March 23, 2006 | Read Time: 4 minutes
Leah Kerkman
To motivate donors to increase their contributions from a few hundred dollars annually to a much bigger amount,
most charities do not have the support being provided to the more than 100 public-television stations now participating in an $8-million fund-raising project paid for by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
But based on what they have learned from six months of intensive training and numerous visits from consultants in the project, many of the participating stations say that charities can increase their chances of winning big gifts of $1,000 or more without spending a lot of money. They offer the following tips:
Start small. Even though it may be tempting to ask for huge gifts initially, fund raisers should initially set their sights low and increase the sums they solicit gradually as donors begin to respond, says Tim McDowell, director of major and planned giving at WJCT Public Broadcasting in Jacksonville, Fla. WJCT, for example, started a giving club to honor donors who give at least $1,000 outright, aimed at people who had formerly given a few hundred dollars but only in exchange for a DVD or other premium.”We would prefer that our major giving level was at $5,000 or $10,000,” says Mr. McDowell. “But that’s not where we’re at.”
Set realistic goals. “Select achievable goals and then make them more difficult,” but only after donors step up their giving, says Mr. McDowell.
KVIE Public Television, in Sacramento, succeeded in its initial efforts to secure large gifts, including several in the $15,000 to $25,000 range, by carefully analyzing its financial reports on fund-raising practices, says David Hosley, president of the station.
The reports provided a road map of steps the station needed to take, Mr. Hosley says. By looking at the data, the organization was able to determine what types of fund raising might bear additional fruit, like making on-air pitches for big gifts during their pledge drives. Frequently looking at what was working and what was not, he adds, helped KVIE secure 60 pledges of $1,000 or more during this month’s on-air drive, at least double the number in the 2005 campaign.
Share information internally. Bonnie Rabicoff, vice president of development and community partnerships at KCPT Public Broadcasting, in Kansas City, Mo., says all staff and board members involved in fund raising must keep open lines of communication about the people they are soliciting.
“We have six different areas in fund raising,” she says, “so we’re talking to each other to make sure auction and underwriting aren’t knocking on the same door.”
Everyone involved in fund raising also needs to be informed of any changes, says Peter W. Morrill, general manager of Idaho Public Television.
“You need to have the whole organization knowledgeable about what is being done,” he says. “If the staff is not fully behind this, you’re going to come away with a wobbly program.”
Get in touch with peers. Stations have received good advice from talking to other stations during monthly conference calls, says Gerard O’Connor, senior vice president of development at New Jersey Public Television and Radio, in Trenton. “We talk to each other. What worked for you? And why did that work? You might call that other person directly,” he says. “Everyone’s so willing to share information. That has been incredibly beneficial. What works in Peoria hopefully will work in New Jersey.”
Assess staff members’ efforts. KVIE, in Sacramento, says that before it could mount an aggressive campaign to seek big gifts, it assessed how good a job its staff members and trustees had been doing in soliciting donations of $1,000 or more. The idea was to figure out what was realistic, based on past history, but instead “it caused us to take apart and put together our whole major-giving approach,” says Mr. Hosley. “We realized that things had not been done at the level that they should be.”
The station changed its approach, and replaced its fund raiser with a person who had experience soliciting big gifts. So far this year, the organization is on track to increase its big gifts by 50 percent over last year’s total of $200,000.
Show donors results. Idaho Public Television, in Boise, asked people to make big gifts to support the creation of special programs it wanted to produce, and as a result was able to show off those programs to donors and make it clear what their contributions had paid for. People who annually make small gifts do so because they enjoy the station’s regular programming, says the station’s marketing director, Kim Philipps. “But when you’re asking for gifts of $5,000 and above, they want to see where their gift is going.”
