Nonprofits: Patch.com offers volunteers, free ad space

Don’t view Patch.com only as a news-gathering website for hyer-local news.

Last month, when I shared 6 tips for pitching Patch, I didn’t know that nonprofits, community groups and anyone dedicated to a worthy cause can apply for free advertising space and volunteers that come directly from Patch’s staff.

It’s called the Give 5 program and here’s how it works.

Patch gives 5 percent of its advertising space, free of charge, to local charities from the communities it serves.  All Patch employees spend five working days each year volunteering in their communities.

For example:

• Patch volunteers tutored children in need in downtown Los Angeles.
    
• In Norton, MA, volunteers helped herd runners and feed them snacks during the New Balance Reach the Beach Relay.
    
• In Fairlawn-Bath, Ohio, editor Kymberli Hagelberg wrote about her volunteer stint at Stewart’s Caring Place in Fairlawn, a non-profit organization that provides free wellness services people who have been touched by cancer. Other editors do, too, and that means extra publicity for the organization that’s lucky enough to get a Patch volunteer.

Two paws up—way up—for Patch’s Give 5 program which gets journalists into the community and gives back.

Email them to see if you qualify.

Update on Aug. 16, 2011: Patch now has websites in Iowa, North Carolina and New Hampshire. It’s also starting a new series called “Dispatches: The Changing American Dream.” Read about it here.