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Canadian Careers - Public Relations Articles
Public Relations for Non-Profit Organizations in Canada
Defining your Stakeholders and Crafting the Message
By Maryse Cardin
Define Your Stakeholders
Stakeholders or target audiences are the people that you are trying to reach with your campaign. You must identify the main groups that are important to your organization. Look both at internal and external audiences.
Target audiences could include:
- Clients - the people who use your services
- Community influencers
- Neighbours
- public officials
- government agencies
- volunteers
- other groups that might lend support
- past, present and potential donors
- Contributors of in-kind services
Craft the Messages
What is your message? What are you trying to say to your target groups? The message you create may be different for every target audience. What is important to one group may not be important to another group. The message is simply the information about your non-profit organization that is most likely to appeal to the perspective of the audience and that will cause them to take action as outlined in your objectives. This is called tailoring the message to the audience.
Examples of some key messages could include:
- The tangible benefits your non-profit brings to the community
- The meaningful opportunities for volunteer involvement that your group provides
- Importance of a certain topic on public health
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