COMMUNICATION STRATEGY FOR NGOs

Ms. Sheila Pesayco

September 22, 2007
Astoria Plaza
Oritgas Center, Pasig City

(Host Intro: Ms. Sheila Pesayco left an award-winning career in media to dedicate herself to effective and strategic communications; she is here today to talk on the topic of Communication Strategy for NGOs.)

Hello, good morning.

Audience: Good morning!

I’ve been tasked to talk about communicating strategies for NGOs, and usually we present this talk together with Ventures for Fundraising. Whenever they conduct workshops on fundraising for NGOs, they include something to hopefully teach NGOs how to communicate with media. I had this company, well, the logo doesn’t appear in the white background, but it’s called, you can look at my shirt, it’s called Writers’ Edge, Inc., which I set up together with my husband, wearing the red shirt beside Carla, in 2002.

We were formerly journalists with Business World; I was editor for almost ten years, he was with the Lopez Group, that’s why friends sila ni Carla. Carla also came from Business World, so we consider her one of our closest friends, in fact, inaanak niya yung anak ni Carla.

When the email came for me to give this talk for I Can Serve, I was very delighted, and I always welcome these opportunities to present to groups like yours because it gives me a sense of purpose in life. I’ve been writing about banking and finance mostly for Business World; and after we set up this company, we discovered that we can make use of our skills also in writing and communicating to media by leading or guiding other groups to tell a story.

Basically, the mission and vision of our company is to produce excellent story telling to make the world a better place. That simple; because at the end of the day, it’s all about just story telling, and we give more value on the story that you tell because we distinguished ourselves from pure propaganda materials, not the pure PR; so we give more value on the content, so we cannot tell a story if the story in the first place does not exist or is not a good story.

So, causes like those you support, like cancer awareness, is something that’s really, that will really make a good story, in so far as media is concerned, and in so far as the public is concerned, and it is a necessity, it is a must for people to be aware of these causes.

My husband and I don’t have kids yet, so we find it an irony that when we set up the company, we were, the ones who first approached us are NGOs dealing with children’s causes like Operation Smile, and Save the Children, and Bantay Bata. We opened ourselves and lend our skills to these organizations; and tama yung kasabihan na when you try to help out, dumadating yung swerte. So, after doing these things and helping these organizations, I think the first campaign we did was with PGH Children’s Charity Ward, the Give-A-Life campaign, which won an Anvil. Unfortunately, the doctor, the very young doctor, who was 30 years old at the time, left the country kasi he was politicized. He left the country and he is now working in the States.

Anyway, right now our clients are mostly NGOs, non-profit organizations, and whenever we get big clients like Pfizer, Coca-Cola, HSBC, we try to match them with the needs of our client NGOs who are in need of funding. So, in a way, we are creating a bridge, because some of these big companies are looking for causes to support, and some of the NGOs have funding needs, and we try to match them. Nagkakaroon pa ng ibang, aside from rendering writing services to these groups, parang nagkakaroon kami ng ibang purpose. So, we try to match them.

Anyway, going back to my topic: Communicating Your Cause.

I usually start this with just a brief exercise. I’ll flash some photos, which already appeared in newspapers, and which I borrowed from an award winning photographer of Philippine Star. So, the purpose is for you to communicate your cause. I think it’s good to first go into news thinking, thinking like the media; because that’s the only way, I think, for people who are not in media to understand how media people think. That’s the start of how you will pitch your stories. Some photos may appear graphic. So, pinapauna ko na, sister, merong photo dito na naked men.

The exercise is for you to think of headlines that will support these photos. So, these photos already appeared in newspapers and they were accompanied by headlines. Any volunteer can just approach the microphone or volunteer from your tables and shout kung anong headline you think is appropriate dun sa photos.

First photo. Any headline? Birth control? Ah, it’s a label, not a headline.

“Baby Found In Bottle”

Okay, any other else? Yes?

“Murder!” maybe with an exclamation mark, so as to make it forceful. Just some tips: When you put headlines, it should not be too obvious. Because you are already seeing it in the photo, then, to put “Baby in a Bottle” is already making it too obvious.

Yes? “May Buhay Pa Kaya?” Pang Filipino tabloid; but that’s good. Yeah, make it…the photo is already dramatic. I like “Murder” but I think it would be more appropriate for a feature story rather than a news story because there’s already judgment. Dapat objective.

Okay, next. Ito, nagiging common na itong photo na ito. Any volunteer?

“Bayanihan” Yes?

