CNN hasn’t killed the hometown paper yet.  If anything, the internet has revitalized local journalism and that’s good for fundraisers.  It’s pretty hard to get your fundraising page written up in Newsweek or USA Today, but it’s surprisingly easy to get some PR – and awareness and donations – for your cause in your local paper.  Local papers always need news, and people raising money for a good cause is good news.

We added a little news feed to the blog last week – on the right in the sidebar – and I just love seeing all the local stories with Firstgiving fundraising pages mentioned.  Some of the names sound funny to me but they don’t sound funny if they’re your hometown paper: Quad Cities Online, Southgate News Herald, Potomac Almanac, The Patriot Ledger, and so on. It just shows how many vibrant local outlets there are.

We’ve written a short tip sheet on getting local coverage with your fundraising page.  You can get it from your Firstgiving account manager, and if there’s enough interest we might do a webinar on the topic of using PR to promote your cause.

Let us know if you’re interested by leaving a comment on this post.  Here’s a sample:

Once you identify an individual to speak with, look up the general editorial contact information online — and either email them with details about your fundraiser or call with some basic details about the fundraiser.

Try to do calls earlier in the day—most papers are on a 3 pm deadline.

You may get a response – or get directed to others at the publication – but it is the best way to tell your story. If they are interested, they may write something by adapting what you wrote in your fundraising page — or they may want to do an interview…