Gold Mines of Stories - with Don Martelli, PR Bunker | Nonprofit411 Podcast
Aug 28
Gold Mines of Stories — with Don Martelli
Every nonprofit is sitting on a gold mine of stories. Most never mine them.
Don Martelli is a former Boston Globe reporter and longtime PR agency executive who now leads PR Bunker, working with mission-driven, impact-focused organizations. He helps nonprofits tell the stories their communities need to hear so they can engage the people who fuel the mission. He joins Sarah to explain how nonprofit PR actually works: how to find the one human story that carries your whole mission, how to place it with the right reporter at the right moment, and how to turn a single piece of coverage into a campaign that raises real money.
He walks through a real example. A woman named Lisa, once homeless, now helping others through the same organization that housed her. That one story, told well, raised nearly a quarter million dollars in a week.
If PR feels like a black box, this episode opens it.
In this episode:
- The "micro that fits the macro" method for finding a story reporters actually want
- Why the most positive stories are the hardest to place, and how to place them anyway
- Paid, earned, shared, and owned media, explained simply
- How to pitch a reporter in 250 words or fewer
- Why a fractional expert often beats hiring in-house
A few ideas to steal:
- The story is the headline. If you have to sell it, it isn't a story yet.
- Keep the pitch to one paragraph, then follow up until you get a yes, a no, or silence. Silence is a no.
- End or start each week by asking your team, "What happened this week that made you feel good?" Those are your stories. Someone has to own collecting them.
- One good story, repurposed across your site, newsletter, socials, and a podcast, is a marketing campaign, not a one-and-done.
Connect with Don
- PR Bunker: www.prbunker.com
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/donmartelli
- The PR Bunker podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pr-bunker/id1839463900
Connect with Sarah
- Nonprofit 411: www.nonprofit411.org
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nonprofit411
- The Generosity Roadmap for Nonprofits, a free class to explore the systems that keep community at the heart of fundraising: https://nonprofit411.org/generosity_map
Chapters
- 00:00 Introduction to Nonprofit 411
- 02:57 The Power of Impactful Storytelling
- 05:56 Telling Impactful Stories through PR
- 09:06 Advice for Nonprofits on PR
- 17:23 The Role of Consultants in Nonprofits
- 24:09 Utilizing Impactful Stories in Nonprofits
