnessing its success, McDonnell decided to leave KRT and form Public Access Journalism (PAJ), a nonprofit organization that specifically brokers contracts between its foundation grantors and KRT to guarantee the distribution of ready to publish content on specific topics of interest to the general public. For more information on PAJ, visit
www.pajournalism.com.
In a negotiated contract with KRT, Public Access Journalism committed to providing high quality feature articles on issue topics pre-negotiated with the foundation and editor of the news service. McDonnell’s team hired credible, professional journalists to produce freelance stories and materials relevant for publication. While editorial control remains with the journalists, PAJ worked with the foundation’s communications team and grantees to encourage community outreach to create a local demand for the available content. Each feature package included photos, graphics and other resources for local communities to access.
For more details, visit www.shapenews.com
Catalyst for Community Involvement
A fundamental element of the media outreach campaign was engaging grantees and encouraging community action around the availability of the news features. In reviewing the project’s media hits, the list of community actions is noteworthy. Many communities coordinated letter-writing campaigns to editorial directors, organized community discussions, and used the awareness to build community coalitions.
This community outreach and traction were critical factors in achieving the campaign objectives. In follow-up evaluation interviews with newspaper editors, McDonnell noted that the community demand was a critical element of success in this program. In fact, some editors were so inundated with calls and requests that they asked McDonnell to call off the community groups. Recognizing the importance of empowering and supporting local groups, the foundation and PAJ dedicated staff and consultants to assist grantee organizations and community groups in taking advantage of the media opportunities. In addition to a Community Action Guide and technical assistance packets with brochures explaining how the service works, staff provided media support to local groups, and the foundation created a
website
for its grantees and partners.
Impact on Grantee Capacity
As more local media picked up the feature packages, the foundation witnessed increased networking and coordination among grantees and community organizations with similar objectives. Both Marx and Weisfeld noted that the foundation’s investment took a global issue and created an opportunity for grantees to localize their work within communities.
McDonnell, Marx and Weisfeld emphasized that grantee readiness to participate in the program and their level of capacity were important factors in designing and defining the project. Before launching the awareness campaigns, the foundation conducted an audit of the grantees in each area to assess their interest and ability to participate. The communication between the grantees and the foundation influenced the design of the scope and length of campaigns.
In one program area—health and obesity—the media awareness was a catalyst for coalition building, while in the other—end-of-life care—it was an opportunity for building on pre-existing programs and efforts.
Ongoing Learning Opportunity
The challenges and unexpected opportunities created by their communication grant investments
underscore the opportunity foundations have to leverage both their resources and knowledge in advancing and strengthening programs. While the discussion at the Benton Foundation focused on the pivotal role that foundations can play in opening doors for community groups to engage their media providers in addressing local concerns and issues, many questions were raised. Specifically, how can foundations with small staff and fewer resources partner or collaborate to build similar relationships to benefit their grantees and issues?
To help continue the discussion and share the lessons with colleagues around the country, the Network will host an Ongoing Learning Workshop in February 2004 with Vicki Weisfeld, Joe Marx, and Jane McDonnell.
Details on this session will soon be available through www.comnetwork.org.
For more information about RWJF's media outreach
partnership with PAJ, contact:
Vicki Weisfeld, RWJF Senior Communications Officer
Phone: 1-888-631-9989
Email: vweisfe@rwjf.org
Joe Marx, RWJF Senior Communications Officer
Phone: 1-888-631-9989
Email: jmarx@rwjf.org
Jane McDonnell, President, Public Access Journalism
Phone: 410-923-0218
Email: jmcdonnell@pajournalism.com
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