Difficult Pledge Drive Days Ahead?

It’s getting harder to generate contributions through public radio pledge drives.  Most stations are still getting good overall results, but the cost of getting those results is going up.

Sometimes the cost is more on-air fundraising. It is taking more of the station’s time and more of the listeners’ time to generate a contribution. Sometimes the cost is greater leverage. That is – stations are having to offer more, or more expensive, incentives to generate a contribution.

Probable Causes

Success with monthly Sustaining givers appears to be having an effect on drives by cutting into the potential number of annual renewals received during the drive. Declining AQH (Average Quarter-Hour) audience is another possible cause. Lower AQH means listeners are using the station less. That could result in listeners being less likely to give.  It certainly reduces the number of potential respondents to an on-air fundraising appeal.

There could be external factors as well. People are being asked to immediately part with their money at unprecedented rates these days. The junk mail and telemarketing calls of 25 years ago now follow us out of our homes and find us 24/7. The amount of daily asks is numbing. Public radio pledge drives appeals are fighting through much more clutter just to be considered let alone acted upon.

Measuring Pledge Drive Success

The primary metric we use to measure on-air fundraising success is Listener-Hours to Generate a Contribution. Using Nielsen Audio audience data, we answer the question, “how many hours of listening must we expose to fundraising to get someone to give?”

Or, put another way, how efficiently are we spending our listeners’ time to get a single contribution? A lower number is better. The goal is to maximize the pledge drive return against the expense of the disrupting the listening experience.

In a PPM-measured market, an efficient pledge drive for an NPR News station generates one contribution for every 300 hours of listening exposed to fundraising. That’s like putting 300 people in an auditorium and playing public radio content for an hour, except that their experience will be interrupted 4 to 5 times in that hour with 4 to 6 minute fundraising appeals. At the end of that hour, one of the 300 people will make a contribution in the amount of an average gift.

Two Trends

We see on-air fundraising following two trends. Some stations are adding more fundraising hours and exposing more listening to pledge drives to meet their goals. The fundraising efficiency metrics at these stations don’t improve, they get worse. The stations still meet their goals, or come relatively close, by applying more brute force.

The other trend involves applying more Leverage to the fundraising ask. We haven’t settled on exactly how to best measure Leverage, but we believe the broader concept is sound. For now, consider the Leverage to be the weight of the incentives offered to generate a contribution or to raise a dollar.

Here’s an example. Ten years ago a station offers a dollar-for-dollar match and the fundraising efficiency is 150 Listener-Hours (LH) per Contribution. That means the match is twice as efficient as the average hour of fundraising, which took twice as many LHs (300) to generate a contribution.

Today that match has an efficiency of 200 LHs per Contribution. It’s less efficient at turning listening in to contributions. So the station decides to offer a free tote-bag to anyone who gives during the match in addition to any other thank you gift they take. More listeners respond to the offer and the efficiency returns to its prior number of 150. The station achieved its prior efficiency by applying more Leverage.

This is happening at a lot of stations across the country stations. They are offering more incentives each drive and offering more of them  simultaneously to maintain fundraising efficiencies.

Is the Problem Too Much Talk About Stuff and Not Enough Talk About Mission?

Probably not.

Mission messages are great for convincing listeners that they should give to the station but they aren’t particularly effective at motivating people to actually pause their busy lives to give at that moment. The well-executed “Mission” focused fundraising hours tend to fall in the 400-500 LH efficiency range.

A pure Mission approach to pledge drives would likely require a plan that exposed listeners to 33% to 50% more fundraising to meet the overall drive goal. That’s like turning a 9-day pledge drive into a 12 to 14-day pledge drive. As you might imagine, longer drives tend to drive efficiencies down even more.

What’s Next?

Subsequent postings on this topic will go a little deeper into Leverage, Sustainers, and off-air fundraising including the use of email, social media and database solutions.

One final note. In the past we’ve observed that public radio might have more of a spending problem than a fundraising problem. The money stations are spending on increased local news offerings and digital initiatives is outpacing their ability to monetize those activities. They are currently money losers. That puts pressure on the core radio service to generate “profits” to subsidize those activities.