“Pagsira sa Kalikasan”

“Nature’s Fury”

Yeah, those are common headlines that you see for these photos. By the way, this photo was taken way back before the Infanta, Quezon disaster happened. Akala ninyo ganoon ka-recent, pero actually matagal nang nangyayari sa country natin ito.

This photo won an international award, by the way.

In Payatas. Yes?

“Larawan ng Kahirapan”

Bagay yun, kasi parang naka frame siya. Puro larawan.

“Larawan ng Kagutoman”

Any other else?

“The Face of Poverty”

If you noticed, most of the headlines you volunteered are labels. So, if you look at the newspapers, usually a headline a strong verb because the purpose is to stress a sense of urgency on the part of the reader.

Next, ‘yan na yung graphic. U.P. O, sister, cover your eyes. (laughs) May nag volunteer in one workshop “Small Is Beautiful” (laughs), but in other workshops, natagalan silang mag-isip kasi tinitingnan pa nila ng matagal, e.

“Walang Hiya” two words, “Walang Hiya,” ah, okay, meaning shameless or no shame.

So, any headline that has a verb in it, parang action. Call to action.

“Run For a Cause”

“Strip For Freedom” ah, okay.

“Run for a Cause” okay.

This one.

“Share Your Blessings” ah, okay. So, cute yung photos, ano? Meron pa ba?

Since these photos have already been published, so maybe the next time you open a newspaper, just be conscious of the headlines that accompanied the photos and you’ll get tips on how to write them.

This is just an outline of the discussion. We went into news sniffing, news thinking, so we’ll go into what makes noise; which means how would you know if the story you have will really make noise or will really call media attention.

These are the news elements, no? I’m taking you to Journalism 101. One is significance. If you noticed, if you see some articles which carry big numbers, halimbawa, maraming namatay or nagkaroon ng epidemic, then you see big, screaming headlines. Like the one yung sa photo, no? Disasters are usually headline grabbers. Then there’s also, that story below “More Pedestrians Killed Last Year.” Why is it so important that it merited a good editorial treatment from the paper? It’s because of proximity.

Most of us, I think, are pedestrians, and we would be interested to read about these types of articles. What’s the reason why pedestrians are getting killed? So, that’s a sense of proximity, it’s a topic that you can relate to. You can also get proximity if you, yung mga stories related to your race or nationality, gender, or social class.

Like in the advocacy that you’re supporting, cancer awareness, most of the stories that will come out will probably appeal to, or should appeal to women in general, and if it’s breast cancer awareness, specifically, and to cancer survivors or patients, or their families. So, hindi kayo mawawalan ng readership because you have a story already.

Another is conflict. The element of conflict. Ito, masyadong marami sa diaryo natin ito. When a dog bites a man, yun, conflict. Opposition criticizing the administration, politicians, especially now sa CNN, you see Bush getting build as drunkard and a devil by Chavez, di ba? So, that’s conflict and that makes a lot of noise in media. That’s what media like, particularly.

Oddity – when a man bites a dog, that’s oddity. Kasi, it goes against the natural scheme of things. This is an article Queer Eye for Straight Congress. It merited the front page treatment in Inquirer. Apparently some media people look at gay or lesbians as carrying that oddity element, which I think John Silva will not like. And for some reason, whenever there is something about Imelda Marcos, they carry it on the front page, whatever she does. Apparently, the find oddity in her, yes, that’s right; not what she does, in her.

Another is usually the whistle blowers. There was a time when Chavit Singson was a popular whistle blower, now; I don’t know kung ano na ang tawag sa kanya. And of course, compelling visuals help. Because the photos speak for themselves, so whenever you get compelling visuals, yan, there is always space for those things.

Next is: How do you put purpose in your communications? We believed that every good cause needs a communications plan and it’s not enough that you’re supporting a good cause; you must be able to communicate it also well. We just want to differentiate the different types of strategies.

Well, one is advocacy, if you’re, of course, supporting a cause, advocating something. Others go into a communications plan that enhances their visibility and reputation. So, hindi ito just any of these, no? It can all go together, it can mesh together. For example, for small organizations, enhancing your visibility and reputation is an important thing. Earlier, you were talking about accreditation and the bias against non‑foundations. Well, I think there’s also a reason why the process is as strict as that, because there are so many NGOs and there was a time when there were a lot of fly‑by‑night NGOs.

