A fundraising press release aims to, as one might imagine, raise funds for a specific cause. This can be a charity fundraiser, making it a subset of a nonprofit press release, or it can be talking about raising funds for an idea or business.

The main elements of a press release on fundraising are good storytelling and a clear call to action. You want the person reading your story to feel compelled to take action for your cause, effectively adopting it as their own and retelling it to their own audience.

There's significant skill involved in crafting an effective fundraising press release, since there's normally no tangible benefit on offer to the audience beyond the feeling of having done right by the world. That means that you need to truly win over your audience if you want your press release to be effective.

That's why PR storytelling is vital.

Through your press release, you need to give people a hero to side with, a villain to destroy, and a method through which they can take action – no easy feat.

See how some of the best PRs in fundraising manage it in the examples below.