Press Releases Charities Can Actually Place: A Working Guide

Most charity press releases get filed straight to the journalist junk folder. Not because the cause is uninteresting; because the release is structured for the sender rather than the reader, targeted at everyone rather than someone, and arrives without the assets that would let a busy editor publish it before the next deadline. That is a fixable problem. Small charities consistently earn regional and trade coverage with the discipline below, no agency required.

Reader news versus internal news

The single most important question to ask before drafting a release: is this news for the reader, or news for us? Internal news is anything the team is proud of that does not pass the so-what test for an audience that does not already know the charity. Reader news is anything that intersects with what the journalist target audience cares about right now.

Examples of internal news (rarely placeable):

• We hired a new chief executive (unless the appointee or the context is genuinely newsworthy).
• We refreshed our brand or website.
• We held our AGM.
• We won a small grant.

Examples of reader news (usually placeable):

• We released new data showing demand for our service rose 40 percent in the last year, in the towns the journalist covers.
• We are launching a new service responding to a problem the journalist has covered recently.
• We have a real beneficiary willing to speak about a situation in the news this week.
• We have spotted a trend across our service that contradicts a widely-held assumption.

Reader news is harder to manufacture, which is exactly why it gets placed. The job of the comms lead is to spot reader-news moments inside the charity work and prioritise those releases over the internal ones.

The structural template

A working charity press release uses a tight, conventional structure. Editors recognise it on sight and can scan it in 20 seconds.

1. Headline: declarative, present tense, fact-led. No marketing language. Aim under 12 words.
2. Sub-deck (optional): one sentence adding context or scale.
3. Lead paragraph: the whole story in 30 to 40 words. Who, what, where, when, why now. Assume the editor reads no further; the paragraph must still work as a placed story.
4. Supporting paragraphs: detail and context, in descending order of importance. Three to five short paragraphs.
5. Quotes: one or two, attributed and substantive. Avoid the "we are delighted" cliche; use quotes to add detail the body cannot.
6. Notes to editors: short charity background, named press contact with mobile number, image availability.
7. Embargo or "for immediate release" line at the top.

The assets that get a release published

A well-targeted release without assets often fails because the editor cannot publish it before the next deadline. Send assets in the same email, not via a download link:

• Two or three landscape photographs at print resolution (300 dpi, at least 2000 pixels wide).
• Photo captions and credit information.
• A named spokesperson available for interview within the next four hours.
• A clear permission statement on any beneficiary names or photos.
• A short biography of any spokesperson quoted.

Photographs are the single most predictive asset for regional placement. Regional editors need a picture to fill the page and a strong charity photograph reliably gets a story placed where a text-only release would not.

Targeting: named journalists, not press lists

Generic distribution to press@ addresses or to a 200-line spreadsheet of "media contacts" produces almost no coverage. The discipline that works is to send each release to between five and twenty named journalists who cover that specific beat in that specific region or sector.

How to build the contact list:

1. Read the outlets you want to be in for two weeks before pitching. Note the named bylines on stories adjacent to yours.
2. Find each journalist on the outlet website, LinkedIn, or X. Capture their direct email where possible.
3. Tag each contact with the beat, outlet, and last story relevant to your charity area.
4. Maintain the list as a simple spreadsheet with last contact date and outcome.

A tightly-targeted send of 15 emails will outperform a 2000-name wire blast almost every time, because each recipient sees a release that genuinely belongs in their inbox.

Pitch email versus press release attachment

Send the release in the body of the email, not as an attachment. Journalists work in inboxes and most will not open an unsolicited Word document or PDF from an unfamiliar sender. The subject line should read like a headline a journalist would write themselves, not like a marketing email.

A working subject-line template

"[Region or beat] [Concrete fact or number] [Subject of story]" - for example: "Bradford: 40% rise in homelessness referrals in 2025-26, new charity figures show".

Timing the send

Press release timing matters more than most charities realise. Useful patterns:

• Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday outperform Monday and Friday.
• Send between 7:30am and 9:30am for morning news desks; between 11am and 12:30pm for online and afternoon editions.
• Avoid afternoon sends; releases arriving after 2pm usually wait until tomorrow.
• Avoid send dates clashing with major national news events that will dominate the agenda.

The follow-up call: when and how

A short, polite follow-up call to one or two priority journalists, 45 to 90 minutes after the email send, lifts placement rates meaningfully. Keep the call short: confirm the email arrived, offer the spokesperson for interview, and ask if any further assets would help. Do not pitch the story over again; the journalist has read the email or they have not.

Small charities that consistently earn regional coverage are not the ones with the biggest comms budgets. They are the ones who treat each release as a single trade between a story and a journalist deadline, and target accordingly.

What to track and improve

1. Releases sent per quarter, with the angle category.
2. Coverage achieved per release, with the outlet and journalist named.
3. Hit rate (coverage achieved / journalists pitched).
4. Follow-on requests (the same journalist coming back for future stories).

Over six months, the data will reveal which angles travel, which journalists respond to your charity, and which outlets are most achievable. That insight compounds: the second year of press work is always cheaper and more productive than the first because the contact list and the angle library are working.

A six-step quarterly rhythm

1. Identify two genuinely reader-news angles from the charity programme work.
2. Draft each release against the structural template.
3. Assemble assets: photographs, spokesperson, captions, permissions.
4. Target each release to 10 to 20 named journalists on the relevant beat.
5. Send at the right moment in the news week.
6. Follow up briefly with priority contacts.

PR for small charities is not magic and it does not require an agency. It requires discipline about what counts as news, accuracy about who to send it to, and respect for how journalists actually work. Build the rhythm and the coverage follows.

Related reading: Mobile-First Email Design For Charities: The Working Standard, BIMI For Charities: When The Blue Tick Actually Matters and Thank-You Emails That Actually Feel Thankful.