For you to be able to approach these grant making organizations, I think you also need to be visible to build your reputation, because when people would read about you in the papers, you can just cite that: you know, we appeared in ganyan ganyan. Of course, that’s not a guarantee that you will have a good reputation, no? Kasi, mamaya negative naman yung lumabas sa inyo. What I’m saying is just create visibility.

Well, some communications plan are geared towards crisis management, whenever there is trouble, you need to prepare a plan on how to handle it to be able communicate to your stakeholders, to the public.

Another is to change attitudes or teaching new skills. This is another advocacy, also to generate public support; I think this is appropriate for your cause; and fundraising. There are some NGOs that are still in that mindset that they cannot raise funds or they cannot generate profit kasi daw “non-profit.” I think the norm right now is like what Venture is advocating, teaching NGOs how to raise funds, because you can. You can, and there are already a number of NGOs that are approaching companies with creative communications plan. It’s not enough that you say that you have this big network, and that you were founded several years ago, and that you have big named people in your board, but it’s also good to approach possible funders with a plan, with a concrete plan. Because after all, like, if you approach big companies, they will also look for something that would make them visible to the public, that would make them not just feel good, but feel good in the public’s eyes, to feel mabango. It’s good to approach them with a concrete plan already.

These are the steps in developing your plan, starting from the bottom. Communications audit. We tend to overlook this. What it is, is basically an assessment of your organization, on how capable are you to implement a communications plan. Kasi yung iba they make grand plans and then at the end of the day, ikaw lang pala yung writer, messenger, ganun ang nangyayari, di ba? Kasi maliliit lang yung organizations.

So, are you prepared to handle a campaign? A big plan? If not, sa communications audit pa lang, you should already realize the logistical aspect and the woman power aspect, the resources that you need. If you are the only one working on this in your organization, then I think it’s time to get volunteers or network with other NGOs with similar causes, no? That way, you’ll be able to do a lot of things.

Another is the communications infrastructure. Like, I get feedback from some NGOs na: you know, when we send out press releases, just to sent them out to ten newspapers, ang gas ko inaabot na ng 1000.00, ganyan a day; mga ganun. It really doesn’t need to be that costly if you know how to approach things, like for example, for an NGO that has an advocacy related to labor. If you have a press release, just go to the Department of Labor, the media people covering the beat has a pressroom there and nandoon na lahat yung reporters from different newspapers; so just go there and distribute the releases. You don’t have to go to each and every one of the news agencies. They also have associations, yung mga media people, so like the kapihan, the regular kapihan. So just go there and distribute so you don’t need to spend a lot of time driving and spending on gas.

Also part of the communications infrastructure, kung kayo nga yung writer, kayo rin yung messenger mag de-deliver, yun, you should also need to assess that. And also the budget; if you have a budget.

Goal setting – you think everything’s going to go smoothly na as soon as you have a press release, etc; but sometimes we overlook na ano ba yung purpose? Why are we doing these? Because if your messages are not what we called “disciplined,” you need to discipline your message. By that I mean if you cannot express your cause in a single sentence, then there is a problem; because you can’t even communicate your cause in a single sentence. That’s disciplining your message. You should be very clear about your messages and your goals.

Framing issues – yan, that’s also part of disciplining your messages. Like for cancer, for example, it’s already a very broad topic, no? Kasi there are several types of cancer and there are several audiences for each type. Just identify specifically, like for this story, this is my key message, and I won’t load everything in it; because the problem is, yung iba, ang iniisip nila: ah, kailangan i-load na natin lahat sa press release na ito, lahat nang gusto nating sabihin kasi baka matagal pa bago mag-issue tayo ng susunod na press release, or dispatch, or call a presscon.

Actually, hindi ganoon, kasi ang tendency kung if you load all the messages in one swoop, the media people who would receive those messages would tend to be confused. Ma co-confuse siya, ano ba talaga yung gusto mong sabihin, kung cancer awareness lang and education, then just focus on that; if you’re trying to raise funds, then just focus on that. Next time, ibang message naman. Yung iba kasi parang baratillo, e, na ipasok ko na lahat, ganyan. So, yun yung tendency, no?

Even in coming up with posters, for example. You think kasi na: ah, mahal magpa print ng posters so lahat na ng text ilalagay ko. But overall, it defeats your purpose of communicating with whoever is your target audience for that. I think the impact is more important than cost saving. Of course, mas maganda kung ma marry ninyo yung dalawa, pero aim for impact.

