Cause PR services
Cause PR services, explained
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Cause PR services earn media coverage for a mission, through pitching, press releases, journalist lead requests and events.
Susan von Seggern offers cause PR services as part of her Los Angeles practice, alongside event, corporate and cultural work. She uses a four-pillar framework of sustained media outreach, press releasing, lead service monitoring and events, adding podcast pitching and hyper-local coverage, and shapes each campaign around the cause's own news.
What do cause PR services include?
Cause PR services include finding a mission's newsworthy angles, pitching them to journalists and podcasters, announcing milestones with press releases, answering reporters' requests for sources, and building publicity around events. Susan von Seggern groups this work into four pillars, described below.
Crisis management, social media management and paid advertising are not part of her published framework, so ask directly if you need them.
On this page
What PR does for a cause
Definition: cause PR services from Susan von Seggern
Public relations shapes how the media, and through them the public, learn about an organization. For a cause, that means turning programs, partnerships, people and events into stories that journalists want to tell. Susan von Seggern's cause PR services aim at one outcome: earned media coverage.
The value of earned coverage is credibility. A story an editor chose to run reaches donors, volunteers and partners with a third-party endorsement that a paid ad does not carry. The work is persistent rather than one-off, which is why her first pillar is sustained, not occasional, outreach.
The four pillars in practice
Sustained media outreach
Identify the outlets and contacts who cover your issue and pitch them over time. Podcast pitching is part of this pillar.Press releasing
Announce significant milestones with an exclusive or pre-brief, then email servicing, then a newswire if budgeted. Susan recommends Business Wire.Lead service monitoring
Monitor five lead service feeds daily, plus journalist emails and Substacks, and pitch requests that match your expertise.Events
Large media events, small luncheons, sponsorships, conference talks, gifting events and gift bag inclusions.
Cause campaigns she has worked on
| Campaign | Year | What the release announced |
|---|---|---|
| Kids for Kenya, benefiting NextAid | 2011 | A child actor's Crowdrise campaign to raise at least $11,000 for his 11th birthday |
| Stand Up, Man Up! with And Then There Were Two | 2013 | A Change.org petition for responsible fatherhood with Everclear's Art Alexakis |
| DETOX documentary | 2021 | A film on technology addiction with a live Indiegogo campaign |
| Sleep To Live Well and Family Paths | 2025 | An inaugural community partnership and family sleep guide |
| Redesigning Nonprofits (Wiley) | 2026 | A book on rebuilding the nonprofit sector, with over thirty launch events |
Why media matters for causes
- of respondents said they were consuming more media (Price Weber)
- 87%
- of nonprofits use Facebook Pages, down from 96% in 2023 (Nonprofit Tech for Good)
- 93%
- lead service feeds Susan monitors daily
- 5
- pillars in her media relations framework
- 4
Sources: Price Weber, What Does Public Relations Do? and Nonprofit Tech for Good, 2026 Social Media Statistics for Nonprofits. The last two figures describe Susan von Seggern's own practice.
What skills does good cause PR take?
Good cause PR takes news judgment, clear writing, persistence and relationships. A publicist has to see which part of a mission is a story, write a release a journalist can use quickly, follow up without wearing out a contact, and know who covers what.
Susan von Seggern brings more than two decades of practice and a broad media and service-provider network to that work. She describes her style as honest, positive and tenacious.
Related: charity media relations, press releases for nonprofits, and the main nonprofit PR Los Angeles guide.
Common questions
- What is cause PR?
- Cause PR is publicity for a mission: a nonprofit, a campaign, a benefit event or a company program tied to a social issue. Susan von Seggern lists cause clients alongside event, corporate and cultural clients, and her past releases include campaigns for NextAid, And Then There Were Two, and the Sleep To Live Well Foundation.
- What are the four types of PR?
- Textbooks sort PR in different ways, so there is no single official list. Susan von Seggern organizes her media relations around four tactical pillars: sustained media outreach, press releasing, lead service monitoring, and events. Together they cover proactive pitching, formal announcements, reactive opportunities from journalists, and live moments the press can attend or cover.
- What are some examples of PR activities?
- Common PR activities include pitching story ideas to reporters, writing and distributing press releases, booking podcast interviews, hosting media events, and arranging sponsorships or conference appearances. Examples from Susan von Seggern include a call for participation for SewDown at LA Fashion Week, launch events for the book Redesigning Nonprofits, and a nonprofit partnership announcement for Sleep To Live Well.
- What is a PR strategy?
- A PR strategy is a plan for which stories you will tell, to which outlets and audiences, using which tactics, and when. Susan von Seggern builds individualized strategies that pair newer tactics such as podcast pitching and hyper-local coverage with established methods like events, press releases and sustained outreach, chosen to fit the client's news.
- What does a PR person do?
- A PR person finds the newsworthy angles in an organization's work and gets them in front of journalists, podcasters and other influencers. In Susan von Seggern's practice that means identifying target outlets and contacts, pitching them, writing and servicing press releases, answering journalist lead requests, and building media attention around events.
- Is there a public relations package for nonprofits?
- There is no published off-the-shelf package. Susan von Seggern describes her campaigns as individualized, built from her four pillars of outreach, press releases, lead service monitoring and events in whatever mix your news calls for. A launch might lean on a press release and wire distribution, while a fundraiser might lean on event publicity and local outreach.