Prohibition is a charity PR agency in Leeds that helps UK charities raise money, recruit supporters and get heard by policymakers. Our appeal work for Martin House Children’s Hospice helped it reach 100% of a £2m public target, with donations up 74.5% on the year before.
Some of our charity clients
What should a charity PR agency deliver for you?
Charity PR has to move a number your trustees already track. Prohibition plans every charity campaign backwards from that number, whether it is an appeal total, new sign-ups or a meeting with MPs, and reports against it.
Martin House Children’s Hospice needed £2m from the public towards THE BUILD, its £21.9m redevelopment. The appeal had to stay visible for months in a crowded giving market, so we ran a rolling programme of real family and staff stories, timed to appeal milestones and news hooks. Coverage ran in The i, Bella and the Yorkshire press, with more than 20 TV and radio pieces.
The appeal reached 100% of its £2m target. Combined media reach hit 162m, donations rose 74.5% year on year, and £30,000 came in during the window after one TV feature. The campaign won the Charity/Not for Profit Award at the PRCA DARE Awards 2026 (North England and Midlands).
How do you make a charity statistic newsworthy?
Give the number a physical form that a camera can film. Yorkshire Cancer Research wanted people to grasp that 2,600 people in Yorkshire are diagnosed with cancer every Christmas, in the busiest news month of the year.
We built a walk-in snow globe at Sheffield Winter Garden, with one flake for every diagnosis, and invited the public to step inside. Seven supporters told their own stories to the media on the day. The installation earned 25 pieces of coverage, 13 broadcast features and 82.2m reach.
The same thinking rescued Give It Some Welly in summer 2020, when Covid cancelled the charity’s mass events. We turned it into a county-wide Guinness World Record attempt that people joined from home on Yorkshire Day, launched with a welly installation at Castle Howard. It won 32 pieces of coverage, including BBC Radio Leeds, BBC Radio York and The Yorkshire Post, and 85% of participants were new supporters.
“Newsdesks get dozens of charity releases every week. The ones that run give a camera something to film and a real person to explain why it matters.”Chris Norton, Founder and Managing Director, Prohibition
Can PR help a charity influence policymakers?
Yes, when the policy ask arrives with a picture that politicians and journalists can both use. Yorkshire Cancer Research had strong policy work that few people knew about.
We turned 500 supporter pledges into 500 paper roses. Professional cyclists Charlie and Harry Tanfield, brothers from Yorkshire, rode them from Harrogate to Parliament, and we briefed health and political correspondents so they could follow the ride mile by mile. At Westminster, MPs met the roses and the people behind them.
The ride earned 79 pieces of coverage, 56 broadcast features and 81.2m reach, and engaged 12 policymakers. The charity called it its strongest policy moment to date.
How do you keep a long campaign in the news?
Give every stage of the campaign its own story. For We Walk for Yorkshire, a walking relay across the county, Prohibition pitched each leg as fresh news. Local spokespeople, supporter case studies and photographs were ready in advance, so newsrooms could run the story the same day.
Four planned media moments produced 81 pieces of coverage, 38 of them broadcast, and the relay hit its fundraising targets.
Step out for Yorkshire used five mapped running, walking and cycling routes, published on OS Maps, as its news hooks. Ryan Sidebottom, Daniel Goodfellow and the Tanfield brothers backed it, and chief executive Dr Kathryn Scott did a radio day. The campaign earned 130 pieces of coverage, 116 of them broadcast, including BBC Look North and BBC Radio Leeds.
Do you produce charity video and social content?
Yes, and it is made in-house. Prohibition’s video team, led by head of production Andy Ireland, films supporter stories and appeal content, so a charity deals with one team from the first idea to the final edit. The Step out supporter films were shot by that team and cut into social posts before and after the event.
We have also made appeal films for Yorkshire Children’s Charity. On social, our Social 360 listening tracks what people say about your charity in real time, which gives you early warning when a conversation starts to turn.
What happens if your charity faces a crisis?
Charities run on public trust, so a fundraising complaint or a row on social media can hit donations within days. Prohibition runs a crisis and reputation service alongside its charity press office, with holding statements, spokesperson training and monitoring in place before anything goes wrong.
How does Prohibition measure charity PR results?
We measure against the AMEC framework, which separates outputs, out-takes and outcomes. Coverage and reach are outputs. Engagement and new supporters are out-takes. Outcomes are the numbers your trustees care about: money raised, supporters recruited and policy change.
One lesson from our own work is to track donations by source from day one. On Give It Some Welly we could prove that 85% of participants were new supporters, but we could not tie income to each part of the campaign. We now agree that tracking with every charity before launch.
How much does charity PR cost with Prohibition?
Prohibition works with charities in two ways: a monthly retainer for an always-on press office, or a fixed fee for a single appeal or campaign. The price depends on how long the campaign runs, how many media moments it needs, and whether you add video, social or events. We give you a written quote after a first call.
How long does charity PR take to work?
Regional and broadcast coverage can land within days of a well-built media moment. Appeal income usually builds over weeks or months of repeated exposure, as it did for Martin House. Plan for at least three months on a fundraising campaign and longer for policy change.
Is Prohibition the right charity PR agency?
A good fit
Prohibition suits charities that want PR tied to a clear target, and that can give us access to the people behind the cause. Most of our charity work has been for Yorkshire charities, including Yorkshire Cancer Research, Martin House Children’s Hospice and Yorkshire Children’s Charity. Our media contacts run from The Yorkshire Post to national newsdesks and broadcasters.
Probably not the right fit
We are not the right fit if you need a public affairs firm to lobby government full time, or if your budget only covers occasional press releases. A freelance charity PR or a short project will serve you better there.
Prohibition is a previous PRCA Agency of the Year and a member of the Worldcom PR Group. Our Martin House appeal won the Charity/Not for Profit Award at the PRCA DARE Awards 2026 (North England and Midlands).
Questions charities often ask us
Do you only work with Yorkshire charities?
No, we work with charities across the UK. Prohibition is based in Leeds and pitches national titles and broadcasters every week. Most of our charity case studies come from Yorkshire, so we know its newsrooms particularly well.
Can you train our spokespeople and supporters?
Yes, and we often do. Prohibition runs media training for chief executives, staff and supporters who will speak to journalists, so they are ready before the cameras arrive.
Talk to Prohibition about your next appeal
Tell us what you need to raise, who you need to reach and what you have tried before. We will give you an honest view of what PR can do for it. Prefer to talk? Call us on 0113 430 4160.
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