Others would be very happy if they land a story in the Peoples, Events, and Places of a newspaper, or in the bulletin section; but how many people actually read that section? Actually dalawa lang, e: you, who released it, and the editor, who placed it in that paper. Other than that, wala na masyadong nagbabasa noon. So, aim for stories that actually land in regular sections, mga features, etc.

There that mindset na kailangan maikli lang yung press release kasi baka space filler lang siya. Actually, it depends on how your story was written. I’ll show you later stories that we’ve churned out and it’s quite a lengthy story. Feature stories, and it oftentimes go with photos, and the editor who receive those releases, parang na co‑compel siya na gamitin iyon because of the strength of the content. So, it’s really about the story.

Messaging, and of course, tactics. By tactics, is a presscon more suitable for the kind of message that you will deliver or a press release is okay? So, depending on the need.

Here are some of the tools. I think some of you are already familiar, no? Like, Carla for instance, is into corporate communications, so she doesn’t have to listen to this.

Some of the tools for communicating media events. First question: To press-con or not to press-con? When is the time na you need to call for a press conference? Kasi, that involves a lot of logistics. Gagastos ka sa venue, pakakainin mo yan, siyempre. Hindi lang kape yan, may lunch, or breakfast, or whatever. So, sometimes, we get approached na: you know, I want to throw a press conference. May pagka “eager beaver” yung organization. And what will you deliver?

“I want to announce that I’ll have a, for example, fun run on October something, on October 20, for example.” Pero, will that kind message merit an entire press-con? Or pwede na iyan na press release? Kasi press release, siyempre mas mura yan, di ba? So, if you don’t have any grand ideas or announcements to make, then you don’t have to spend for an entire press-con.

Recently, we developed a tool that would enable organizations to cut costs, but still conducting a press-con. Because of technology, we were able to do it. We call it an online press-con. If you’re familiar with chats, online chats sa website; what we did, we did this for Dr. Estanislao’s group. They had a “Mahal Ko Ang Pilipinas” conference. The advocacy is basically love of country, ganyan, different sectors. What we did is we send out invitations to all media people based in different provinces nationwide; and we told them on this day, at this time, go to this website – we used the Yehey website – and click on this icon and, we pre-registered them, just use this password and then we’ll go live. People like Dr. Estanislao will be there to chat with you and you can ask questions, and if you want to see him, just to verify if he is really Dr. Estanislao, there’s a webcam.

We experimented on this and we were surprised that 20 media people from Ilocos Times down to Palawan Sun, and Sun Star Davao, participated; and the beauty of it is that the transcripts of that entire press-con is already there, they can just copy and paste, or we can sent to them by email. So, what’s the cost? Well, at the time we were testing it, so we just approached Yehey and they were very pleased to pioneer this kind of thing. Yesterday, Satur Ocampo, Congressman Satur Ocampo, had an online press‑con at Yehey in relation to martial law. I gathered that there more than 20 media people who went online with him and asked him questions.

These are the things that you can do because of technology, and walang lag; we even got comments like from the editor of Palawan Sun: “you know, we found out that people in Manila are less media savvy than people in the provinces” kasi ang tagal daw mag reply ng mga nasa Manila. So, ayun, we get comments like that.

Another is, of course, hiring professionals. Kung masyado na malaki yung event and you need direction, then it is good to hire professionals if you have the budget; or some professionals can be approached for free.

Fact sheets, other PR tool kits. Why do you need a fact sheet? A fact sheet is basically just a piece of paper, as short as possible, identifying the 5 W’s and one H. What, when, where, how, ganyan. Why are you staging this event? Who are the people involved? It can be in the form of, wala namang format, e, basta the messages are there. The purpose is yung mga media people may come and go in your event or press-con, so just give them the fact sheet so that they’ll know what they are covering and then that’s it, that’s the key message.

Press statements, of course, that’s a standard. It should go with the PR kit. So, the fact sheet and the press release should be there. The press release, of course you will say na they already covered so ano pa yung purpose ng press release? This is basically to control the message kasi if you let media just decide on the angle, of course, they’ll do their own; but if they see something written, and usually nagmamadali iyan to beat deadlines, then there’s a big chance that they will follow what you’ve written in the press release. And that’s the control and also to avoid being misquoted, especially kung sensitive yung topic. Kung naka phrase na doon sa press release on how you want to be quoted then they will just pick it up from there.

Print publications, mga supplements, clippings, would help online publications. You can also go online like the virtual press-con I mentioned; and email blast. This was quite effective when we discovered the Give-A-Life campaign for PGH. This young doctor, si Dr. Philip Cruz, basically just wrote an email expressing his frustrations in the Children’s Charity Ward of PGH. An average of one child dies everyday because of lack of equipment, etc. That email became a parang viral marketing tool and it circulated talaga all over the world; because in that email he placed his bank account number for donations and his cellphone number. He told us na a lot of Filipinos living all over the world as far as Italy, would call him and ask him “How can I help other than donations? I can donate but how can I help?” because they very touched by the email. So, this can be also a powerful tool.

And other “mediagenic,” we call them mediagenic, like photogenic, materials; because sometimes it would also help if you have news worthy events that you stage. Kasi ang dami causes right now and a lot of NGOs are going to media to pitch their stories. Maybe you could decide on how your story could be different from the rest or from the other stories you have already written. One is staging a news-worthy event, or something creative.

Keeping score is basically to assess your success in implementing your plan. Of course you need to monitor, kasi how else can you know na your story has been picked up? And then evaluate the results. How many went your press-con versus how many actually wrote about it? Ayan, minsan na-impress yung client na “Uy, ang dami umattend ng press-con, napuno yung mga tables.” Pero nadiscover niya after that event, da dalawa lang ang nag sulat. Yung pala the rest nakikain lang. E, di gumastos ka lang, di ba? So, in the end, hindi rin nag succeed yung plan mo for a press-con. Because attending the press-con does not guarantee that you will land in that paper. Minsan hindi rin sinusulat. Baka hindi naintindihan, o iba…different reasons.

Content analysis of the coverage. What this means is basically analyzing the angle that was used, etc. and keeping track. You know before I joined Business World, I worked with a PR consultancy firm, and my job in that firm is basically to read all the newspapers everyday and identify the angles that were used. For example we mounted a press-con and there were five articles that came out after that press-con. It always happens that one or two of those stories will be using a different angle versus the rest.

The analysis is why did, for example, Philippine Star use a different angle than Inquirer? It also helps in determining, sometimes kasi may effect yung ownership ng media. For example in Bulletin, wala bang Bulletin dito or nagsusulat sa Bulletin? Their editorial policy is not to offend anyone except for the business rivals of the owners. So, meron ganun nung time ko, ewan ko lang ngayon, I think the son of Don Emilio Yap is already on board and implementing a lot changes; but at that time, very careful sila. Puro good stories lang. And meron naman isang paper that I won’t mention na the list of their advertisers is posted in the bulletin boards in their newsroom kasi merong heading doon na “These are our advertisers” and if you happen to come up with a story na negative dito sa mga advertisers na ito, then don’t write about it. So, may mga ganoon, so that affects the angle also of the reporter. Kasi baka hindi aware yung reporter na ganoon, but stories can be rewritten and it’s in the editor’s hands on how to play it.

I’m very fortunate that I worked with a news organization that really doesn’t care about censorship or whenever and advertiser would threaten to pull out because of a negative story that we did. That was during the time of the late Raul Locsin.

So, after Business World, I didn’t join any newspaper anymore because I didn’t find any other organization that has that policy that would allow me the freedom to write what I think is right. Yung husband ko used to write motoring articles, and he came out once with a story before a car company launched a new model, he wrote about a story on that before the launch, so parang na preempt yung launch. What the car company did was to pull-out all their ads from Business World and Mr. Locsin was very proud of that article even if he lost that car company as an advertiser, because it just proves that we don’t care about your advertisements. We can’t be dictated upon. This benefits our readers, who most probably will be thinking of buying your old model na hindi mo naman pala dina-divulge na you’re launching a new one and they just bought your old model.

Noong lumabas na iyon, and after several months, bumabalik na itong car company and they want to advertise again, and Mr. Locsin said: “No, you have to fall in line.” And he made them wait for a very long time.

END OF DISC 2 – Missing minutes

…it’s a very sensitive issue, kasi nandyan na yung mag pu-pullout na bank na mag advertise, etc.

Cultivate allies and stay close or away from enemies. Cultivate allies in media kasi once na may nasulat siya about your organization, don’t burn the bridge and cut the relationship; just keep on feeding him information or updates about your activities just to keep him in touch. This is a cause that ano, siguro naman most media people would support this, so it’s just a matter of maintaining that relationship.

Spread the word. What this means is not just among the other organizations but whenever you have successes in for example being picked up by a publication, email ninyo sa friends ninyo na you know, please you might be interested to read this article, which appeared in Inquirer or Business World, for example; and then please forward to your friends so that people would know that you’re getting published and it also enhances your reputation and visibility.

