Maverick Indonesia

Maverick CSL Success Story: PIRAC survey made headline in The Jakarta Post

Recently, a visit from PIRAC (Public Interest Research and Advocacy Center) brightened up my day as coordinator of Maverick’s Corporate Social Leadership program. Hamid Abidin and Ninik Annisa, two researchers from PIRAC called up, saying that they were coming down to Jakarta from their head office in Depok. They had some good news to share. They had me wondering what the good news was. PIRAC was one of the NGOs that Maverick provided training in Media Handling Skills back in February 28, 2007. The training is part of Maverick’s Corporate Social Leadership initiative, where we use our assets - knowledge and expertise in communications and communications skills - to help NGOs communicate better so that they can get more funding and be able to espouse their causes more effectively.  

When Hamid and Anissa showed up it turned out that the good news that they had was really pleasant indeed. “One of the things we learned at Maverick’s Media Handling Skills training was how much the media liked to carry news about surveys,” he said. Shortly after the training, PIRAC polled 2,500 respondents from 11 major cities in Indonesia on the who donated to what causes. They then packaged the results of the survey, which they titled “The Pattern and Potential of People’s Donations” into a newsy press release and called a press conference on April 2, 2008. The result: prominent coverage of the survey results and of PIRAC as the organization behind the survey in several top-tier newspapers such as Kompas, Republika and Bisnis Indonesia and several online publications. Their proudest achievement in the exercise, however, was that the story made it as the lead front page story in The Jakarta Post. Hamid said that undergoing Media Handling Skills training with Maverick was an eye opener for them as prior to that they had no clue on how to spread the word on their public interest research results. But once they underwent the training they knew what to do, from developing their key messages to angling their press statement so that it would appeal to journalists, and on what actually to say during the press conference and subsequent interviews.   Hamid and Anissa’s face beamed as they showed me and my Maverick colleagues the pile of press clippings that were a result of that press conference. They are now all fired up to replicate the success of this exercise with publicizing the results of surveys on the potential of alms giving (zakat) and on women empowerment issues. They have also been invited as guest speakers in an upcoming 13-episode TV series on philanthropy that will be aired in Jak-TV. It is gratifying, in the midst of working for our clients for commercial reasons, to know also that we can also make a difference in the “do good” industry.It feels good to be doing some good for people and institutions whose primary motive is to improve society. If you belong to a NGO and think that your organization can benefit from having better communications skills you might like to know that Maverick is currently selecting two NGOs to work with in its 10-month DIY Public relations courses. We’ll also be providing pro bono Media Handling Skills training sessions for up to five NGOs in 2008-2009. Write to me at sharon@maverick.co.id if you would like more information.