On the Record: Better Media Interviews for Nonprofit Leaders

Overview

When it comes to telling your organization’s story publicly, are you coming across as best you can in interviews? Strong communication skills can be the difference between garnering a great media story and a forgettable one. This class will go through the tips and techniques to honing your craft as an interviewee for print, radio, and television. A real-world nonprofit PR professional, and working journalist, will lead this interactive class on how to improve your interview skills.

This class will include the opportunity to practice being interviewed, and participants will get individual feedback on how to improve. Activities will include verbal warmups before going on air, writing sample answers to a reporter’s questions, effective posture and body language on camera, and reviewing actual interviews with nonprofit leaders.

Key Concepts

• Making the most of print interviews: What makes a good answer, and what a journalist is looking for from you
• Preparing for a radio or TV interview where there’s no chance to “edit out the mistakes,” including linguistic warmups and making sure you are “camera ready”
• Discussing negative or sensitive issues with finesse and positivity

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Prepare talking points and integrate them naturally into interviews without sounding scripted.
• Describe effective posture and body language for on-camera interviews.
• Maximize print interviews for your organization’s message and reporter interests.

Audience

• Executive directors and CEOs
• Communications and marketing directors
• Board chairs
• Anybody who speaks publicly for your organization