b'DAYTODAYPR TOOLKITAmi Neiberger, APR Developing Content Where do you find your story to pitch?K eeping your work in the public eyecover it, and then distribute photos/videos after.can be critical to letting clients knowAnother place to look is the people around about your services, raising funds, andyou. Do you have amazing volunteers? Do you recruiting volunteers. But sometimes your publichave a former client who wants to talk about how relations machine may run out of gas. Whereyour program impacted his or her life? Can you can you find ideas?offer tips to help the public better support your First, I recommend you think about twoclients in recovery? Or new statistics? strategies: pitching and content distribution.Also look for annual days that you can tie in to. A media pitch is a one- or two-paragraph email you might send to a reporter or a news desk to encourage them to write a story about your organization.Content distribution is information packaged like a story that a media outlet can pick up and use with minimal modi-ficationperhaps its a press release or story feature, or event photos with captions and a short note.Historically, content distribution works best with smaller newspapers. However, even big TV outlets in top-10 media markets nowA few examples: World Hunger Day (May 28), accept viewer-submitted photos and videos. ThisNational Hunger Awareness Month (June), gives you an opportunity to come up with mediaNational Women Touched by Addiction Day (July pitches and content that are interesting, relevant,23), Healthcare for the Homeless Day (Aug. 8), and timely. So where do you get these ideas from? National Recovery Month (Sept.), Hunger Action A great place to start is your calendar. AMonth (Sept.), National Sober Day (Sept. 14), volunteer appreciation event? Holiday needs? ANational Substance Abuse Prevention Month food drive? A campaign for a new building? All(Oct.), World Homeless Day (Oct. 10), Hunger of these could be media pitches or generate con- & Homeless Awareness Week (week before tent that you distribute. You might even use bothThanksgiving), and Homeless Persons Memorial strategies for the same eventinvite media toDay (December 21). \x03Ami owns Maple Avenue PR, an independent public relations practice that assists nonprofits. You can reach her at ami@mapleavenuepr.com. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG 53'