Today’s Tips for NGOs 021015

Some progressive nonprofits devote attention to promoting their missions with public service announcements – PSAs.

According to reddeluxe.com, PSAs, which are variations of commercials or advertisements that sympathetic broadcasters and publishers promote in their media for free, require a great deal of developmental consideration. “There’s the research. The engagement strategy. The brand platform.  Development goals. But there’s another important consideration—a crucially important one—usually only considered as an afterthought: the perspective of the PSA directors at the print, broadcast, online and outdoor media who will make or break the success of the non-profit’s campaign,” the web advisor said. “So here’s the one simple change you can make to boost pickup significantly: make these PSA directors a top-level audience for your campaign.”

The more attention that is paid to PSA directors, who decide placement of the PSAs, the more successful the PSA’s distribution becomes.

PSA directors have endless streams of charity and cause PSAs to choose from, and they pick the campaigns that are a fit for their consumers. Delivering PSAs that meet their needs can make an enormous difference in your reach, daypart, engagement and ultimate ROI on the campaign.

Treat your PSAs as businesses treat their high-priced ads and commercials. Experts note that PSAs that look unintentionally low budget or are as dense as sales sheets are less appealing to the A-list media we’re after, and we’ve had our best success with PSAs that have an appealing level of polish, simplicity, and focus. National PSAs need to look and feel like national advertising.

As with earned media, public-service messaging does better when pitched. Pushing campaigns out on standard distribution channels can deliver some results, but our best hits have come with tactics typically seen in media relations: sending out-of-the-ordinary kits to directors personally; calling to follow up; pitching an important upcoming historical or health observance.

As you can see, the more you treat your NGO or nonprofit like a serious business, the more successful you will be in promoting your cause.

NGOs and nonprofits that deal with health, sight and blindness will be interested in this app that allows unsighted people to “see” with their iPhones.

The idea behind this app came from http://www.bemyeyes.org/. The developers believe that sometimes people who are visually impaired may need help with simple tasks but can’t easily get assistance. This app solves this by creating a platform that connects the two groups via video chat.

Mashable.com elaborated that app’s users are divided into two groups: sighted “helpers” and the visually impaired. When a blind user needs help, the app launches their iPhone’s rear-facing camera and connects them with a helper who can provide assistance.

The majority of users are helpers: it has 14,000 sighted users and 1,200 blind users. Being a helper is kind of like being on call; the app notifies random helpers that another user requires assistance, though helpers are not obligated to take the call. If a helper declines, the app will notify more people until someone answers.

The Denmark-based developers has already been testing the app in their home country for some time. Hans Wiberg, founder of Be My Eyes, said most of the tasks users have helped with have been inside the house, like identifying a piece of mail or finding the right item on a shelf.

“The really important thing about this app is the blind person gets the opportunity to get help without 'asking', so to speak,” Wiberg, who is also visually impaired, said, according to Mashable.

The app is free — Be My Eyes is a nonprofit and funded the app's development with a $300,000 donation — but Wiberg says the company will have to rely on more donations in the future in order to keep it that way. An Android version is also under development.

This helpful app will certainly enhance your NGO’s service and prominence.

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

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