One of the possible answers to slipping pledge drive efficiencies is to reduce the revenue burden they must bear through smarter spending on local news and digital.

Good Fundraising

The Fall fundraising season is off to a very strong start with most stations we've worked with meeting or exceeding goals. Some stations have exceeded last Fall's results by a lot.

It is especially important right now to remember that programming is the cause of giving, not the premiums or sweepstakes prizes. The news over the past 10 months has been extraordinary and public radio's coverage of it has been exceptional. Any fundraising message helping listeners recognize the value they've received from listening is fundraising time well spent.

The fundraising tactics -- premiums and giveaways and challenge grants -- help motivate listeners to give at specific times and in certain ways. That's important, but don't lose sight of the value of programming.

It is also important to again note the excellent work on sustaining giving by MPR. Today, sustaining giver plans are one of the most powerful approaches to attracting new members and reducing dependency on pledge drives.

Fundraising messages that link public radio's extraordinary news coverage to monthly giving are particularly effective right now. Arbitron data show that Core listeners engage with their stations 40 to 60 times per month. In that context, $5 or $10 is an exceptional investment.

Good fundraising to you.

The Best Fundraising News in Years

Public radio stations have a strong tradition of sharing innovative and proven practices. It’s one of the industry’s best traits and it was on full display at this year’s Public Media Marketing and Development Conference.

That’s where Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), WBEZ Chicago, and WNYC/WQXR New York shared their success in developing sustainer fundraising programs. “Sustainers” donate to the station on an open-ended, monthly basis via credit card or an electronic funds transfer from a checking account.

Sustained monthly giving has been somewhat of a holy grail in public radio fundraising and while some stations had some success with it, these stations have unlocked to route to it. MPR has dramatically increased its annual donors in the past two years through sustainer programs while reducing on-air fundraising days by 25%. You can read about it in Current, the trade publication for public radio and TV.

Nearly 40% of WBEZ’s donors are Sustainers and they account for half of the station’s membership revenue each year. Having more than $300,000 in monthly revenue has helped the station’s cash flow and allowed WBEZ to become less-dependent on traditional pledge drives.

Consumer acceptance of automatically paying for services such as Netflix probably played a big role in the success of these sustainer programs but that success was no accident. The folks at WNYC made a concerted effort to introduce monthly giving at the outset of converting WQXR from a commercial to a public radio station and they were very successful. WBEZ has developed some excellent donor-service practices to make the sustainer experience a rewarding one for the listener.

Best of all is that these organizations came to the conference as evangelists for the Sustainer approach. They backed their enthusiasm with free support materials and advice to help other stations jumpstart Sustainer programs. NPR is also making a significant contribution to the Sustainer revolution by providing listener and donor research on Sustainers.

Many thank to Valerie Arganbright from MPR, Andrew Arganbirght (yes, they are related) and Jill Shepherd from WBEZ, Lisa Torres from WNYC/WQXR, Lori Kaplan from NPR, and Barbara Appleby (formerly NPR and now MPR) for providing this leadership.

It all adds up to the best news in year in public radio membership fundraising – more donors, net revenue, less on-air fundraising, and new possibilities for creating a more positive experience for those who give to public radio. This is something every station can benefit from in the next few years.

New PPM and Fund Drive Study in the Works

DEI, NPR, and John Sutton & Associates (JSA) are conducting a study in PPM markets of audience response to fund drives.

This is the first comprehensive study on listening patterns before, during, and after fund drives. JSA conducted the first PPM and Fund Drive analysis along with Paragon Media Strategies in December 1997. That study was limited to just a few stations and analyzed top-line audience response only.

The new study also aims to establish on-air fundraising benchmarks for PPM stations. These benchmarks will help stations you evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of their fund drives.

Stations subscribing to PPM data in Fall 2009 are being asked to participate. We plan to release our reports in two parts later this Spring.

Part One will study listening patterns and overall fund drive results. The objective is to quantify audience loss (if any) around fund drives, determine how quickly listening levels recover, find out if certain demographics or dayparts are affected more than others, and if there is a relationship between overall fund drive results and audience gain or loss during fund drives.

