I thought your comments were brilliant. I hope NPR is listening. In NYC they have used Alec Baldwin (a staunch supporter and frequent guest) to comedic end - doing a similar ad style as he did for Hulu.com on the TV and that was the only time that I honestly listened and paid attention to their message.

I could not agree more.  Having lived in five different cities, I believe this is a national model.  They use it everywhere—and it is just as tiresome and offensive in those towns as it is in New York.

Bravo! As a fellow WAMU listener, I also abhor their fundraising drives. The Maryland PBS TV station also does something very similar on air that is equally obnoxious. It should be about sharing the story of those who support the station and why, so others want to do it too - not an exercise in torture! I hope they pay attention.

Oh my goodness, I thought it was just me!  The grating voice of ex KCRW station manager Ruth Seymour single-handedly drove me from supporting the station.  And the drives seem to be increasing in length, from 9 to 11 days in the past few years. Interminable.

I believe this is a national model.  They use it everywhere—and it is just as tiresome and offensive in those towns as it is in New York.

Great post, Katya! 

Funny, I was thinking the same thing but didn’t have the guts to say it. 

Public radio fundraising is AWFUL!  (BTW, I give too.)  It’s a big guilt trip and a total drag.  And, I hate how it goes on forever.  I just stop listening during these drives.

I LOVE your idea of having members talk about why they LOVE NPR.  What a simple, smart fix.

NPR are you listening???
Jocelyn

Thanks everyone - so WAMU, are you listening?  I even posted a link to this post on their Facebook page - so far, nothing…

Amen!  Two points really stuck out for me—1) utilizing their own storytelling capability to fundraise and 2) the idea of mixing social norms and marketing norms.  Yes, that is exactly what is happening, and why I as a listener feel confused after the ask.  Great post.

I moved from DC—where I stopped listening to WAMU during fundraising—to Vermont, where I actually came to look forward to VPR’s campaigns. They actually do play clips of supporters and journalists talking about specific stories or shows that touched them in some way, followed by an ask. There’s plenty of room for improvement, but VPR’s model creates a real sense of community around the station that lead even the flat-broke farmhands I worked with to donate.

Spot on Katya - seems to be the case in every place I’ve ever lived or travel—and your suggestions are a breath of fresh air ... ah, Fresh Air (pun intended).

During these campaigns I dream of the day where once I’ve made my contribution I am able to opt out of the fundraising messages altogether! They would have something else, something special for those who contributor early   Can’t happen via the radio (at least not yet) BUT it could via the online stream!

Brilliant!  As always, your advice is spot on and I hope that NPR is listening!

Completely agree! Though I have to give credit to my hometown NPR station WJCT in Jacksonville, Florida - they’ve had supporters get on the air to fundraise and it was quite effective. They also played the “what-would-your-world-be-like-without-NPR” to great effect. Always a pleasure to support them.

I definitely agree! I’m an avid WAMU listener, support, and I volunteered this year during the drive, but I abhor the drive! It would have been much more fun if they involved the volunteers or listeners more.

Update: I also commented on Twitter to @wamu885 but still no response.  I hope they read everyone’s comments! Keep them coming, maybe we can change their drive - and drive more dollars to the station.

Katya,
I’m sorry you’ve had to endure this.  As a program director at a public radio station, I can tell you that public radio has done a lot of growing up in the last several years when it comes to fundraising.  I can’t speak to WAMU, bit most stations (including mine) make an honest effort to do some of what you mentioned.

The issue is resources.  While I’m not making excuses, prepping for a highly produced fund-drive fund drive is extremely labor intensive as well as taxing for a small staff.  Not to mention, most people who work in public radio aren’t really great at selling - which is why we got into public radio in the first place.

Is it easier to just open the mics? Sure.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t come close to even making for good radio.

Katya et al,

Thank you for your opinions about our on-air membership campaigns…and for your personal support.

With regard to using listeners/volunteers on-air, or recorded testimonials, it’s true some have compelling stories to tell of how public radio has affected/ changed their lives, but it’s also challenging to find listeners/volunteers who actually know how to tell their story AND effectively ask for contributions.  While you and your readers believe having listeners (the vast majority of which do not donate to their stations) doing the asking would increase giving, experience has shown us that the opposite is the case, with other listeners asking “who is he/she?”  It’s the local/NPR/APM hosts that are most effective in raising contributions on—the-air. 

We do use and have used members on-air in each campaign.  WAMU has a theme every campaign, and all produced spots revolve around the theme supported by audio from national and local programs.

On-Air Membership Campaigns serve a number of different, important purposes…beyond simply raising the money:

It’s the quickest way to identify and ask for new listener contributions…and to ask those whose annual memberships have expired to rejoin.

It is a chance for volunteers to have a tangible role in the raising of operating support.

It’s a teambuilding effort, during which everyone within the station becomes a fundraiser.

It’s a marketing effort to seed the local membership with station-branded items to build awareness and audience.

I can’t speak for the entire system or for other stations, but for WAMU, it is two, seven-day campaigns twice a year (and a five-day file-building campaign solely during Morning Edition during the first month of our fiscal year…with a number of members, not dollars, goal). 

Thanks to the continuing growth in support, we’ve been able to limit our on-air campaigns to 14 days each year since 2003.  Without the revenue from these campaigns, however, we would have to make hard choices about our programmatic offerings.  On-air membership campaigns are a unique, week-long program without which the other 49-50 weeks of the year would not be available to listeners/members/ volunteers with the current program schedule. 