Learn from mistakes, of course. Learn from mistakes including whenever you mount an event, there’s always a lesson to be learned.

These are some case studies; maybe I’ll go to the other ones for I don’t think this will apply because this is the CSR expo we mounted for the League of Corporate Foundations in 2005. This is a big organization so I’ll just go to the next one; but just to give you some idea, out of this 3-day expo, we were able to get these results, we were able to gather 50 press people from 60 media organizations and there were around 52 exposures generated before, during, and after the event: 36 print articles, 11…2 TV news conferences, etc. These are some of the articles that came out. If you noticed these are not press releases because they are bylined, it’s staff written, and they’re quite long. So, hindi totoo na walang space for good news because this is CSR, as long as your content is strong. They even interviewed some people. This came out in Mindanao Times, ah, this is a press release. If you noticed the headline: Top Global CEOs Here to Give RP Business a Heart. Kung ganyan headline mo, hindi ka pa ba mapapabasa? instead of just announcing that Top Global CEOs to Speak at CSR Forum. So, it’s just a spin.

Then another is Fighting Poverty: One Stepping Stone at a Time. It’s a play on their logo na stepping stones. These are some of the reviews. Ironically, the League of Corporate Foundations, it’s an umbrella of the corporate foundations, but they have been mounting the CSR expo for the past three years before we handled it; but they themselves have difficulty generating media attention. Kasi what happens, although you’re talking about 60 PR people already from 60 companies and foundations, what happened kasi, pag ganito palang expo, nag ka kanya-kanya. Siyempre dapat mas bida yung company ko kaysa sa…nakakalimutan tuloy yung entire foundation, yung entire league. This is the first time that they received that much media attention and they have been approached for partnerships by some groups.

This is one good case study. It involves an NGO that’s been in existence for more than 10 years, called Galing Pook and basically what it does is every year, it awards the ten best LGU programs. Parang pag nanalo ka nito, yung LGU, talagang best practices model ka na. What happened was, when we handled this, Ford Foundation closed its office, so nawalan ng funding; kasi it’s basically 100% Ford funded, and media was we called it “good news phobic.” Parang lalo na kung governance na ang issue. Pag sinabi nilang: “Ah, tungkol sa mayor yan, propaganda yan, kasi inawardan.” Although the LGU was recognized, yung mayor yung kumukuha ng award sa MalacaÒang, so parang ang dating sa media “ah, kanino namang partido yan?” o ano, di ba? Mahirap i‑pitch and bad mayors rock. Mostly media would prefer to feature bad mayors than the good ones. You don’t hear about the likes of Jessie Robredo of Naga, yung mga ganyan, they have little media coverage before this time, and ang tawag visually disadvantaged kasi they don’t know how to pitch their stories with compelling visuals.

One time, merong nanalo ng award, ang program niya in Davao is basically animal dispersal as a tool for combating poverty. What the governor at the time, Governor del Rosario, did was bumili siya ng mga kambing, tapos dinisperse niya sa mga baranggay, as you know, yung kambing, madaling dumami. Once na dinisperse niya sa mga baranggay, pag nanganak yung kambing, required yung recipient na i give up yung iba para ibang baranggay naman ang makaka receive. And the program won kasi it was quite effective. The people were able to generate income from the milk, in selling the goats later on, and ang lakas ng multiplier effect. Yung iba nakabili na ng baka, ng ibang cattle because of this very simple model.

When we said na that’s a good story and it’s quite unique, we asked the Davao LGU to give us photos para when we write the story, we’ll send the photos to media. Surprisingly, they didn’t understand yata what we meant, so they sent us photos of the goats and one photo was posing with the governor. Sabi namin, no, hinde, dapat yung recipient, how his life has improved, etc. The photo should capture the message. Not just being obvious na “ah, kasi animal dispersal, goat” so goat nga naman yung photo na nakuha namin. And most LGUs are like this, most LGUs who entered Galing Pook. Ang tawag namin visually disadvantaged, kasi they cannot appreciate kung ano ba talaga yung purpose ng photos. Usually, mukha lang ng mayor or governor yung nandoon.

Lack of communications infrastructure – they don’t know how to get to media and they have this mindset that they have to pay media to be able to be featured. Our strategy was we recognized that these program in themselves or combined make a good and strong editorial content. Then we advise them on what kind of photos to use, we also tapped media allies that would view these stories positively or favor these stories and we expanded the scope.