Part Two analyzes contributions and dollars received by dayparts and hours during the fund drive. The results are analyzed against the actual listening in those dayparts and hours. This information will be used to calculate each station's efficiency at turning listening into contributions. National benchmarks will be established and stations will be able to analyze their results against the national benchmarks. This is very practical research that will help stations develop better strategies and tactics for getting more listeners to give more quickly.

DEI is contacting potential participants about the study. Please forward any questions to John Sutton, john@radiosutton.com or Jay Clayton, jayclayton@comcast.net.

Reinventing Pledge Drives

It's looks like a very successful fall fundraising season in public radio. Most of the stations we worked with matched or exceeded last Fall's results. A few stations had record-breaking drives for dollar raised and number of givers. Direct mail and other off-air fundraising appears to be strong as well.

A few more stations conducted one-day pledge drives including WRKF in Baton Rouge and WFDD in Greensboro/Winston-Salem.

Several stations -- WSHU in Fairfield CT, and KBSX in Boise, WBHM in Birmingham -- are trying to reinvent their fundraising by conducting nothing but 1-Day drives. They are following the lead of KBBI in Homer, Alaska and more recently, KUNC in Greeley. WSHU even published its plan to do nothing but 1-Day drives. You can see that here.

One big question we had about 1-Day drives is what happens when the station doesn't meet the goal? We now know the answer as a few stations have missed their goals.

First, the station typically makes at least two-thirds of the goal. For example, a station that usually raises $150,000 in seven days raises $100,000 in one day.

Not surprisingly, there is a let-down among station staff members. That's followed by a recognition that the station just raised $100,000 in one day, blowing away any previous level of fundraising performance without having to use any premiums, sweepstakes, or challenge grants.

A series of on-air spots and eblasts over the next week further reduces the balance of the remaining goal. Then the station comes on the air to mop up. Most stations hit goal with another day of fundraising. Instead of interrupting programming for seven days, the goal is met with just two days of preemptive pitching.

Audience response to this is quite good. Listeners appreciate the transparency of the process. In time we will learn if they appreciate it enough to make future 1-Day drives successful enough to abandon longer drives for good.

No matter what happens, it's great to see so many stations trying to address that old listener question, "Can't you do something about those long, annoying pledge drives?" These stations are trying and the lessons learned will benefit all of public radio.

Fundraising Mystery

It's public radio pledge drive season and it appears to be going quite well for most stations across the country.

We know a lot about why listeners contribute to public radio, why the give when they do, and why the give certain gift amounts.

One of the great mysteries that remains, however, is why some stations get lots of contributions while offering few or no premiums while others can't meet their goals without selling a laundry list of mugs, t-shirts, gift certificates, and other stuff.

Is it that well-educated, societally-conscious listeners in some cities need more inducement than similar listeners in other cities? Is so, why would that be? Do they value the station less than their peers in other cities? Or is the difference on the station side of the microphone?

Web Giving, Interrupted

Here's a tip for public radio stations getting ready to do their fall fund drives.

When sending eblasts, it is important to put the phone number in body copy using a format that let's the user dial the number by clicking on it.

Why?

Because more people are reading emails on their smartphones, but not pledging through those devices. The opportunity to get people to act is as they are reading the email. You just can't count on them remembering to reopen the email at a later time.

Until giving via a mobile device is as easy and common as over a computer, you'll want to extend the recipient's giving options by making it easy to call in a contribution when the email is first opened.

Update: Best of Public Radio and Fall Drives

The Fall fundraising season is underway and early results are promising. Stations we talk to are making higher goals on time or with a little extra fundraising. Direct mail revenue is up in several markets. Good luck to everyone who has yet to go.

The Best of Public Radio: The Lighter Side did well this summer. About two-dozen stations have used it so far. Others are using it as part of their Fall on-air drives.

As with the 2008 End-of-Year on-air special, some stations did better than others. We're looking at the results and lessons learned and refining our plans for the end of the year special.

The 2009 EOY special will again feature 3 hours of turnkey fundraising programming. The broadcast window will be larger and stations will have more flexibility in where the special can be scheduled. There will be an option for more local pitch time for stations wishing to put more elbow grease into their broadcasts. The 2008 special focused on web giving only. The 2009 special will accomodate web and telephone giving.