WAMU uses public radio research strategically, and part of that research determines those hours that have the largest return on investment.  Over the course of our seven-day campaign, there are many hours in which we do not actively appeal for contributions.  Out of the 168 hours of broadcasting during our week-long campaign, we actively appeal for 86 hours..

While on-air campaigns are perhaps the most–visible (and contentious) fundraising method in public broadcasting, it’s not so much a matter of “we’re sticking to what works,” (which it does), but a matter of “using a highly diversified fundraising program” so as not to put all our fundraising in one basket.  BTW, WAMU’s direct response program raises the largest amount of individual, membership dollars each year.

Regardless, WAMU’s recent campaign set a new record for giving.

WAMU’s service is alive and thriving, thanks to the generous support to those who chose to give, like you, irrespective of method. If you’d like more information, please review WAMU’s financial statements and annual reports at wamu.org–under “About.” 

Thank you!

This is great advice that would improve a lot of nonprofits fundraising efforts.  Thanks for the fantastic post, as usual!

Dear Michael,

Thanks.  If the issue is resources, I will donate time to your station (wherever it is) to brainstorm low-cost ideas for you.

Katya

Dear Walt,

Thanks a lot for listening. 

I wish you gave your listeners more credit and were more open to new ideas.

I don’t think it’s hard to find listeners who can talk about your station in a compelling way. In fact, there are other stations that do this.  And there is a huge body of research showing fans are often more effective messengers than spokespeople (including studies from Cone).

As for giving voice to your base, I don’t think you give us enough credit for our ability to articulate our feelings about your station.  I’m not suggesting “open mike” but rather recording stories from listeners and airing them.  They are out there if you ask for them.  Can’t you put out a call to record stories about WAMU on the listener comment line, with a promise the ten best stories will go online during the next drive instead of station staff appeals?  I bet you would get some stories.  In fact, on this post there are at least 10 professional marketing and fundraisers experts who love public radio and could probably tell a story. 

I wish you’d let the members play more of a role - and I also wish you’d consider the other ideas here.  You have fiercely loyal listeners, but as one of them, I don’t feel like a member of your community.  I feel like an ATM machine.  As a fan and professional fundraiser, that leaves me disappointed and sad.

I agree with your comments about NPR fundraisers.  Since our local NPR station went to all talk, I have listened to WCPE, The Classical Station, all day at work (it can be streamed on the internet.) The same day I read this, I heard them ask for people to call a number at the station to record their thoughts about the station to be used in their upcoming pledge campaign.  I will be interested to hear how effective those recordings are when they use them.

Hmmm, let’s think. Public radio puts on great programming most of the time except when they fundraise. How could they all of a sudden get dumb during those weeks? As someone who has worked beside public media fundraising people I can answer that definitively - wht they’re doing now? - it works. Your ideas - good as they may be - fall into the programming category. Believe me, it’s been tried over and over and over again. Make your fundraising more interesting the very-well meaning folks suggest and then EVERYONE will give .... no, it does not and has not ever happened that way. All the dozen or so stations I have personal knowledge of has tried a variant of that and it works the first time with nice success but never works again. The listener HAS to be off-put in order to give. It is human behavior here. All of you who have offered suggestions, please go to your local station and offer to do an hour for them. It might work, the overwhelming odds are that it won’t and you’ll leave thinking , “oh, I guess I see why they do it, they’re not so dumb after all.”

MattinKY:  Thanks so much for sharing your take!  A few comments on what you asked about… My family has volunteered, and it hasn’t changed my mind.  And if you noticed, a commenter here also volunteered and was still unhappy with the method used. 

I would like a definition of what works.  The recent fundraising drive had 8,000 people giving, which is only a tiny fraction of listeners.  I’m not sure I’d call it a success…  Except compared to the same other drives.  I’m not advocating interesting fundraising, I’m advocating effective fundraising that deepens the relationship with those listeners.  Two different things.  And relationships always work in fundraising. 

I don’t mean to imply anyone is “dumb,” in fact I think public radio people are pretty darn smart and wonderful.  What I do want is to challenge stations to question transactional models and forge deeper relationships with their listeners, especially given the seismic shift in the expectations and relationships consumers have with organizations.  Transactional fundraising may work a few more years with a certain generation, but it will not work forever.  I want my station to survive and thrive in the new marketplace.  That’s why I wish for some changes.

Thank you Katya! There has to be a way to make the fundraising guilt + begging easier to swallow. This is tough love WAMU!

Katya,

Something needs to happen to there NPR’s fundraising methods. Why not have a bigger push through social media outlets? Being interrupted every nine minutes, is not exciting at 6:00 AM. Thank you for the post.

This post makes me so grateful for my local NPR and classical radio station, WGUC, out of Cincinnati.  They handle their fundraising campaigns with class.  This last December, they had a campaign and used just about everything you mentioned.  I loved listening to people who had been giving to the station for years - how they had lived in other cities and couldn’t wait to come back just for the quality of broadcast and content from WGUC.  It prompted me to remember what the station had meant to me at various stages of my life and I gave for the first time this year.  I even emailed the station to let them know and to tell them why - one of the broadcasters read my email over the air.  I feel much closer to the radio station now and I identify with them.

So, it is possible (for any NPR agents who may be reading) and beneficial to put your fundraising in the hands of your current members.  Let them do the footwork, chances are they are ready and willing!

Thank you for your comments. I wonder how the time NPR spends on fundraising and thanking donors compares to the time spent on ads on commercial radio.  I’ll bet it’s a close call.  Personally I turn off the station (both NYC and QXR) for the entire begging time.  It is offensive, I HATE it and will not listen to any of it.  It does NOT work on me—I send in my check annually at year-end but am wondering if there is an alternative out there…  Any suggestions?