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Publicity

By raising awareness of your RIF program, you can inspire others to get involved. Individuals, businesses, and other community organizations will also have the opportunity to support your program if they know about it.

Key Elements to Publicizing Your Program:
As you plan and carry out publicity campaigns, keep in mind four basic principles: 

  • Identify Audiences. Make sure your message is crafted to address a specific audience. Your message shouldn't be completely different with every press release, but it should change depending upon who you are trying to reach. You may wish to reach parents of the children you serve, members of service clubs, teachers, librarians, principals, Head Start directors, community-center directors, funders, etc.

  • Develop Messages. Keep it short, limit yourself to three major ideas at one time, develop messages that have emotional appeal, avoid getting sidetracked, use simple but powerful words, and avoid jargon or specialized language. 

  • Recruit Effective Public Speakers. Your spokesperson should have first-hand knowledge of your program, be prepared with details, and understand the ideas you wish to convey. 

  • Contact Local Media. One of the most important tenets of publicity is to develop relationships with members of the media. Don’t wait for an event to introduce yourself. You’ll have greater success and they’ll get the stories they need if you get to know them before you ask them to publicize an event.

Helpful Resources:

Read these online tips, articles, and sample documents to get help as you develop your publicity plan:

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View example press releases from RIF's National office.

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