As with last year, the EOY on-air fundraising special is part of a package that includes direct mail, eblasts, and on-air spots. Look for a full announcement with more details in the next week. Materials will be available beginning October 23.

Everybody But NPR...

Just about everybody in public radio but NPR is raising money directly from listeners.

PRI is doing it. So is American Public Media. Independent producers are doing it. Stations that produce national programming are doing it, including a few that are adamant that NPR should stay out of their markets when it comes to raising money from listeners.

Some of these national appeals are a straight request to donate to a production such as The Splendid Table or The Kitchen Sisters or Marketplace. PRI takes contributions from listeners at its website and occasionally asks them to give there during PRI underwriting credits.

Some appeals are for money to cover new media costs. This American Life has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars using new media – emails, Facebook, and spots at the top of podcasts -- to support its podcasting service.

Good for them.

Public radio can only benefit from finding more ways to solicit listener contributions, including NPR asking for money directly from listeners. The business model, how NPR charges stations for programming, has to change to make this work. But it can be done and everyone can benefit.

This is not a popular position with stations but stay with this, please.

NPR Can Help Get Lapsed Donors Back

Public radio’s annual donor retention rate is only 60%. Put another way, the current approach to fundraising fails to retain 4 out of 10 givers each year. That’s 1,000,000 givers per year.

At an average annual gift of $80, public radio stations are failing to renew $80,000,000 in support annually. The number could be even higher when lost additional gifts are factored into the equation.

With direct fundraising NPR could help keep as much as 25% of that money in the system each year, with most of the money going back to stations along with the names of the renewing donors.

Remember, these are donors who did not to renew despite 4 to 10 direct mail letters from the station, maybe a telemarketing call, email appeals, and hearing numerous fund drives. This is found money.

NPR Can Help Get Additional Gifts

Research shows that public radio givers will support multiple stations in a market, provided they listen to and value both stations. Listeners who give to more than one station typically will give equal amounts to each station. They don’t want to hurt one to help the other. It’s one of the benefits of having a societally-conscious audience.

That behavior will play out nationally too. Many people who give to stations will gladly give to NPR without reducing their support to their station. If just one percent of NPR’s weekly Cume makes a contribution of $80 to NPR annually, in the form of an additional gift to public radio, then the industry has $24,000,000 million dollars in new gross revenues.

Yes, some givers, but not many, will choose to only give to NPR, but there are ways to compensate stations for that money and to help stations get even more donors.

NPR Can Help Stations Acquire New Donors

This is the obvious approach. NPR can leverage its brand and economies of scale to conduct direct mail and email acquisition campaigns. What seems cost-prohibitive to many local stations is very affordable on a national level. All that’s needed is a model for making sure that all boats rise together.

And that’s the crux of the matter. Public radio has the wrong discussion when it talks about who should be asking for money. That’s a no-brainer. Everyone who can ask efficiently and effectively should be asking. This American Life is proof of the power in national fundraising.

The harder part is figuring out how the network and stations work together to share in the growth. That requires new business models and trust and the new business models are actually pretty easy. It’s just math.

Trust will only come through experience. That’s why the industry must move forward with some experiments now. Any one of the above suggestions will do. Success for all will breed trust. Nothing less will.

Until then, public radio is muffling its single most powerful fundraising voice at a time when it is getting harder to be heard. There’s no sense in that.

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Note: The This American Life national fundraising effort was through the program's producing station, WBEZ, not it's network, PRI. All contributions were to WBEZ.

The NPR Pledge Drive Fuss

Nothing stirs the public radio pot like a conversation about NPR raising money directly from listeners. So when the Washington Post printed an article saying that NPR was considering a pledge drive to battle budget shortfalls, reactions were swift and strong.

Current.org has a good summary of the article and some related links here. NPR CEO Vivian Schiller sent an email to stations stating NPR was not pursuing the pledge drive option. Aaron Read, who frequently posts to this blog, commented on the topic on his Fried Bagels blog.

