Charities can provide programme makers with a window into the lives of real people, giving them new and often compelling ways of seeing the world. In return programme makers can offer charities opportunities to reach large audiences and explore issues in greater depth than our sound bite culture might otherwise allow. But how can charities look beyond news media to these opportunities? This was one of the topics at yesterday's CharityComms seminar.

Sarah Epstein, senior media officer at UNICEF UK, suggested two ways of doing this: piggy backing on the PR and publicity surrounding a relevant programme or by actually trying to get your organisation's message into a programme. UNICEF UK has managed both of these strategies extremely well.

By offering insights into people's lives around the world UNICEF UK became involved in travel documentaries: The Long Way Round and The Long Way Down featuring Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. This enabled them to reach a global TV audience of hundreds of millions and attract a huge amount of media interest and coverage in the DVDs, books etc that went along with the series. They also became involved in Channel 4 docudrama Sex Traffic which coincided with a relevant UNICEF campaign. This time they were involved later in the process- not by attempting to include any of their messages in the production but by forming a joint PR strategy which took the topic beyond entertainment.

So at what point in the production process should charities try to approach programme makers? Obviously you could approach them before the commissioning takes place- with ideas that could form the basis for programmes- but this is time consuming and can amount to nothing. Perhaps it is better to find existing commissions, as UNICEF UK did, and try to tailor your case studies to them. With long running series knowing who to approach can be easy but what about one off productions which are not widely known about until their completion? With this in mind I embarked on some research into how exactly charities can find out about commissioned pieces before production is completed.

After a few calls around to commissioning editors and independent production companies it seems this in not altogether straightforward as they fiercely guard their ideas from competitors.

Perhaps the best way to find out about opportunities is to forge relationships with programme makers. Sarah Epstein points out- if you like a documentary, you are more than likely going to like something they do future- therefore make contact with them, tell them you liked their work and offer them your case studies. To find out more about what different production companies have produced check their websites, Century Film's is good: www.centuryfilmsltd.com
Failing this I found some helpful websites including www.broadcastnow.co.uk which offers a section dedicated to commissioning news. There is also the Pact directory-www.pact.co.uk (although you have to be a member to access information on programmes in development). A directory of production companies and directors can be found on: www.dfgdocs.com.

If you don't find out about the programme until it hits the schedules don't lose heart- things are often repeated providing more PR opportunities.

Emma Wickenden
CharityComms coordinator