
Community, Not-for-profit, and Interest Groups
I shall firstly give an introduction on what community, not-for-profit, and interest groups are. These groups are characterised and distinguished from corporate organisations by certain elements. Its most important stakeholders are not shareholders, its ultimate goal is not profit, and they need to have an ideology, which gives them the reason for forming the groups.
The idea of a community is about relationship building and providing support within an environment. It may also champion social issues. They are often formed by governments to meet the citizen’s need for a sense of belonging. A not-for-profit group is formed to support and assist others over self. They often work closely with the government to achieve their goals. Media is an important stakeholder and a much needed advantage for the group to gain media coverage for their issues and events. Lastly, interest group is focused on self-interest, differing from community and not-for-profit groups. They are focused around an issue or to object an activity, and may break up upon resolution of the issue.
We shall now focus on how to effectively promote not-for-profit groups. As stated in the reading, media is an important stakeholder to not-for-profits groups and the model of effective relationship building with the media is crucial to effective public relations. The group itself has the responsibility to research media organisations, circulation readership, and audience demographics in order to effectively target a specific media. In return, they could invest in media education by sponsoring media events and conferences with an educational focus, feature stories or providing information on its particular field.
In a recent Straits Times article on 14 October, a news report entitled “Ex-convicts get a second chance in life” reported on an ex-convict being promoted six times within four years at his workplace. Additional information showed how other companies are awarded for hiring ex-convicts. The award ceremony, as reported in the report, was organised by the Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprise (Score). The report ended with information about Score and its function. From this news article, we can see how Score successfully partnered the media in providing a news report with a news angle and at the same time benefitted them.
Andy Wang C2