As someone who has worked at stations, for stations as a researcher and fundraising consultant, and at NPR as a researcher and provider of fundraising service to stations, all I can say is this:

The industry is losing money each year by not allowing NPR to raise money directly from listeners.

Whether the issue is fundraising or audience growth, public radio chronically suffers from the belief that its pie can't get any bigger. People believed that 20 years ago. They believed it 10 years ago.

But static-pie thinking views the future through an Either/Or lens. It can't see the Both/And possibilites.

We know from past research that listeners to two stations will support both stations and give average or above average gifts. They have room in their budgets to do both . Even now. Even in this economy. In fact, the best way to raise more money in a down economy is to ask more often and in more ways. Many listeners would gladly support their station and NPR if given the opportunity.

The issue here shouldn't be whether or not NPR should be allowed to raise money directly from listeners. The issue should be how NPR and stations can work together to grow the revenue pie with stations and NPR making appeals.

Making this work starts with understanding that raising money from listeners and how stations pay for programming are related but separate issues. NPR raising money directly from listeners without sharing revenues and/or reducing station fees wouldn't be fair. A central piece of any direct fundraising effort has to focus on how the money is distributed and how NPR charges stations for programming.

Everyone could have more money to spend, if only public radio can get past its belief that the pie can't get any bigger.

It's Not Just for FM Anymore

The survey of listeners and donors to the Best of Public Radio 2008 special showed that the more ways listeners accessed public radio content -- multiple stations, the web, podcasts -- the more likely they were to donate to their favorite station.*

This is an important lesson. Using more public radio content, even if not on their favorite station, has a positive impact on giving to that station.

This shouldn't be a surprise. Past studies have shown that the more listeners use public radio, even when using more than one station, the more likely they are to donate.

Listeners' conception of what public radio is today has changed. It's much broader than the industry's conception of itself.

Public radio is radio plus podcasts plus streaming plus printed information on the web. It is a local station plus NPR.org plus the This American Life site plus whatever.

Live in Baltimore and want to hear All Thing Considered at 8pm? Stream KPBS. You still wake up and drive to work listening to Morning Edition on WYPR and catch Diane Rehm during the day. If you miss Wait Wait Don't Tell Me at 11a on Saturday, you can still hear it over the weekend at your convenience on your computer or iPod. And you still donate to WYPR.

A public radio station's path to better audience service and greater financial security doesn't begin with hoping listeners won't use public radio on the web or through a podcast. It begins with great programming and an understanding of how listeners now conceive public radio.

It's not just for FM anymore.


* You can see some of the survey results beginning on page 24 of the BOPR 2008 project report.

Cliches R Us

"During these tough economic times, more than ever, you are the public in public radio, which is why your gift matters because, at the end of the day in a tough economy, more than ever, you need public radio and we need you and remember every dollar makes a difference... during these tough economic times."

Really folks, we can do better than this...

Not All Public Radio Stations Control Their Destinies

It’s time for many public radio managers to address this critical question.

Is my public radio station worth saving if most or all of the subsidies went away?

The reality is that as many as half of all public radio stations probably couldn’t survive the loss of all state, university, and federal support. In essence, these stations do not have control of their destinies. Many of them could be wiped out with the single stroke of a pen, as happened to WMUB in Ohio. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Since its inception, DEI’s Benchmarks for Public Radio has tracked a metric called the Community Financial Support Index (CFSI).
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CFSI measures a station’s ability to cover its operating budget, minus direct fundraising costs, with net fundraising revenue. An index of 100 means a station could fund is current operating budget on net revenue from individual giving, underwriting, event revenue, etc.

Every year, DEI Benchmarks show the median station CFSI is around 65. That is, the typical station could cover just about two-thirds of its operating budget, not including fundraising costs, with community financial support. Put another way, the typical station would have to cut up to a third of its budget to survive the loss of subsides.

Most stations probably could not survive cuts that deep if they happened all at once. But many of these stations could survive if their dependence on subsidies were gradually reduced.

History shows that more listeners will step up and give more money when subsidies go away. Stations such as KUNC in Greeley and WYPR in Baltimore (formerly WJHU) effectively turned independence from university control into significantly greater levels of listener support.

