Gina Elise of Redlands, Calif., writes this week’s Help This Hound question:

“I am the Founder of Pin-ups for Vets, an award-winning non-profit organization that supports hospitalized veterans and deployed service members.

“We produce World War II-style pin-up calendars that raise money for hospitalized veterans. We use the money to buy rehabilitation equipment to help our veterans in their physical, occupational and cognitive therapy sessions. Although we have won a number of community service awards, we have never been funded. We’re using hundreds of volunteer hours to keep the organization operating. 

“Our biggest challenge has been to get the word out there to the rest of the U.S. about our small organization with the big heart so we can help more wounded warriors . 

“As the 1940′s-style calendar girl in the Pin-Ups for Vets calendar, I have made thousands of personal bedside visits to ill and injured vets in VA and military hospitals across the U.S. and overseas to present the donated calendar gifts from my supporters . The response to the hospital visits has been overwhelming!

“We would love to find a way to spread the word about our organization and have had some publicity on FOX news, in Stars & Stripes and in other media, but we need more. We can’t afford a publicist right now. Can your Publicity Hounds give us some ideas on how to spread the word about what we’re doing so we can sell more calendars and help more injured vets?” 

Every December, Trendwatching.com publishes an annual list of a dozen crucial trends for the following year.

If you’re looking for a hook to hang a story onto, so you can pitch it to the media and bloggers, there are lots of opportunities.

Here’s the list of 12 Crucial Trends for 2012 (there are actually 13):

You won’t be able to determine instantly what each one means, so go to the website and read more. Trendwatching also has provided a helpful list of four tips you should read that helps you understand how you can use this list and actually make money from it: 

1. Influence or shape your company’s vision.
     
2. Come up with a new business concept, an entirely new venture, a new brand.
       
3. Add a new product, service or experience for a certain customer segment.
       
4. Speak the language of those consumers already “living” a trend.

How about a fifth? Tie a story idea from your company or nonprofit into one of the trends.

Here are some some examples I thought of that tie into items on the list above:

• 1. Red Carpet. Are you one of the department stores, airlines, hotels, theme parks, museums or cities that plan to roll out the red carpet for Chinese visitors and customers with tailored services and perks? If so, when? And how does this tie in with your overall marketing plan? A great story for local business journals. 
    
• 3. Dealer-Chic. What are you doing to reward thrifty consumers who love the thrill of chasing down bargains and deals? Have you started a Deal of the Day or a Deal of the Weak? What about membership clubs or rewards programs?
    
• 4. Eco-cycology. The media particularly love stories about making the environment cleaner. Pitch anything dealing with innovative ways you’re recycling, how you’re encouraging employees to offer their best ideas and even products you’re making, or packaging you’re using, from recycled materials. How does this affect the bottom line? Any time you can point to a dollars-and-cents savings, you’ve got a great tidbit to include in your pitch.     
    
• 8. Flawsome. What are you doing to be honest about your company’s flaws? How are you showing empathy, generosity, humility, flexibility, maturity, humor and character? Are you blogging and adopting a blog policy to address nasty comments head on? How are you showing your flaws on the social media sites? If you don’t have a social media policy yet, here are more than 80 free sample social media policies you can review. 
    
• 9. Screen Culture. What are you doing with your website or sales process to make it easier for consumers to connect with you by simply touching the screens on their tablet or smart phone or at the kiosk at the local malls? Nonprofits, are you making it easier for people to donate? 

Those are just a few ideas. I know you can think of more. Don’t miss Trendwatching’s 15 tips on how to best track and apply trends.

How will you use this list as part of your PR campaign next year? How will you be tying your pitch into these trends? 

Barbara Roy

This week’s Help this Hound question is from Barbara Roy, a communications specialist  in Oakland City, IN:

“I  need ideas on how to promote an upcoming charity car raffle in 2012 through the Mad Mac Foundation, a group that sponsors educational programs for at-risk youth.

“Proceeds from the raffle will be used to get teenagers, who illegally race their cars on street, into the classroom where they can learn how to build tuner cars from the ground up. The training will help them transfer their skills, which they’ve been using illegally, into career paths that might include auto engineering and design, auto repair, and creating video games that involve cars.  The curriculum includes science, technology, engineering and math.

“Two cars will be given away during the July raffle.

“The winter months will be spent on materials prep and strategy. But beginning in January, we’ll focus more on going after sponsors and businesses to carry the raffle tickets.  I could really use recommendations on how to gain mass awareness for this nationwide event. 

“We will have branding, messaging and content on the website by January, as well as a Facebook event page.  Can your Hounds offer their best ideas?”

If you have ideas, please comment.

Does your nonprofit tell visitors at your website all the ways they can donate?

