KQED Public Media, in San Francisco, has more than tripled its online fundraising, from $2.3-million in 2008 to $7-million in 2013. The station has 200,000 members, a third of whom donate online.
And that number is expected to grow even higher, says Michael Lupetin, the organization’s vice president for marketing and brand.
The organization saw only modest gains until it hired staff members with digital expertise in 2012. Those new team members include Mr. Lupetin, whose background is in marketing for film and television companies, and Andrew Alvarez, the nonprofit’s digital fundraising specialist.
The station hired Mr. Lupetin because it wanted to integrate marketing, advertising, branding, and membership programs. Unlike at other public media organizations, membership programs at KQED fall under marketing, not fundraising.
Mr. Lupetin says, “In one year of building digital activities, we increased digital revenue by $1.1-million.”
According to a 2013 Chronicle survey of online fundraising at larger charities, KQED raises approximately 20 percent of its support digitally.
Here’s how KQED achieved its success:
Got creative with email.
In 2012, KQED’s email list included 195,000 people. That number has since jumped to more than 350,000, in part because it sent more messages. At first, the organization was hesitant about emailing its subscribers too often but realized its reluctance was holding it back.
“People love them and share them,” Mr. Lupetin says. “Then the person they share with signs up. Good old-fashioned word of mouth always works.”
Email turned out to be a powerful way to raise money and speak to its supporters’ personal interests. KQED now sends three emails a week, each in eight versions to fit a variety of preferences. It also regularly tests what email content works.
“We’re not asking for money all the time. We’re giving information about what people love,” says Mr. Lupetin. “We make sure the donate button is there, and every so often we have the ask.”
Made donating easy.
KQED promotes “sustaining memberships,” in which supporters make a monthly gift automatically on their credit or debit cards.
Monthly giving is popular with new members, 40 percent of whom become recurring donors.
KQED anticipates 50 percent more people will donate online to the charity in the next three years, so it makes sure emails and websites are mobile-friendly.
“On air and online, everywhere that we are, we push the fact that we make it easy to donate online,” Mr. Lupetin says.
Quickly capitalized on unexpected opportunities.
When Mitt Romney debated Barack Obama in October 2012, he made a controversial comment about Big Bird and his desire to cut government funding to PBS, of which KQED is a member.
As soon as Mr. Lupetin got wind of that comment, he texted someone on KQED’s social-media team to respond immediately. He then drafted an email in 20 minutes, asking supporters if they thought Big Bird should be thrust into politics. If not, they were encouraged to contact PBS’s lobbyist.
After running the email by its legal department and getting staff’s reactions to the comment, the message was sent the afternoon after the debate. The effort netted more than $50,000 raised directly from clicks through the email, which included a button to donate. Another $30,000 came indirectly through phone calls or its website reference to the Big Bird comment.
The average gift was $112, and 90 percent of donations came in within 10 hours of receipt of the email.
“We weren’t asking for money, we were asking for emotional and intellectual support,” Mr. Lupetin says.
By connecting to donors in ways that do not necessarily involve money, KQED has built a loyal support base that is thriving online.
“When a human being is in the room with you and they shake your hand and they’re looking at you in the eye, you’re more likely to give,” he says. “That’s hard to do in digital, but knowing people’s behavior and understanding who they are and what they relate to is a way of doing that.”
By the Numbers
Percentage of members who are monthly donors:
- In January 2013: 6 percent
- In November 2013: 21 percent
- Forecast for 2015: 30 percent
Number of people who received the Big Bird email: 224,000
Open rate of that email: 27.5 percent, compared to an average of 21 percent for emails sent earlier in 2012
Amount that email raised online: $50,118
Amount it raised offline: about $30,000
Value of staff time spent working on the Big Bird email: $1,200
Online fundraising in 2008: $2.3-million
Online fundraising in 2013: $7-million
Number of people who receive emails from KQED: 405,000
Current average open rate: 26.5 percent