Fundraising & finance

From Nathan Moore, WTJU General Manager:

Hardly anyone gets into college radio because they love asking for money. But here’s the thing: your station has an awesome mission. You likely have big ambitions for it. And that requires funding. Perhaps more than your college is willing to pony up.

Doing some of your own fundraising will give you more resources to make your station thrive. Plus, in this day and age, administrators tend to look kindly on organizations that can raise some of their own funds.

Radio stations can raise money through all sorts of means: pledge drives, direct mail, crowd funding, business sponsorships, grants, events, and more. Each of these has pros and cons, and the whole thing can get overwhelming pretty quickly.

Before I launch into fundraising strategies, I want to share this set of truisms:

1. More than anything, fundraising is about relationships.

2. People are most likely to donate when we offer them a meaningful personal relationship combined with meaningful content.

3. If you don’t ask, you won’t receive many donations.

So where do you start?

One of the best potential sources of near-term support is your station alumni. At most of our stations, hundreds, if not thousands of DJs have passed through our studios. FOr many, it was the best part of their college years. You may not know them yet, but they already have a caring relationship with your station.

Here is what a step-by-step alumni giving campaign could look like:

1. Set up a system for your station to receive donations. Both one-time gifts and recurring monthly donations. Your college’s Development / Advancement office should be able to help with this or point you in the right direction. Just make sure the funds raised go to the station’s account rather than a general fund.

2. Figure out who your alums are. Some colleges maintain lists of almuni with affinity tags. If possible, get your Alumni Association’s list of graduates who were involved at your station. Lacking that, ask around to all the alums you know of. Have them think of classmates and older alums. Gather all the contact info you can and get each new alum to give you more names.

3. Connect with your alums. Use email to reach out to them. Ask them to follow you on whatever social media you’re good at, and engage with them there.

4. Plan a fundraiser campaign. Set a fundraising goal that feels reasonable and that reflects what your station needs. Then plan these several components of a fundraising campaign:

   1. Leading up to On-Air. Two or three weeks before the on-air component, reach out to all of your alums and any other listeners you have contact info for. Definitely use email blasts and social media. Also send a postcard or letter if you have the budget. Tell them about your upcoming on-air fundraiser, why donating matters, and how to give early.

   2. On-Air. Perhaps 36 hours for your first rodeo — 8am on Day 1 to 8pm on Day 2. Schedule your best hosts for these days. Bring in well-known guests and plan special programming. Train your hosts to ask for donations efficiently and frequently (5-6x per hour). You can also offer some thank-you gift to show appreciation for donations above a certain amount.

   3. After On-Air. Once your on-air drive ends, share whether you made your fundraising goal. Tell people its not too late to give and add to the total. Send an email receipt to each donor right away and explain how they can pick up their thank-you gift, if any. (Donation receipts may be / should be automatically generated by your giving platform.)

5. Steward your donors and cultivate the next gift. Within 30 days of a person donating, send them a note of thanks. Tell them why their gift matters and invite them to stay in touch. Add their email address to a regular email newsletter that you write and send to listeners and donors on a regular basis.

In recent years, I have given some presentations on how to develop individual donor programs at radio stations. Here’s a PDF of my presentation, which covers the above items and more.

There is a LOT to consider for each of these steps. Feel free to reach out at nathan.moore@virginia.edu if you’d like to talk through how to kick off your fundraising program.