Question:
How are news-producing nonprofits raising up to 33 percent of their funding through underwriting?
While advertising is the standard revenue stream for traditional news organizations, underwriting is the nonprofit world’s mainstay. In most states, nonprofits can legally raise up to almost one-third of their operating budget from underwriting. What are some examples? What are the legal responsibilities?
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3 answers so far.
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Emily Harris says:
October 24, 2011 at 10:01 am
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Catherine Cole Ferandelli says:
September 18, 2011 at 2:57 pm
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Jeff Lennan says:
April 25, 2011 at 9:36 pm
| ParticipantsIn public broadcasting, underwriting replaces advertising. Still, listeners are the biggest contributors of all, and most contributed during pledge drives they quickly get sick of. Many eyes were on an experiment by San Francisco station KQED in early 2011 – to use pledge-free mobile and online streams as a prize/thank you for donating early. They did it again this fall, saying “back by popular demand.” A possibility for publishers – pay for no pop-up ads?
Here’s the site:
http://www.kqed.org/radio/listen/pledgefree/
Here’s coverage of it:
http://philanthropy.com/blogs/prospecting/public-radio-listeners-get-new-option-to-block-pledge-drives/29811
Being a generalist, I say this accomplishment is performed effectively by listening (or reading), researching, and being open to your niche audience. I have little experience in grant writing but do know one needs to understand exactly what the grantor is seeking in terms of awarding a grant. The request has to fit that expectation AND fulfill the needs that reward the targeted goals of that particular news-producing nonprofit. Last, those goals must fill the on-going need of carrying on the conversation of the target audience and above all, share and listen to that audience.
Tabitha M. Powledge (@tamfecit) about underwriting of science journalism, including a description of what Dot Earth’s Andrew Revkin calls “cloud financing”. Revkin uses as his example a piece by Lindsey Hoshaw about giant floating trash heaps in the ocean. From Powlege’s post: “Hoshaw’s travel was underwritten by Spot.us, which describes its aim thus: “Spot Journalism will provide a new way to pay for local investigative reporting by soliciting financial support from the public. Through this project, independent journalists and residents will propose stories, while Spot Journalism uses the Web to seek ‘micro-payments’ to cover the costs. If enough donors contribute the amount needed, a journalist will be hired to do the reporting. The money has to come from a variety of sources, though. Post is here: http://www.nasw.org/science-blogs-week-writing-underwriting