During the webinar I hosted yesterday on nonprofit marketing, PR and publicity with nonprofit marketing expert Sandy Rees, one of the participants asked if she should include a “Donate” button on every page of her agency’s website.

Uh, of course, we answered. (No-brainer.)

I wish I had seen the “Ways to Give” page at the Wikimedia Foundation’s website, which I just stumbled across this afternoon. That’s the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia, the world’s mammoth online encyclopedia.

It lists these nine ways to give:

1. Credit card or Paypal
     
2. Via regular mail
     
3. Monthly recurring giving
     
4. Stock donation
     
5. Direct deposit
     
6. Combined Federal Campaign
     
7. Corporate Matching Gift
     
8. Moneybookers
     
9. Payroll deductions

Especially helpful are the detailed instructions. Brilliant! Nonprofits could link to a list like this from the end of articles they write, from blog posts or from press releases.  

What other ways can your donors give? And how do you let them know? 

Nonprofit marketing expert Sandy Rees

Nonprofits looking for the perfect angle for a publicity or fund-raising campaign might be tempted to use the “woe is us in this bad economy” hook.

Don’t, says Sandy Rees, nonprofit marketing expert.

Not only is it depressing, it doesn’t set your nonprofit apart from all the others that are grousing. If you want ideas for angles galore, and other marketing tips for fundraising and recruiting volunteers, check out these five website gems Sandy and I recommend:

1. Nonprofit Tweets on Twitter

Keep up with valuable nuggets about the world of nonprofit marketing, including those that contain the hashtags #nonprofit, #charity, #causes, #volunteer and #philanthropy.

2. Society of Professional Journalists’ Freelancer Directory

We love this directory because you can search the database of 1,221 freelance journalists inside and outside the U.S. by topic, by state, or both.

Freelancers are valuable during a publicity campaign because you don’t have to pitch your story to a media outlet—the freelancer will! Also, freelancers who use you as a source for one story might return to you again if they’re writing a story on a similar topic and need more material.

3. MicroGiving

Create your own fundraiser with a personal fundraising page. Browse fundraisers, read the fundraising ideas, tips and advice to learn how to raise money online. Microgiving is for anyone, but nonprofits will find this site a goldmine.

4. The Publicity Hound’s Press Release Tutorial

Can’t afford to pay someone to write your press releases? Let me train your PR people and volunteers on how to write and distribute releases, with this free email tutorial. It’s an 11-week program that includes one email lesson a day. Completing it is like earning a master’s degree in writing press releases.

More than 6,000 people have taken this course.

5. Gail Perry’s Free Fundraising Tools

Fundraising expert Gail Perry recommends  ”115 Tips to Raise More Money by Email,” an eight-page PDF covering everything from “how to ask,” to what the envelope should like like. Tools also include “Enlist Your Dream Team Board Workbook, a 24-page workbook to help you recruit the right board members, and “41 Major Gift Cultivation Questions to Ask a Donor” to help you listen, listen, listen to that major prospect.

Rees will share more of her very best ideas for nonpr0fit marketing when she joins me Thursday for the webinar “Failproof Publicity Tips for Cash-strapped Nonprofits to Raise Money, Recruit Volunteers & Promote a Worthy Cause.”  She will save you time and money communicating your story to the masses—and help you achieve the results you need.

Click here to register.

What separates people who are masters at generating publicity from those who are constantly grousing that “the media doesn’t care about my story?”

Often, it’s knowing how to be a valuable media source. Here are 10 ways to make yourself indispensable to reporters, editors, freelancers, broadcasters, bloggers, ezine editors and all new media.

1. Understand your Number One task: to be helpful.

A reporter’s job isn’t to give you publicity. It’s to write an interesting story so that people will continue to subscribe, read, watch or listen. Anything you can do to make that happen will put you in their good graces.

2. Be available around the clock.

If a reporter calls you when it’s inconvenient for you to talk, do everything possible to rearrange your schedule. If you ask the reporter to reschedule the interview a day or two later, you could miss being featured in the story. Give reporters your home, office and mobile phone numbers.

3. Make it easy for reporters to access background information.

Things such as bios, fact sheets about your company, downloadable photos, your logo, and other materials should be accessible in your online pressroom. It’s best to not make your pressroom password-protected.

4. Do what you say you’re going to do.

If you interview with a reporter and promise to send them a White Paper you’ve written, send it when it was promised. If you promise to follow up with the answer to a question that you were unsure of during the interview, follow through.

5. Give reporters and bloggers additional leads on stories they might be interested in, even if those stories aren’t about you. 

Those leads can include people who are doing innovative things in their industries or those who would make interesting profile stories. Leads can also include emerging industry trends, and ways that companies or nonprofits are using technology to save time and money. If you can provide background for any of those stories, let the reporter know.

6. Read stories they produce, and provide feedback.

Do this very carefully.

