Harness this moment in our democracy to meet your community’s needs and strengthen your financial footing.
Navigate this toolkit
The upcoming 2024 election in November will impact every station of every format. What we know about past charitable giving during a Presidential election year is that giving to political candidates and causes does not decrease the total amount given to nonprofits. However, what is going to be diverted is attention. This is not a surprise; we are in an issue-overload moment: wars, inflation, extreme weather, abortion. These are high-emotion issues that are newsworthy and deeply concerning to Americans.
In the midst of all of this uncertainty, it will be critical to construct a plan for the next nine months that will help you navigate this election year and remain flexible enough to adapt to changing conditions.
A Fundraiser’s Guide to an Election-Season Mindset
1. Start planning now.
Do not wait for the fall to begin your election fundraising.
2. Increase the quality and quantity of your communications with donors
At news stations, election planning is likely underway on the journalistic and programming side of your organization. This could include a variety of activities that demonstrate your commitment to your community: candidate forums or briefs for local elections, producing a voters guide, working with the election office on get-out-the-vote efforts, or working with America Amplified.
These activities also present the opportunity to ask for funding to support this work from major donors and institutional funders who can act not only as financial partners but also promotional partners.
What to Do
Find out from your colleagues what election-related coverage and activities are planned.
Set some time now with your programming team to discuss planned election coverage and activities.
Plan your messaging and goals for fundraising around those plans.
Match these plans with your documentation of all currently planned fundraising activities between now and the end of November.
Identify if there are barriers due to staffing, or available on-air or online advertising inventory.
Dates to Watch
Begin Testing Messaging During Public Media Giving Days in May
Start testing messages about your station’s election activities and fundraising during this event on May 1-2, 2024. Keep track of what seems to motivate donors to give and refine your messaging so that by the time you get to late-summer fundraising campaigns, you have a good sense of how to use the election as a motivation for giving.
Clear Social Media in September
Submit and clear any ad campaigns you plan to run on Facebook during November and December by the beginning of October. In 2020, “political” ads were blocked for a period of time and nonprofits got caught up in this highly sensitive screening. There are no guarantees about what social media companies will allow during this election season, so it is important to clear your social media campaigns early.
Consider Making Asks of Major Donors Before November
Political giving spikes in the weeks leading up to the election, so if you have major donors you know are big political donors, it could be advantageous to ask earlier, in September rather than waiting until November.
Create Contingency Plans for CYE Fundraising
While everyone hopes that we avoid a protracted count to determine the election winner, we now have the experience of 2020 to guide us as to how a contested election cycle impacted programming and fundraising as calendar year end fundraising activity begins. Make sure that your communication plans include a contingency for this scenario as well.
Messaging
Americans trust nonprofits and they trust public media. But within the reality of misinformation and bad actors, it will be a challenge to hold our audiences’ trust while we are keeping them informed and engaged. This trust needs to be nurtured and developed with transparency, and strong, solid, regular communication, showing the impact of your election engagement and demonstrating how this work is a vital part of your mission.
Spend some time crafting your unique case for donors to support this work and this time.
Here are some questions to get you started:
- What do people want to know that you can provide?
- What will be possible if you have funding to do this work?
- What will not be possible without additional investment?
- Why are you uniquely positioned to do this work, what is different about your approach or place?
- Why should people trust you?
- What balance feels right between promoting news and respite from the news?
- How are your donors thinking about this election and what perspective would they appreciate seeing?
- What will make the donor feel proud about supporting this work?
Tips
- Send an email with a preview of the new election website to donors a day in advance.
- Have a journalist join a Zoom meeting for an “ask a journalist” conversation with major gifts prospects.
- Ask the team to commit to providing election coverage materials for each donor/member newsletter through the election.
Sidestep the Hostility
It is unlikely that the political climate will cool off. When communicating with donors, either one-on-one or through mass communication, continue to bring the message back to the values you share and be mindful of personal bias. Donors do not want to see nonprofits in general, including public media, appear to be partisan. Our communications must always be free from the acrimony that will undoubtedly arise.
Be Ready to Engage New Audience
History demonstrates that stations are likely to gain some audience as the election heats up. Evaluate, and potentially expand, the outreach that you will put into place once you gain that new audience as listeners, newsletter subscribers, podcast listeners, and event attendees. Don’t let the opportunity go by to acquire new donors as you gain a new audience. Ensure that you have follow-up emails, materials, and additional information ready to send out.
Read more about MPR’s audience development efforts during the 2024 Election.
Craft Local Fundraising Scripts Quickly!
Problem: Creating local radio fundraising scripts can be time-consuming.
Solution:
- Use Election On-Air Scripts for NEWS as a base.
- Note your station’s mission (vision and values) and a list of recent local content relevant to the issues your electorate cares about.
- Localize the scripts using your station’s mission and your recent stories.
Example:
Grounded by our responsibility to our entire community, [STATION] takes the lead in [OUR MISSION]. This [STATION VALUES] journalism you rely on from [STATION] requires significant resources.
As a [STATION] listener, you understand the crucial need for a public service that always pursues [STATION VALUES]. You hear it when [STATION] covers [RECENT CONTENT, e.g. Oregon’s lawmakers debating whether to impose political giving limits]. You hear it when we cover [RECENT CONTENT]. You hear it as we learn more from [LOCAL OFFICIALS] about what it may mean for [STATE/REGION] to [LOCAL ISSUE].
[STATION]’s focus on transparency, accountability and integrity and all it does to support the strength of our community is made possible largely through listener support. This is why your contribution is vital right now.