THE CHALLENGE
Empowering the BEST Kids team with the right tools to take control of their narrative and effectively navigate media opportunities.
THE RESULT
Customized media training, and a tailored media toolkit, that prepared the BEST Kids team to tackle both proactive and reactive media relations activities.
Empowering youth in the foster care system isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor.
That’s where DC-based nonprofit BEST Kids comes in.
Led by the belief that all kids are uniquely talented, BEST Kids supports children ages six through adulthood in Washington DC’s foster care system with one-on-one mentoring and experiential learning to build self confidence and social skills.
In many cases, children in foster care don’t have a consistent adult in their life they can trust — and BEST Kids connects children with mentors who commit to showing up for at least a year. Whether they play sports together, grab a bite to eat, or offer a listening ear, mentors play a vital role as a steady and caring adult in a youth’s life.
With a goal of growing the BEST Kids program throughout their DC region, the nonprofit came to Forthright for support in building their communications initiatives.
After reviewing their marketing efforts, Forthright spotted an opportunity for BEST Kids to grow brand awareness with potential supporters and decision makers in the DMV through strengthening the nonprofit’s media relationships and outreach.
Since the team had never been trained on how to work with journalists and the news media, Forthright developed a hands-on media training program to provide the BEST Kids team with the tools (and knowledge) they need to spot newsworthy stories — and proactively pitch stories to the right reporter.
Importantly, BEST Kids wasn’t looking for an ongoing engagement or media relations management from an external partner. They just needed help knowing where to start and guidance on how to build a program on their own.
For this reason, Forthright created a half-day media relations training specifically focused on empowering the team members who would actually do the work. The goal: for the BEST Kids team to walk away with everything they need to successfully navigate media opportunities, independently.
During the training, Forthright taught the BEST Kids team the essentials of media relations, including: how to decide if a story idea is newsworthy, how to pitch the idea, who to pitch to, how to write a pitch, what to do if a reporter reaches out to the team, and how to manage tricky questions while staying on message.
Forthright guided the BEST Kids team through practice interviews and learning how to navigate tricky questions during an interview, and finished up by talking about specific pitching opportunities for the upcoming months.
In addition to the training, Forthright created a full media relations toolkit to help the team tackle media opportunities and challenges in the future, including:
An easy-to-implement pitching formula to help BEST Kids craft compelling media outreach materials, along with BEST Kids-specific pitch examples
A printable pitching checklist to ensure BEST Kids never misses a step
A targeted media list focused specifically on the topics BEST Kids want to promote — and the reporters who cover those topics
A step-by-step guide to help BEST Kids train its mentors and clients for media opportunities, including what questions to ask and how to decide if the opportunity is right for both the mentor/client and for BEST Kids
A worksheet to help BEST Kids team members prepare and practice for interview opportunities
A guide for what to do if a reporter reaches out, so BEST Kids is prepped to respond to all potential media situations
Today, any time BEST Kids sees (or receives) a media opportunity — from proactive pitching to responding to a tricky media request — they can move forward with confidence.
“The Forthright team offered us a training package that was perfect for our needs. They sat down alongside our team and taught us the most important parts of media relations. The team prepared and delivered a media relations toolkit, essentially empowering us with everything we needed to succeed without hiring an ongoing communications consultant. They also prepared a targeted media list for us that includes the reporters who are most important to our cause.
We recommend Forthright’s services to anyone who needs the right training and tools to empower their in-house team to succeed in communications!”
— Gabby Mulnick Majewski,
BEST Kids Board Member