This is a screen shot of the site that we set up with INQ7 at the time. They set up this section for Galing Pook, yung orange bar at the right contains the names of the provinces from Aklan down to provinces in Mindanao that you just click on to read the program that was awarded. Parang best practices compilation, and I’m showing, this is now wala na ito sa site nila but at the time, they did this for free, because they realized that you know there will be a lot of Filipinos who will read this, and they get email responses from Filipinos all over the world, kasi nga online ito, na mag cli-click sa site na “you know I’m from Aklan, and I’m now an engineer in Malaysia, ganyan, and I’d like to read more about this, where can I get a copy?”

This is quite effective and Filipinos are still, even if they work abroad, na re-retain nila yung ethnic groupings. For example in America, you don’t find a United Filipinos organization; but there are United AntiqueÒos in California, in Washington, DC, there are two BatangueÒo organizations. These types of stories appeal to these groups of people.

These are example of compelling visuals for Galing Pook. The one with the daing is actually a coastal resource management program that won. The one on the left is a high school setup in San Francisco, Quezon, that at first did not receive any LGU support, but then the people started gathering wood and donating their services, mala‑Gawad Kalinga at the time na hindi pa popular yung Gawad Kalinga to set up their own community school; and now this is an accredited high school. So, it’s a success story. And this one is a senior citizen holding a booklet that tracks his medical needs and purchases developed in Naga even before the senior citizen’s booklet was conceptualized.

So, you know, if you hear these programs exist, and they’re very inspiring, you’ll feel very proud of being Filipino; parang ang tanong namin “how come we don’t read about them?” Di ba? In the papers, ganyan, but these programs actually exist. Whenever they hold an annual award, we help them out so these are some of the stories that came out. Even in Inquirer “Bohol, Negros Cited as Top LGUs at Gawad Galing Pook Awards” Bulletin, Inquirer, Star.

Some of the things that we do for clients: That one on the right is for Petron Foundation, it’s an electronic newsletter that they send out to their partners every month; so if you’re cutting on then cost of production of coming up with a newsletter, kasi mahal magpa print, an alternative is doing it electronically. The one here on the left is for Pfizer, it’s actually a printed newsletter. Mentioning Pfizer, did you know that they’re in the final stages of developing a cure for cancer, we just heard about it and I think it’s in the process of being approved by the USFDA. So, that’s good news because it will happen in our generation.

Just to summarize, it would help to think like a reporter and develop the nose for news. This is not very hard to do. I think it would help to read all the newspapers everyday, just to have that discipline. Learn what makes news and that every cause needs a good communications plan. It’s not enough to have just a good cause but you need to communicate it as well; build, and they will come. And know the right tools, keep score, and finally, a good cause has to be turned into a good story. So, you have a good cause already, the next step is to make it a good story. Thank you very much.

Meryll: Thank you, Sheila. You know, many of us feel that we’re not writers and your presentation has really helped us because it gives us guidelines on what we need to know to be able to guide other people that we will tap to write our communications. Many times we have to rely on our college kid that’s in Mass Comm or our cousin who does this, and we know the parameters, or the elements that we need to look after in our communication plan, then we can give directions, we know what to look for. So, it’s not just for us as to write the communications ourselves, it’s to be able to use this information as part of our group’s efforts for communicating. The floor is now open for questions.

Sheila: If I cannot answer them, my husband will, that’s why he’s here. Any questions? This is the time to give free advice. While it’s still free? No, we usually help out. Yes, ma’am?

Audience: In the Manila HEC, you earlier, or at the beginning of your talk you said there’s really no need to, you know, spend so much on gasoline, driving around, because in Manila, people are more organized; all you have to do is identify which particular department you should go to, to have your news disseminated. In the province, it isn’t so. You really have to do a lot of legwork, and you know, how shall we say it, cultivate a very good relationship with media if you want your stories to be carried. My question, however, is this: You know you have a good piece of news, a good story to tell, how can you get Manila publications to carry your story, if you’re in the province?

