Many charities understandably focus on journalists as a key target group for their communications, since journalists are gatekeepers to media coverage. Whether it is in fundraising, corporate issues or campaigning, if journalists do not see an issue as newsworthy or interesting it is much harder to get coverage. CMM is a regular poll of journalists, finding out what they think of charities, their media activities and their work in general. It is designed to help charities sharpen their media work and make better use of their limited resources.
Click here to download the briefing pack -
CMM briefing pack (407.18KB)
Many charities already evaluate media output through analysis of press clippings. CMM complements this work by increasing understanding of why certain stories haven’t been taken up, or what hook or angle might have been more effective. It provides direct insight into how effective each participating charity is perceived to be by journalists, and how charities can improve their performance. Participants can learn which charities are ranked highly by journalists and what journalists see as an effective way to get the message across to them.
The specific uses of information from CMM include:
• Seeing how well journalists remember an organisation, its issues, campaigns or events that they have run
• Understanding which sections (e.g. regional journalists, TV journalists) of the media have a good impression of a particular charity, and which sections have a poor impression
• Understanding the best ways to get a story into the media and the best way to build a relationship with a journalist
• Understanding the issues which personally concern journalists the most
By being part of a syndicate, joining CMM offers individual charities a far more cost-effective way of getting frequent (twice a year) and detailed information on journalists than would otherwise be possible.
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The polls take place in Spring and Autumn each year. Questions we ask include:
• Which charities have directly impressed you in the last 6 months?
• Which specific charity events, campaigns or news stories can you recall in the last 6 months?
• Which charity first comes to mind in the following areas of work?
• Have you had contact with the following (named) charities in the last 6 months?
• How effective were they?
• Please tell us what are the good things that charities can do to get media coverage… And the bad things!
nfpSynergy will automatically record the relevant data about each responding journalist: organisation, job title, type of media, speciality, and region.
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The Monitor is an online questionnaire which we carry out in-house. We normally receive around 200 completed questionnaires.
The survey sample consists of:
• National TV journalists
• Local TV journalists
• National radio journalists
• Local radio journalists
• Broadsheet journalists
• Tabloid journalists
• Local / regional newspapers
• Trade media
• Monthlies
• Freelancers
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We currently have 12 charities taking part: Alzheimer's Society, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Children's Society, Help the Aged-Age Concern, Macmillan Cancer Support, Action for Children, Missing People, NSPCC, Guide Dogs for the Blind, The Royal National Institute for the Blind and The Salvation Army.
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Existing subscribers to the Charity Awareness Monitor (CAM) will be charged £5,250 plus VAT, and non-CAM subscribers will be charged £6,250 plus VAT for a year (i.e. two polls). Charity Parliamentary Monitor (CPM) subscribers also receive a discount. Any bespoke questions clients would like to add to the survey will be charged at £500 + VAT each.
Subscribers receive:
CMM ReportFor each wave of research you will receive a detailed report, which breaks down the results and analyses trends. We will also send you the full set of data tables.
Executive summaryThis brings together all the results from the latest survey
List of verbatim commentsWe ask some open-ended questions and provide you with a report detailing what journalists wrote.
Invitation to regular nfpSynergy Insight eventsWe hold regular Insight events for all our clients, with presentations on a range of topics relevant to charities.
• Each participant is able to nominate journalists they would like to see included in the survey
• As well as full analysis and a full set of data tables, each participant can have a tailored set of tables incorporating the responses of journalists that are particularly interesting for them
Participants who sign up now will have access to all past reports and data. The next survey will be run at the beginning March 2010. If you're interested in taking part, get in touch (details below).
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For a briefing pack or more information please email Amandine Courtin (
amandine.courtin@nfpsynergy.net) or call her on 020 7426 8863
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