Fundraising & Membership

Fundraising & memberships

Fundraising & Promotions Coordinator

community@coopradio.org

The Fundraising & Promotions Coordinator's role is to help increase donor revenue for the station, support programmers with their fundraising efforts and, build relationships with potential donors and sponsors.

Each show is required to raise a minimum of $1,000 per year, per hour of air-time. Overnight shows between midnight and 6 a.m. and over two hours long are required to raise $2,000 total per year. This is outlined in Section 9.4. On Air Pitching and Show Fundraising of the Station's Policies.

Every year, the station organizes two Member Drives to help with fundraising efforts. There is a member drive in the Spring and one in the Fall. The next member drive will be:

Take The Core 3 Fundraising Training

If you are a new programmer or an experienced programmer who wants a refresher in Fundraising, then click the link below to access the Core 3 Fundraising & Community Engagement Training Course.

Note that this training is mandatory for all Vancouver Co-op Radio programmers. You can take the training as many times as you would like.

Click here to open the Core 3 - Fundraising & Community Engagement Training

Ways to Fundraise For Your Show:

On-Air Pitching (Mandatory during Member Drives)

Your show can create a fundraising pitch that can be read on-air during your show. During the Member Drive, it is Co-op Radio's policy that a minimum of 10 minutes per programming hour must be devoted to pitching.

Click here to check out these 13 Lucky Tips for Pitching!

During the member drive, there will be Show Pitching Cards in the Control Rooms and Studio. You can check some of them out by clicking here.

The Show Pitching Cards are broken into 3 parts because a successful pitch has 3 parts:

Reason: Why should you give?
Ask: Specific request
How: Tell them how (website; phone)

*NOTE that someone will be at the station from 10 am to 4 pm on weekday and on demand during the evening and during the weekend. We still recommend you ask your listeners to donate online or mail us a cheque.

Feel free to:

mix up the length of the pitch
mix up the focus (use the theme cards)
mix up the style (pre-recorded, conversation, one person)
on average, people need to hear an ask 6 times on the air before they give
you need to pitch at least 10 minutes every hour – divide that up the way you want

What do you do if someone calls in or walks in?

fill out a membership form and pass it to the Fundraising & Promotions Coordinator, or place it in the locked box next to the Member Services office.

Phoning Your Members (Mandatory During Member Drives)

Easy, Fun, and Essential! The members who support your show already know and love you. They will be thrilled to hear from you. During each Member Drive, every show must call the members on their list and ask them to renew their membership or consider giving an additional donation.

The Fundraising & Promotions Coordinator will email and/or print a contact list of your donors.

Due to the pandemic, things are still a little different since you may not want to use the phones at the station. You are free to use your own phone to call but if you don't feel comfortable with that then we can give you access to a Co-op Radio Skype account where you can log in and call landlines and cell phones. This requires an iPhone or Android and access to the internet. This will mask your personal phone number from the caller.

Email community@coopradio.org if you would like to call your listeners and Laurence will send you a contact list. You can also reach out if have any questions or if you would like to book a phone call or video call with Laurence who can talk to you about fundraising over the phone.

Ask Your Friends, Family & Co-Workers

Your best supporters are right under your nose! Your friends and family and neighbours and co-workers and friends of friends are worth asking for a donation to the show you dedicate so much of your time and energy to produce.

We all know a friend who runs for the cure (or equivalent) and everyone has at one point or another handed over money to support our friends in reaching their fundraising goal.

Send an email, phone or text them, send a Facebook Group Message. Host a potluck and warn everyone in advance that you'll be asking for money.

Start by asking for $100 and negotiate from there. They don’t have to become members. Start asking today!

Create a Fundraiser on Facebook

Ask Your Guests for a Donation

Host a Virtual Fundraising Event

In 2020, all fundraising events moved online. Virtual events certainly aren't as much fun as in-person but there are some really great ways to get together online and raise some funds. Here are some ideas:

Host a virtual trivia night with your friends and family. You can do this using a Zoom account or a virtual trivia platform such as Crowdpurr (note that there are fees for both platforms). Set your registration event up using something like Eventbrite so that you can easily set up ticket sales.
Host a special fundraising talk show on Facebook Live and set up a Facebook donation button. Ask your viewers to donate.
If you are a musician, host a live performance on Zoom. You can either ask for donations or charge a fee for people to virtually attend.
Got skills to share? Set up an online workshop using Zoom or another online webinar platform where you share your skills with attendees. You can charge a registration fee or ask for donations.

Find a Show Sponsor

Is there a really cool local business, social enterprise or non-profit organization that aligns with your show? Why not reach out to them to see if they would consider sponsoring your show? Vancouver Co-op Radio offers Show Sponsorship at a low cost.

If you know of a great sponsor for your show, email the Fundraising & Promotions Coordinator at community@coopradio.org and they will reach out on your behalf.

On Air Giveaways

Ask friends, local businesses, non-profits, arts group to give you amazing gifts that you can give away live on your show!

Start asking now. Collect CD’s, Tickets to shows, Gift Certificates for coffee, to movies, restaurants, floats, stores, etc. Tell us what you have collected in advance of the Funding Drive. We’ll help you promote your giveaway items on Social Media. The on-air script is:

“Anyone who calls in during the show to make a donation, or who makes a donation online during the show, will be entered into a draw to win this item. Your chances of winning are very good! Renew your membership or donate now!”

Things to note when giving away a prize:

You can NOT provide an exchange of gifts for membership.
You can NOT say “if you take out a membership or renew, we’ll give you a gift”.
But you CAN say, “this gift is available to members of the station” (...”so if you call to renew your membership or become a member, you will be eligible for the giveaway”).

This is a subtle difference but important!

If you have arranged an on-air giveaway, please let the Fundraising & Promotions Coordinator know. They can even arrange to mail it for you.

Reach Out to a Workplace or Union

Reach Out to Your Community

Grants

Click here to find out more ways you can raise $1,000.

Create Your Own Fundraising Plan

Feel free to download the below fundraising plan template and create a plan for your show. If you are part of a collective, then you should chat with the other members and create the plan together.

If you would like help implementing your plan, then email the Fundraising & Promotions Coordinator at community@coopradio.org, who will be happy to set up a time to meet with you and/or your collective.

Click here to download the fundraising plan template