Sheila: Your question is: If you’re in the province, how do you get Manila people to carry your stories? Well, actually, the problem of access is not really that harder in the provinces. I think the harder part in the provinces, from our experience, is identifying the right media. Because we have…um, well, Coca-cola is one of our clients and they have partnered with the Philippine Press Institute to conduct training sessions for provincial media, and usually their difficulty is trying to find the right organization that has the mindset of really running it like a media organization. Because sometimes they meet people na ano pala, diaryo pala ni Mayor or ni Congressman. Iyong the owners are leaders of the LGU na in a sense, hindi ganoon ka objective when it comes to coverage. So, I think that one is more of the challenge in the provinces, but the good news is that these organizations that are being run professionally are increasing in numbers and they’re more open to stories like this. Media calls this soft news, kasi ang hard news daw yun yung about terrorism, and the ones coming from MalacaÒang, the economic figures; they treat these kinds of stories as soft news. Kasi for them it’s not really urgent for them to carry these types of stories.

But in our experience, actually, it’s quite surprising that whenever we feed stories about, for example, Operation Smile, or like Galing Pook, we find more space for them in the provincial newspapers. We find it harder to pitch them in Manila than in the provinces. Like, we always get good coverage from Cebu Daily news, which I think has better coverage than their Manila based counterpart.

So, for me, it’s not that hard. Yung provincial, if you’re based in the provinces and you’re pitching to Manila, if you will notice, there are more and more newspapers right now that are carrying not just one page for provincial stories, they call it provincial section, or provinces, but several pages; because they are realizing that there’s so many things happening out there, out of Manila and they’re trying to balance it kasi ngayon may criticism na “imperialist Manila,” and they want to veer away from that tag, so they’re catering more to stories in the provinces.

The crucial thing is knowing who to approach for these stories. You can start with the editor of the provincial section and then identify in a newspaper, for example, the people that who will most probably be open to the stories that you are pitching. And if you’re reading them everyday, you’ll know who these people are. Kasi like in the Inquirer, marami diyan nag fe-feature, yung feature writers. They’ll be more open to the stories na soft kaysa doon sa mga nag co-cover ng daily beat. Kasi yung mga nag de-daily beat medyo mahirap din for them to write about these types of causes kasi everyday, for example in Business World, the daily grind reporters are required to come up with two stories a day, and one of them should be exclusive. Kaya araw‑araw dalawang istorya yung quota niya. And the feature writers have no quota at all. Hindi kailangan dalawa, so they are more open to covering and lingering in conferences, and writing longer stories and you will have greater impact if you write feature articles than yun mga straight news, straight news lang. I hope that helped. Yes, another question?

Meryll: I noticed that they were writing down and taking notes like crazy. I’m sure that they are going to absorb all of these when they go back home, huh? Is it helpful? Yes? Anymore questions?

Sheila: Just also to bust some myths, kasi I’m often asked, how many luncheon meetings do you have to do before you land in a newspaper? I hope you don’t do that. Because as a journalist, and I’m now on the other side, as a policy in our company, we don’t do envelopmental journalism, even of our clients, some of our clients, would approach it that way, we would discourage them from doing so; because that just makes it a vicious cycle, di ba? Kung merong gumagawa noon, merong tatanggap at the other end.

If we put a stop into this practice, then we are all helping. And anyway, kung maliit lang yung budget, then it doesn’t make sense at all. Don’t underestimate the power of what we call investment chika. So, develop, cultivate relationships with media. Don’t just call them pag may kailangan ka. Call them whenever. Just give the impression that you’re accessible, that you’re open, and if you need any information related to our NGO or kahit hindi related, then just help them out. Halimbawa, hindi naman related sa cause ninyo yung hinahanap ng reporter pero naka build na kayo relationship, then you can help them na “you know, I can refer you to another NGO that I met in a conference.” Then the media people will be very grateful, that you paved the way for that connection.

Kasi nga, we’re all playing connectors in this life, so it’s not just us always on the receiving end, but we also need to give them some guidance. For media people kasi in general, mainstream media, they don’t regard NGOs as a formal source of stories, as a formal source of news. There’s this misconception nga na pag NGO, hindi yan credible source, they need to back it up if they get a feedback from a government agency or MalacaÒang. Parang may mindset na kung MalacaÒang, official iyan, official statement. So, parang ang tingin, NGO – unofficial iyan, which is very unfortunate.

When I was a reporter, whenever I do a story, ang dami ko talagang nakukuhang data from NGOs than from government. And it’s especially difficult, I was covering banking; konti lang yung makukuha mo from Bangko Sentral because of the sensitivity of the information, but I always have Freedom From Debt Coalition to give me data on the COA audit results on BSP. I developed these and I always attend their conferences kahit na minsan dadalawa lang kami nandoon, pero ma identify mo na itong iyong mga tao na gusto mong i-cultivate yung relationship mo, so that would help.