Once heavily dependent on university subsidies, these stations were forced to take control of their own destinies. They accomplished that through improvements in fundraising results an, sd spending practices. Losing their remaining subsidies today would be very difficult, but like other high-performing stations, they are positioned to adjust and survive.

KUNC and WYPR, along with WRNI in Providence, are rich with lessons on how public radio stations can become more important to and sustained by the communities they serve.

Unfortunately, the public radio industry treats these success stories as anomalies to be avoided. Greater independence from tax dollars and greater long-range security for the station’s core service are shunned in favor of maintaining the status quo.

If public radio has learned anything over the past 6 to 10 months it’s that economic change is here and the status quo won’t cut it anymore.

Is your public radio station worth saving if most or all of the subsidies went away? Assuming the answer is “yes,” then it is time to take control of your destiny and start planning on greater self-sufficiency.




Jay Clayton contributed to this article.

More Federal Dollars = Less Listener Support?

Every action has side effects.

A potentially big side effect of asking for the asking the federal government for bigger subsidies for public radio is a drop in listener support.

It is well established that a listener’s funding beliefs are an important piece of his decision to give. The more a listener believes listeners fund public radio and that government support is minimal, the more likely he is to give.

There’s research to back this up, but anyone who was raising money for public radio during the Gingrich era knows it is true. Serious threats to federal funding bring out the best in listeners.

On the flip side, news of the big Kroc endowment to NPR caused many listeners and donors to question the importance of their support. Some stations felt the Kroc gift stunted giving at first.

Asking for more federal money risks listener support. It might be necessary to make that ask for stations in dire need, but the side effect could be a drop in donors across the country.

There’s no way to gauge the impact in advance. At a minimum, it will make it more difficult to convince listeners who have never given before to contribute. Every 5 percent loss would translate into an industry-wide loss of between $12 and $14 million. The impact would continue in out years because of a smaller donor pool. .

It’s also important to point out that healthy stations, the ones that don’t need extra federal support, could lose donors and dollars on news that the industry is asking for more money, even if those stations don’t receive new tax dollars.

All of this must be considered in the calculus of approaching the government for extra subsidies. What looks like free money could have significant hidden costs.

February Fundraising: So Far, So Good

We have a few client stations holding on-air fund drives right now and most are at or over goal. One station started yesterday and missed its daily goal by just a few percentage points. So far, it looks like a typical pattern of daily results.

We haven't had a chance to dig into the numbers but donor response seems strong and we are still seeing some $1,000 and up gifts. That's a similar giving pattern as last fall and the end result was stations meeting or exceeding their goals with more donors and a smaller average gift.

More donors giving smaller gifts is a good thing at any time. It's a positive sign about the value of the service.

Our advice for now -- don't lower your expectations. If you expect less, you will get it. Instead, give your listeners a chance to help you succeed.

Don't Create Your Own Economic Crisis

There is lot of discussion in public radio about how "these uncertain times" and the bad economy might affect fundraising. Some stations are already lowering their goals without giving listeners a chance to help them succeed.

We're advising clients to stick with their goals and find creative ways to meet them. That's because there isn't a station out there that can't improve its fundraising in some way.

Thanks to meticulous planning and great execution, the Winter fund drive at all-classical KBAQ in Phoenix is off to a strong start, running slightly ahead of goal after two abbreviated days of fundraising. KBAQ uses no premiums. Their drive continues through Saturday, wrapping up with the Met Opera. Yes, the KBAQ fund drive is over when the fat lady sings. Well, almost over. They usually get in one more appeal right after that.

KUNC in Greeley, CO repeated its success with a 1-Day drive. Their first one in the Fall went way over goal. This Winter 1-Day drive finsihed more than 110 contributions over goal and exceeded last Winter's 3-Day drive results by more than 300 contributions. You can read more about it here.

The down economy might just be the best time to try something like a 1-Day drive or an All the Money, Half the Time drive. It seems counter intuitive. Harder times typically require more effort. But dramatically shorter fund drives capture the listeners' imaginations. Shorter drives transcend the everyday.

