Xenophon Strategies

Data Drives Communications for Nonprofit Coverage During Recession

Bob Brady

Data can be many things; qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable, or – as Trekkies know – an android who serves on the starship Enterprise. In the context of PR, data (in the numbers sense – not the Star Trek sense) can be critical information to communication pros who need to tell a story.

Take the recession for instance, which has been a story for many charities including two of our clients, The Salvation Army in the United States and The Salvation Army in Canada.

Not-for-profit organizations, such as our clients as well as others like Feeding America and Catholic Charities, are utilizing data effectively to drive the media’s interest in their programs, and in turn the general public and potential donors. For example:

• “Feeding the Need: 2011,” found that 94 percent of Salvation Army food programs saw increased demand in 2010, resulting in coverage from Associated Press, USA Today and Huffington Post.

• USA Today and The Wall Street Journal noted that Feeding America’s “Hunger in America 2010” report found that 37 million Americans received assistance from food banks in 2009.

• Catholic Charities, another social services provider, reported that it served 9.2 million clients in 2008.

These data points have been vital for charities to raise awareness in the American public about greater need and drive donations to help provide those vital services.

However, all stories revolve through what we call a news cycle, meaning interest in the story starts to wane with time. It will be interesting to see if media continue to report as extensively as they once did now that the recession has been a problem for nearly four years. Reporters may begin to develop a recession fatigue from reports that blend or even contradict data altogether – something Data would never do. 

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« return to blog | Jan 27, 2011 | charity | data strategy | Non-Profit | recession | star trek