Contact your local press and elected representatives
Being awarded National Lottery funding is a huge achievement and great news for your local community. Local newspapers, radio stations will be interested to hear your news. Ensuring local politicians are informed and inviting them to come and see your work can help raise your profile locally.
Contacting local media and local politicians are two great ways to help you tell your story and raise awareness in the community.
This is also an important opportunity to thank National Lottery players for making your work possible.
Identify which media to target
Contact newspapers that are available to buy or are given out for free in the area your project is based. If you are unsure which area they cover you can always ring and ask. Think about contacting your local BBC radio station as well as any commercial stations in your area. See if there are any local websites or blogs who might be interested in your story.
Find the best contact
It is worth calling the newsdesk of a newspaper or radio station to tell them your story and ask if there is anyone in particular you should send it through to.
Draft a press release
When writing this, think about the importance and impact of your project. How will it make a difference to the people you work with? How will it improve their lives? How will it improve the whole community? You can use our press release template as a guide.
Sending a press release
Make sure the subject matter of your email covers the story and the area, for example “Wolverhampton Community Centre Awarded National Lottery Funding”. Paste the press release into the body of the email rather than attaching it. And remember to always include your contact details!
Attach an image
Attaching a high quality image can really improve your chance of gaining publicity. Even photos taken on smartphones can work really well. Think about what you want the photo to say about your project - think about the setting and who to include in the photo. Make sure you provide the names of everyone in the photo and make clear who is who to help the newspaper caption the image properly.
Follow up with a phone call
Journalists get a lot of press releases each day and it will help if you give them a quick call to highlight your news.
Tell us about your success stories
We would love to hear when you get media coverage in your local area. Get in touch with us to tell us all about it!
Contacting your elected representative
You may wish to contact your local MP, MSP, MLA or MS to update them on the funding you have secured from The National Lottery Community Fund. You can identify your local political stakeholders by entering the postcode of your project
When writing to them you should reference the amount of funding you have received, the positive impact your project will have on the local community, and ask if they would be interested in visiting the project or event. If any visits are secured, please do inform the National Lottery Community Fund’s Public Affairs team at public.affairs@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk