July/August 2004

Reaching New Members and Driving Gifts Through Online Communications: Chicago Public Radio

About Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ)
Each week, Chicago Public Radio offers more than 560,000 listeners a wide variety of programs — from news and public affairs to music and arts. Supported by contributing listeners, the station is the home of three nationally syndicated programs including the Peabody award winning This American Life with Ira Glass, Odyssey and Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, which is co-produced with NPR.  
 
Challenge
Like many public radio stations, Chicago Public Radio relied on pledge drives to raise a significant portion of its funds. Through these on-air drives, every listener is a potential donor.

However, while the station communicated every day with listeners through its broadcasts, it did not have specific information about them, such as their names, email addresses or interests. Each listener was anonymous. Having used the Internet previously for convenient online donation processing during pledge drives, Chicago Public Radio thought that the Internet also could give it a cost-effective way to communicate regularly with its listeners in a more personalized and relevant manner.

“We had a hunch that if we could develop more personal relationships with our listeners by providing new services and regular communications, we would likely build strong, ongoing support throughout the year, rather than just during pledge drives,” Wendy Turner, director of on-air and online fundraising, Chicago Public Radio, said.

The station decided to test its hunch. It sought an online solution for gathering more information about its listeners and also communicating with them regularly to convert them to loyal donors. 

Solution
Chicago Public Radio evaluated several online solutions for connecting more personally with its constituents, providing services including email newsletters and conducting online fundraising campaigns. The station chose Convio for email marketing, online fundraising, event management and online surveys.

“We chose Convio as our online partner because its staff members had the right philosophy,” Turner said. “They quickly taught us how to think bigger about our goals, yet helped us roll out online programs in a way that was manageable and not overwhelming.”

Chicago Public Radio began by collecting email addresses. For example, the station requires Web site visitors to provide an email address for every online action, such as making a donation, and asks them if they would like to receive future communications. This helps Chicago Public Radio continuously grow its email address file, the foundation for online marketing and fundraising activities.

Using Convio, Chicago Public Radio extends its reach beyond existing donors (also considered members) with online fundraising campaigns that invite other listeners — nondonors — to support the station. In addition, Chicago Public Radio conducts online fundraising campaigns timed around current events and to support pledge drives.

“Before using Convio, we would ask the same members for more and more dollars during our pledge drives,” Turner said. “Now we are finding more listeners and interacting with them online to develop stronger relationships and support throughout the year.”

Chicago Public Radio now sends E-Update, the station’s email newsletter, to listeners who have elected to receive it. The station also sends online surveys to collect additional information about listeners, and then uses that information to personalize email communications and target email fundraising appeals based on listener interests. Plus, the station publicizes fundraising events online and provides an option for online registration.

 

Fig. 1: Chicago Public Radio conducts online fundraising campaigns timed around current events and to support pledge drives.     

Results
Using Convio, Chicago Public Radio has increased the quality and frequency of communications with its listeners, built a stronger online presence and boosted donations.

Improved Outreach and Services — By encouraging listeners to sign up for email newsletters and other online services, Chicago Public Radio nearly doubled its file of email addresses — from 18,000 to 35,000 — in less than two years. Using this file as the basis for its outreach programs, the station sends regular email communications to its listeners, and finds out more about them through online surveys.

Increased Donations — Through targeted online fundraising campaigns, Chicago Public Radio grew online donations independent of pledge drives by more than 150 percent in 2003 compared with 2002. One email sent on December 31, 2003 to members drove more than $16,000 in donations within 12 hours. Another fundraising email raised $21,000 within 60 minutes. Still another two-week email campaign targeting listeners of a specific radio program raised $32,000 to defray the costs of streaming the program on the Internet. Ninety-eight percent of respondents to that campaign were first-time Chicago Public Radio donors, demonstrating the station’s success at reaching new listeners for support. In addition, sending existing members a high quality email newsletter has helped Chicago Public Radio grow first-year member retention rates. Those members who received the newsletter renewed at a 20 percent higher rate than those who did not.

Improved Efficiency — In an eight-month period, Chicago Public Radio generated about 10 times in online donations what it paid for Convio in a year. In addition, the station significantly reduced manual work following each pledge drive. Before using Convio to solicit and process online donations, the station had to hire temporary employees to process donations for a month; now two volunteers can process donations in two days, saving the station time and money. And, because its online donations have increased, this year the station has cut its pledge days to only 17 — the fewest number ever for one year.

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