Mona’s AMPPR takeaway

Part 2 of 3 — By Mona Seghatoleslami, West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Spring is in the air, and spring fund drives are on the air on public radio stations around the country. Stations that align their drives with nationally coordinated dates will be starting this Friday (March 28), while others have worked out their own schedules that fall close to these dates.

The Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio conference a few weeks ago dedicated an entire day to topics in fundraising, including how to fundraise in a troubled economy. Here’s a summary of what was discussed in those sessions, along with some of what I plan to do with what I learned.

Fundraising consultant Jay Clayton gave two presentations. First up, “Fundraising in Down Economic Times.” He addressed two questions: “What happens to giving during the down economy?” and “How should we talk about the economy on-air during our spring drives?”

The main message? Don’t panic, stay focused, and don’t apologize or back off. Giving doesn’t drop during down economic times; it drops afterwards. Corporate giving drops more than individual giving; some individual donors may not give, but there are other potential donors out there. Stations tend to be less aggressive during a recession, which means they miss opportunities to grow their membership, and then they have fewer people to ask for money when the economy improves. Public radio has the capacity to gain half a million more givers than it now has.

In terms of on-air strategy, Clayton suggests asking people to give gifts of any size (but don’t be afraid to occasionally ask for large gifts), acknowledge the state of the economy but don’t dwell on it, emphasize the value of public radio during troubled times, and don’t assume your listeners can’t give. (Don’t feel guilty about asking for money — people are still going out to eat.)

A session on listener-focused fundraising presented the results of a study that reviewed recordings of Morning Edition during fund drives at 24 stations. The best stations were as much as five times more effective at converting listeners to donors. The study observed the characteristics of the most effective fundraisers:

• Intent — clearly pitching what they wanted people to do
• Focus — regardless of the chosen approach, staying focused on it throughout the drive and never veering off-message
• Planning and Preparation, and
• Performance – make most decisions before you are behind the mic. But you’ll be less distracted if you follow the other steps well.

Clayton mentioned the “Stairway to Given” — the five steps listeners go through before they become givers.

1. listening
2. reliance (quantitative: amount of listening)
3. personal importance (qualitative: value of listening)
4. sharing funding beliefs
5. giving

He said that effective fundraising reminds listeners of how the station is funded — they don’t necessarily think about this all the time. Pitchers should clearly explain what, why, where, and how, and their messages should focus on the value of the station and the importance of listener support. Also, they should focus on the entire station (not individual programs) and not rely too heavily on sweepstakes, matches, or gifts. And always tie it to the listeners and their needs and interests. Don’t just talk about making the goal because you want or need to.

Clayton gave a lot of good advice. But everyone took out their pens and made notes when he revealed that public radio gets just $1.53 in federal funds per taxpayer each year — not very much at all. That fact can combat the attitude that public radio relies more heavily on money from the government than from its listeners.

The other fundraising session was a panel with Valerie Kahler of American Public Media/Classical 24; Jody Knol of WKAR in East Lansing, Mich.; Joan Kjaer Kirkman of Iowa Public Radio; and Nicole Anderson Stern of Classical South Florida. They talked mainly about preparing, practicing, and planning breaks. They also talked about recording testimonials from listeners and how to get them to convey the station’s message while still being personal. Kirkman says that she asks, “Why do you listen?” and “When and why did you become a member?” She also said that editing is key to keeping testimonials concise and relevant.

I plan to put into action these elements of the fundraising sessions:

• Experiment with shorter, more focused pitch breaks. I normally allow eight minutes, but apparently five minutes is considered a long break!
• Plan and script my breaks.
• Learn more about the hours I plan and pitch: How many people give, and how much? Use this information to determine when I talk about what.
• Focus more on listeners and what they want instead of being silly and showing off. This is difficult for me. I want to entertain people and have fun, but it’s probably more important to respect the listener’s time and to focus on what we’re doing — asking for money.
• Start to build a library of listener testimonials — during the summer, when we have more time between fund drives!

The three fundraising sessions provided enough material that they took over this entire blog post. I’ll write about all those other topics I promised at the end of Part 1 in my next installment.

If you were at the conference, what did you bring home from these sessions? Even if you weren’t, share your thoughts and questions in the comments.