A few months ago 60 Minutes ran a piece on a group in New York called Gospel for Teens, a seat-of-the-pants non-profit that brings in teenagers and instills in them an appreciation for the tradition of Gospel Music. 60 Minutes must have known it was special. They ran it as a double-length vignette, something they seldom do.
It was an emotional story. The kids have compelling
stories. I’m sure the producers had to stop the cameras several times so Leslie Stahl could quit crying, get her make-up fixed, and get composed.
The results were predicable. Within a week The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported on how the phones are ringing off the book at the offices of Gospel for Teens. Money is pouring in from donors across the country.
Last week the Los Angeles Times ran an interview on their op-ed pages of an executive from KIVA, the microfinancing non-profit that takes in $25 donations from folks and then allows them to lend the money to third-world businesspeople and entrepreneurs. It’s all done over the Internet. The money is paid back and then you lend it out again. I’ve lent the same $25 out many times. I purchased purchased a goat in Africa, financed a shoe cobbler’s operation in the Balkans, and helped build a dance studio in Mongolia.
The article reminded me that there was $50 sitting in my KIVA account, so my wife and I scrolled through the pages and found a deserving soul to lend it out to. As I was completing the process, I noticed that KIVA now has a Facebook logo that you can click and post to your wall that you just loaned the money out. Within a few hours two of my Facebook friends had also joined KIVA and lent out money for the first time.
I didn’t find any articles in the web talking about the spike in KIVA donations after the interview in the L. A. Times, but I’m willing to guess that it was substantial.
The key to both was that these two groups had a narrative—a story to tell—and they told it through public relations. That is why it is so important, as a business owner, a non-profit, an artist—whatever you are, to cultivate your narrative and understand how powerful the press is. You may not be able to get your company or non-profit highlighted on 60 Minutes, or get interviewed by the L. A. Times, but often times it’s the little stuff, the things that take some time, but pay off big.
Here’s what I would like to know about both stories. How long did it take the Mama Foundation, the organizers of Gospel for Teens, to cultivate that 60 Minutes story? How long was KIVA schmoozing the L.A. Times. Neither one of those stories happened overnight. They were part of a coordinated, strategic public relations story.
My guess is it took some time, at least months. But somebody stuck to it and didn’t give up. Good PR takes a good story, but it also takes persistence.
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