PR has lost its luster in the current political environment, with some nonprofits even swearing it off altogether. As a strategy often perceived to be focused on garnering increased attention, you may be thinking that the best option is to lie low for now. But maintaining PR as a standard part of your strategy for nonprofit communications does not need to mean increasing the level of risk to your organization. When done right, public relations can be used to more firmly establish your organization as a go-to source, developing brand name recognition and mission clarity that elicit trust.
In fact, there is one very important reason to double down on PR today: its value for establishing and maintaining narrative presence among audiences on particular issues. Of course, your organization does not want to use PR in ways that draw negative attention or undue scrutiny, but withdrawing completely from the conversations that are ongoing about your field means handing over the power to define the problem and solution to others—some of whom are likely to frame these essential issues in ways that are opposed to your organization’s work.
What is more, PR continues to be a central component influencing the mechanisms behind AI search engines, even as search processes are being dramatically transformed by this new technology. According to Forbes, “PR can play a pivotal role in determining which sources AI uses to generate content in search for millions of people.” This is not the moment to back away from a public presence for your organization.
Ceding the narrative space is not a winning approach. Instead, we recommend that you adopt a strategy of public relations for your nonprofit, speaking on key issues that help inform how audiences understand your issue area.
This can be done by simultaneously avoiding the most inflammatory topics if your organization is currently at risk. For example, if your organization works on child welfare, you could pursue earned media that highlight topics such as:
- Warning signs for neighbors and family members to keep in mind, and how to safely troubleshoot in situations where children are at risk.
- The challenges extended family members face when navigating the child welfare system.
- Why the system functions in the ways it does, and how community members can contribute to increasingly better support for families and kids.
- Highlighting stories of real people (anonymized where necessary) moving through the system, to illustrate how something better is possible, and the ways your organization contributes to that better future.
The value in these topics is that they are oriented toward the needs of your audiences and demonstrate your expertise, experience, and reliability as an organization. At the same time, they help to fill out the context in which your audiences understand child welfare and families in crisis. An approach of this kind can:
- Help ensure your organization is likely to be found in search results that contribute to AI Overviews.
- Establish your organization as a trusted source and shape the way that people understand the issues you are working on.
If you are curious to see how PR could be integrated into your nonprofit’s strategic communications, get in touch for a confidential, exploratory conversation.