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We moved to two on-air drives per year from three a few years ago. Gradually, our two drives began to lengthen as our goal increased, and they can go two weeks long. This fall we are attempting to complete the drive in just over half the usual time (about 8 days).
The last few years we have not had much pushback because we have been trying to reduce the hours we pitch on air to ease things for our audience and pitchers.
I don’t think we want to revert back to three shorter drives a year, I think we want to really hone our on air skills and provide the clearest talking points and scripts for our pitchers so we can continue to produce two drives that are as efficient as possible. We could do more promotion outside of live pitching days, i.e. pre drive and post drive.Who from your station needs to be on your team? What important role does each of them play?
Have you involved these team members in past drives?
Are there any new additions to your team that you’ve considered?1) We have a committee that meets weekly leading up to each drive that consists of GM, Development, Hosts, Producers, Music Director. The GM helps oversee along with Development team. Development plans the whole drive including schedule, challenges, thank-you gifts, web and call center, on air and web materials, etc. Hosts and music director give input on on air messaging and music scheduling, producers help with testimonials, produced promos. Aside from the core planning group, we work closely with member support, database team, web team.
2) These team members have been on the team for years.
3) Recently, we added another Development team member to the core group for a new perspective who is not directly involved in planning but is knowledgeable about the station and pitches on air.We are a classical music station. The two personas I created are:
One – Reginald, 75, lives in Florida with his husband but they are from Chicago where they first found the station and listen through streaming. Degree educated, passionate about music, arts, concerts and being active in his retirement. Listens to the station for both calm and musical education. Appreciates the tone of the station, respect for the listener. Used to take thank-you gifts but no longer. His giving is all but guaranteed, he’s a long time member and will give once a year only, if he’s tuned in to the drive or receives a letter around the time of his renewal month.Two – Rebekah, 42, lives in Chicago, she and her husband are working parents to two kids. She plays the station in the car for everyone, and sometimes at home. Rebekah listens because her parents did, it was a part of her childhood. She is passionate about access to the arts for everyone in the community, especially young people, and one of her kids plays the violin. She values the station’s emphasis on and commitment to showcasing works by under-represented composers and playing a variety of classical music. Her giving is more spontaneous, and more likely driven by talking points on air and special incentives from pledge drives like thank-you gifts that she can share with her kids.
Both listeners are good prospects for the sustainer program. Talking points would focus on what specific things the station brings to them individually.
We tend to schedule our challenges in smaller blocks like 1-2 hours, because we often have smaller challenges and we also need to recognize a number of our donors by name over the air, so we keep them separate from other challenges. I would like to know how other stations create longer challenge periods, and do you find these work better?
Re: retaining members by way of acquiring them is a really helpful thought. We are trying to reduce the number of thank-you gifts we offer, but we will continue to offer them along with other incentives because they do work and are what listeners are expecting, but we are also working on making our messaging really clear and efficient, and that’s something I am looking forward to learning more about on this course.
I’m interested in learning about others’ approached to social media leading up to and during on air drives as well
How long has your station conducted on-air fundraising? – I believe 15 to 20 years
Have you been involved in the planning process? – I have been involved for 4 years
What other elements of fundraising do you need to be aware of at your station as you plan your on-air campaign? – Our station does a lot of acquisition, lapsed, renewal campaigns through digital and mail. We need to be mindful of those different audiences especially for emails we send during the drive, so not to over solicit them year round.I’d love to learn more about encouraging more support from new members – and more structure and focused messaging. Our hosts are all very good at on air pitching and ad-libbing too, so I’m keen to learn from everyone how I can provide them with even clearer messaging so they can be as effective as possible.
Hi Paroma, I also am looking to find out more about listener motivations and refreshing listener incentives! Alice (Classical WFMT)
Hello! I’m Alice McNulty, at Classical WFMT in Chicago. I am an Associate Director of Development, co-producing the on-air drives for four years now.
The biggest pain point might be continually finding new incentives for listeners to give – I’d like messaging to be at the forefront. And the length of our drives. Typically, we hold two longer campaigns per year.
I would love to learn about listener motivation, messaging that works for music stations, tips for more efficient drives, and ideas for different listener incentives.
