(Bethpage, N.Y.) The Fair Media Council is introducing intensive communication skill training designed to help solve one of area nonprofits’ greatest challenges: Getting their messages out.
“Long Island nonprofits are in crisis. The loss of funding and government support to organizations that perform the very services local governments should provide is impacting all segments of our society,” said FMC Executive Director Jaci Clement. “It’s also diminishing Long Island’s quality of life. Anecdotally and through research, we know one of the major challenges nonprofits, in particular those that advocate for social change and basic health and human services, lack the very skills needed to tell their stories. This program has been designed to meet that challenge.”
The one-day intensive course, set for July 16 at Briarcliffe College, will feature a step-by-step process that will enable organizations to align their communication goals with organizational goals, identify key audiences and how to reach those audiences in today’s media landscape, as well as set goals and quantify results. One-on-one follow up throughout the next year will be provided to course participants by FMC.
Research conducted by Jeffrey Morosoff, a public relations professor at Hofstra University, at FMC events illustrates the scope of the problem: 71 percent of local nonprofits have no full-time public relations representative on staff and only one in four organizations provide any PR training, while 75 percent of PR hires have no prior experience.
“Combined, the research shows a haphazard communication effort, at best, is what’s happening inside many nonprofits right now, at a time when funders are being more critical than ever on how their dollars are being utilized,” said Clement.
Area nonprofits feel the pinch, and the stress, of advocating for their causes in times of reduced support.
“When government funding is reduced and other sources of financial support become more scarce many non-profit organizations reduce their operating budgets, and important initiatives like public relations and marketing fall victim to the cuts, which tends to negatively impact upon the good work that these organizations perform,” said Paule Pachter, Executive Director, Long Island Cares, Inc.
“Being in the business of showing how publicly-funded scientific research can help improve people’s lives, our coastal environment and the economy, is already a challenge. In these uncertain times, we continually have to break through the old paradigms of what makes a good media story and embrace the new technologies to creatively craft our message at little or no cost,” said Barbara Ann Branca, New York Sea Grant Communications Manager.
FMC works to create a media savvy society, keeping the media engaged in the community and giving the community the knowledge, tools and access to the media while creating educated news consumers. “Educating news consumers, and giving them access to the media, is the most effective way to hold the media accountable for its work,” said Clement.
FMC was established in 1979, and now works with organizations across Long Island, Manhattan and Northern New Jersey.
For more information please visit www.fairmediacouncil.org