Let’s say you work for the county health department and you want to establish a relationship with the local health reporter. Read her stories regularly and occasionally offer feedback. Were they accurate? Did she miss a key angle of the story? Was the story well-reported?  Yes, you might end up offering unsolicited comments to a reporter who has a thin skin. But any competent reporter should welcome feedback.

For bloggers, this includes commenting at their blog. Check back at the blog periodically after you comment. Good bloggers respond to comments and often keep the conversation going.

7.  Pitch follow-up stories.

If a journalist interviewed you six months ago, and something significant has happened since then that ties into the story, let them know. Journalists love “follow up stories,” and so do readers.

8.  Stay in touch by offering reporters specific information they need.

While building relationships with reporters, ask: “How can I help you?”  Listen to what they tell you, and give them what they need. “How can I help you?” is just one of 10 magic phrases that journalists and bloggers love.

9. Never go over a reporter’s head and complain to their boss unless you have talked to the reporter first.

Relationships with journalists won’t always be rosy. When a reporter treats you poorly, or writes a story you think is biased, or includes an inaccuracy in an article, resist the temptation to immediately contact their boss.

Call the reporter first and discuss it. If you don’t like what you hear, then and only then, contact a supervisor.

10. Say thank you.

So few people write thank you notes anymore. If you do, you’ll really stand out from the crowd. Never thank a blogger or journalist for covering your story. Instead, thank them for their in-depth interview, their accurate story, their thorough questions, or their writing style. And never thank them “for giving me publicity.”

Another effective way to thank journalists and bloggers is to share links to their articles and blog posts on the social media sites.

What have I missed? What do you do to be an indispensible media source?

Leticia Meireles of San Diego, CA, writes:

I just had my birthday and in lieu of gifts, I’ve been asking friends to support a cure for breast cancer.

Many generous business owners helped me to gather almost 100 items to be sold on my fundraising online auction—items on Ebay too. Many of them are from retailers and restaurants in San Diego. Others are for national chains such as Borders and BestBuy. All proceeds will benefit the Susan Komen 3-Day for the Cure.

I need to raise $10,000 but no one seems to be bidding. What should I do differently?  You can see the items up for bid here.

Recruitment & Retention Tips Booklets

Information products can become out of date so quickly, particularly those dealing with social media sites or any type of technology.

For that reason, I’m cleaning out my massive inventory and practically giving away more than 20 titles.

CD and transcripts, regularly $39.95, are only $5 each, plus shipping.  Tips booklets on employee recruitment and retention, regularly $5 each, are $1.35, and include shipping.

Even though many of the products are out of date, all of them include valuable tips that are still as good today as they were when I created the them. Topics include Facebook, how to get PR clients, press releases, nonprofit publicity, how to get your own TV show, special event planning and promotion, employee recruitment and retention, and more.  Here’s the complete list of titles.

Some of the CD titles are gone already, and we aren’t reordering, but you can still order the transcripts. Grab them while you have the chance. 

Questions? Contact my assistant, Christine Buffaloe, at 619-955-5772 or Chris (at) SerenityVA.com.

Don’t view Patch.com only as a news-gathering website for hyer-local news.

Last month, when I shared 6 tips for pitching Patch, I didn’t know that nonprofits, community groups and anyone dedicated to a worthy cause can apply for free advertising space and volunteers that come directly from Patch’s staff.

It’s called the Give 5 program and here’s how it works.

Patch gives 5 percent of its advertising space, free of charge, to local charities from the communities it serves.  All Patch employees spend five working days each year volunteering in their communities.

For example:

• Patch volunteers tutored children in need in downtown Los Angeles.
    
• In Norton, MA, volunteers helped herd runners and feed them snacks during the New Balance Reach the Beach Relay.
    
• In Fairlawn-Bath, Ohio, editor Kymberli Hagelberg wrote about her volunteer stint at Stewart’s Caring Place in Fairlawn, a non-profit organization that provides free wellness services people who have been touched by cancer. Other editors do, too, and that means extra publicity for the organization that’s lucky enough to get a Patch volunteer.

Two paws up—way up—for Patch’s Give 5 program which gets journalists into the community and gives back.

Email them to see if you qualify.

Update on Aug. 16, 2011: Patch now has websites in Iowa, North Carolina and New Hampshire. It’s also starting a new series called “Dispatches: The Changing American Dream.” Read about it here.

Don Luepnitz of Norwalk, CA, writes:

“I am with the Norwalk, CA,  Moose Lodge, and we can sure use some help getting the word out and trying to get new people to come down and or join.

“We offer dinners, breakfast, bingo, darts, full bar, kids room, and have fundraisers for ourselves and other charites. We also sponsor kids’ sports teams, and we have a Facebook Fan Page.”

“How can we use traditional and social media to attract more members and visitors?”