ROLES OF PR IN NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

FUNCTIONS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS IN NGO MANAGEMENT.

The functions of public relation department differ in different NGO organizations depending upon their nature and activities. However there are certain standard functions which are common to most of the organizations. They are as follows:

1)      Policy:

a policy is a statement of guidelines to be followed in the company .public relation policy is required for every organization .it has to develop and recommend corporate public relation policies and has contribute the public relation viewpoint which helps in the formulation of decision. Its function is not only to provide the policy to the top management but also to the other sections and divisions.

2)      Publicity:

In order to interact with the public it is necessary to have corporate publicity. The department has to undertake the issuance of announcements of corporate activities to the external communication media. It also has to handle inquiries from the press. It is one of the important functions of the department to develop and place promotional publicity about the organization as a whole or any of its units.

      3) Relations with Government:

It is necessary to maintain healthy relationship with the government policies as it helps in conjuring funds in form of government grants and donations etc.

     4) Community Relations:

Community contacts should be well planned and co-ordinate. Activity such as environmental protection standards, equal employment opportunity and co-operating in urban improvement programme should be undertaken.

      5) Shareholders Relations:

In order to attract public money it is necessary and important to maintain good relations with corporate stockholders. This can be done in the form of communication between the company and the shareholder including the investors. The company can be made more acceptable among the investors by broadening the exposure of the company policies and financial results in the investment community. These includes preparation of annual reports, etc. it has also to plan and stage the annual meetings of the shareholders.

6)      Product Publicity:

The public relation department has to develop and execute the promotional product publicity campaigns. In case of NGO organizations, they promote their product as the cause for which the NGO is operating e.g. welfare, child welfare, nature and health awareness, aids awareness etc .in these publicity the focus is on the cause and how to popularize them. It includes announcement of new cause or products through the editorial channels of communication media.

7)      Employee Publications:

The public relation department has to prepare a corporate donation policy for the company contributions various aspects involved in this function include processing request for donation, administering company’s foundation etc.

8)      Promotion Programme:

The public relation programmes broadly covers institutional promotion programmes design to build corporate acceptance of key policies, special events, public relations, literature and institutional advertising other functions include:

a.       Public relation education programme.

b.      Advisory functions.

c.       Co-coordinating activities.

d.      Conveying and interpretations.