3) Advance strategic, broader-reaching fundraising methods and in-kind partnerships
WORT must find ways to bolster finances and develop additional partnerships that will help reduce other costs and strain on staff time.
3) Advance strategic, broader-reaching fundraising methods and in-kind partnerships
WORT must find ways to bolster finances and develop additional partnerships that will help reduce other costs and strain on staff time.
Comment from a participant at Wednesday’s Public Session:
“Collaborate with other non-profits. Donors/exchanges/partnerships should be sharing the same goals.”
Comment from another participant at Wednesday’s Public Session:
“Excellent, yes. Programming, fundraising, outreach (plus volunteerism) need to be tied together better. Get outside the ‘WORT bubble’ and be part of the community. In a way, this is back to ‘first principles’ – the station charter.
This means WORT needs to be ‘more than radio’ – a witness, neighbor, partner, force ‘in the community’ – out there and visible in more places than ‘just on the FM dial.’”
Comment from third participant at Wednesday’s Public Session:
“Great potential at station but requires additional staffing. A fundraiser position is extremely important.”
Comment from fourth participant at Wednesday’s Public Session:
“Get on air folks to work with station on live events/fundraisers in the community. Kickstarter for big purchases sounds great.”
How would having media partners/major donors affect the station’s content? Would there be systems in place to ensure there is no influence from donors?
This is one of the highest priorities to me. This proposal needs to be fleshed out more, put more energy and time into this one!
This needs to be done with the Board taking the lead in coordination with WORT staff (and volunteers when they choose to be involved)
Notes on this proposal from the roundtable discussion at March 28th Public Session:
Should be a top priority
Focus on utilizing volunteer ambassadors to help fundraise
(These two pair well):
Yes – go after larger donations. –How to define acceptable donors?
Yes – address “so what” by focusing on fundraising for specific projects.
More events/Bigger? Community outreach via co-fundraisers with other non-profits.
Event training in volunteer curriculum
Yes – Partnerships, increase community outreach
-How to define acceptable partnerships?
-Non-profits, Educational institutions
-Brand alignment
Value of on-air announcements, balance
Free with paid – smallscale underwriting, sliding scale, utilize our reputation and
volunteer ambassadors
Develop more revenue streams beyond listener-sponsors
From Glenn Mitroff, Staff Collective Member:
Many of the suggestions from the long range plan will require increased levels of spending. As a staff we’ve worked hard to keep expenses down and have been able to increase our fundraising, so that we haven’t had to rely on our reserve funds as much as we had anticipated. I’m opposed to borrowing against our mortgage if we can avoid it since that would put extra pressure on staff for fundraising and make us more vulnerable, particularly during challenging economic times. I think that we should consider increasing our fundraising staff in order to meet the growing financial needs of the station. Hires for new fundraising positions should be able to demonstrate within 6 months that the income they’ve brought in has exceeded the costs. Hiring for major donor, planned giving and capital campaigns might serve the station well.
I think that the job description for Board members should include direct involvement in fundraising, and that 100% of the Board members make a personally significant annual contribution to the station. (This may already be the case. Some organizations make this statement publicly and I think it would be good for WORT to do so as well.)