Fund Raising Made Easy?

I helped out at my local NPR station this morning asking for pledges. The task was made easier because the listeners clearly value the content produced by NPR, APM and PRI. All of that is complimented by the local and regional coverage provided by WNPR. 

Fundraising begins with the content. The content generates the audience. The more time the audience spends with the station (loyalty), the more likely they are to give. 

Jack Callahan and I provided the impetus for giving by working on the balance of fundraising messages. We did our best to create a balance of case statements and closes. We communicated with each other about what we were going to pitch. We listened to each other and played off each other to drive the message home. We connected ourselves to the programming.

I've worked on other fund drives where the fundraising wasn't as effective. The messages were lost because of too much emphasis on the closes, premiums, funding facts or poorly constructed pitch breaks. Other drives didn't go well because the content was not up to listener expectations. In that case, no matter what was done during the fund drive, pitching was ineffective. This time, this morning, at WNPR it all came together. It wasn't perfect. We could have used some production help but, it worked.