Instead of assuming a tough economy means less money, why not seize the moment to create an economic victory for your station?

A free 1-Day drive kit is available here.

EOY Fundraising Update

Listeners continue to support their stations through the GiveToPublicRadio.org website. As of 1p today:

2,038 gifts totaling $166,729

It looks as though more than $35,000 was given through local station sites and phone numbers so the total is likely to exceed $200,000. We'll know more in a few days.

Best of Public Radio 2008 Update

The Best of 2008 fundraising special aired on more than 70 stations today. The overall response was good.

As of 6p (et), the special, hosted by Wait Wait Don't Tell Me's Peter Sagal and Performance Today's Fred Child, has generated 1,597 contributions and $130,006 for stations through a special website, www.givetopublicradio.org.

Many stations reported increased contributions at their local websites and some stations were receiving pledges over the phone. We do not yet know how much came in through other sources in response to the special, though it appears to be in the tens of thousands of dollars.

The special was part of a larger end of year campaign that included direct mail, eblasts, and on-air spots promoting web giving. Some stations reported increases in YTD end of year giving of up to $10,000 through these channels.

We didn't know what to expect from this experiment. The on-air fundraising special was very different from most pledge drives.

• All but 6 minutes of each hour was national content, with Peter and Fred doing most of the asking.
• The special preempted regular programming with "best of" moments from 2008.
• It's a holiday weekend.
• It was a web-based fundraiser, promoting on-line giving. On-line giving represents about 1/3 of revenues received during regular fund drives.
• The website was new to listeners.
• All gifts had to be made with a credit card. No invoice pledges were accepted. Today's totals represent money in the bank.
• There were no premiums, challenge grants, hourly goals, or sweepstakes.

Some stations did exceptionally well. Others received very little response at all from the same programming and fundraising messages.

The average gift, from the same on-air appeals, ranged from around $40 to $127. The overall average was just over $80, which is what we typically see at stations that don't use premiums.

Technically, the day went extremely well. There were very few glitches.

There's a lot to review and a lot to learn from today's special. We'll report back to you as we have more information.

I believe we can build on today's success to create better fundraising for stations in the future. Thanks to NPR, PRI, APM, Public Interactive, DEI, Peter Sagal, Fred Child, Ira Glass, the Car Guys, Matt Martinez (our producer), Jay Clayton, and Sonja Lee for their help.

And many thanks to the more than 70 stations willing to try something new.

Voting and Public Radio Giving

Yesterday's voter turnout represents a 10% to 12% increase in voters over the record set in 2004, depending on which numbers are used.

Yet the AP reports that turnout was down in some states such as Wyoming and South Dakota and possibly among Republicans in general. The reason given -- they were discouraged.

It's a good reminder that human nature is the most powerful force guiding human action. People who believed that the outcome of this election affected them personally and that their individual action could make a difference turned out to vote.

It works that way in public radio too. People who believe public radio is personally important and that their individual contribution makes a difference contribute.

It's no wonder then that many NPR News stations reported record numbers of new donors during their fall membership drives. Public radio's coverage of the election and the economy has been exceptional. It made a difference in listeners' lives.

The next time you're in a conversation about why a minority of listeners give or how to get more donors for your station, think back to this Election Day.

It's not the tote bag, coffee mug, sweepstakes prize, or challenge grant that converts a listener to a giver. It's whether or not that listener believes his or her individual action makes a positive difference. It's basic human nature.

End of Year Fundraising

You might have already seen the announcement about the Best of 2008 fundraising special. It's a project we're putting together with Jay Clayton, NPR, PRI, APM, DEI, and Public Interactive.

The centerpiece of the project is a national fundraising special to air on Saturday 12/27. Peter Sagal and Fred Child will host. Ira Glass and the Car Guys will be featured. We will look back at the most compelling moments in public radio in 2008.

There's an off-air fundraising component as well with direct mail letters, eblast copy, and on-air support spots to run from Thanksgiving to December 31.

The Project Overview and FAQ is here. (PDF)

Stations can sign-up here.

Is there something you heard on public radio in 2008 worth including in the special? Submit your suggestions via email: john@radiosuton.com.

Thanks.