Tonight was the final Scripps PRSSA meeting of 2018 and the Chapter was excited to welcome Ohio University and Scripps alum, Samantha Tischler back to Athens!
She graduated from Ohio University in 2012 with her bachelor of science in journalism, specializing in public relations. She worked for the Advancement office at OU before moving to Cleveland in 2013, where she began working as a sales support representative at PR Newswire (now Cision). In 2014, she started at Case Western Reserve as a manager of donor relations. While at Case Western Reserve, she completed her masters in nonprofit organizations.
She also serves on the grant making committee of Neighborhood Connections and is a part-time stylist for Stitch Fix. Currently, she lives in Lakewood with her fiancé and three cats and spends most of her free time making pasta, eating pasta and thinking about pasta.
During her visit, Samantha covered event planning, nonprofits, media relations and more.
Here are some takeaways:
- “Donor relations involves a ton of writing, creativity, content creation and a huge emphasis on relationships.” Samantha talking about how PR and donor relations overlap.
- “Show up, do the work, do it well. You’ll start to become the go-to person.”
- “No job is ever going to be perfect, but put in the time and effort to bloom where you are planted.”
- During winter break reach out to alum, study up on companies or institutions that you might like and see what kind of roles are there. Some donor relations teams could be three people while others are over 20.
- Samantha once planned an event at the Plaza Hotel in New York City for Stand Up To Cancer and it was hosted by Katie Couric. Over 350 guests came to the event. These kind of events are meant to help show prospective donors what their contributions can do to help the world of cancer research.
- When managing a donor relationship, never take the angle of doing it for you or the institution, always point back to the donors wants, needs and passions and align what you have to offer with those things.
- The world of PR is so broad, keep your eyes open.
- When looking to grow in a position or seek a promotion make sure you did the work to become an asset to the company. Know your worth and always communicate what the promotion would mean for the company’s mission not your own.
Cade Fleming is a junior Journalism-Strategic Communication major and current Scripps PRSSA VP of PR. Keep up with him on Twitter @cade_fleming