Press Outreach Toolkit

Building relationships with local media is the key to success with your Riding For Focus program. Media relationships are necessary to build greater community awareness, and will help bolster your programs fundraising efforts. The provided materials below are a tool to help you connect with the journalists and media in your community, including, but not limited to, daily newspapers, broadcast TV networks, and local radio stations.The main goal of media outreach is to build relationships with local journalists so they are empowered to share news on the Riding For Focus program through their stories and broadcasts.

Press Outreach Templates

Draft Templates to help you in reaching out to your local media effectively and on message. Please use these templates as a jumping off point, be sure to personalize them and make the necessary edits within the highlighted sections. Please feel free to include images and videos where possible to increase the interest, however please avoid large attachments that use space and flood inboxes.

After you have sent your note to your targeted journalist, please be patient when waiting for a response. Please remember that journalists are very busy and pestering them can often lead to annoyance. It is important to be patient and respect their time.

If you do not hear back in a week, it is appropriate to follow up with a polite note. If you do not hear anything after following up twice, please move on from the unresponsive contact and try connecting with a different journalist. If you have any questions regarding the press relations process, please reach out to lien@outridebike.org for guidance.