The 1-Day Drive is a powerful on-air fundraising concept for stations that raise up to $100,000 in a single pledge drive. Pledge drive goals that took 5, 7, even 10 days have been raised in just one day.
The concept was pioneered by Carol Young at WSKG in Binghamton, NY, where the station raised $82,000 around a 1-Day Drive.The traditional fund drives in previous years earned between $60,000 and $70,000. WQLN in Erie, PA raised more than $50,000 with a 1-Day Drive.Jonathan Coke and Sonja Lee took the concept and made it work across multiple drives at KBBI and KDLL in Alaska. Our thanks to Carol Young at WSKG and Jonathan Coke at KBBI for their help in pulling this kit together.
The 1-Day Drive is similar to the Power Hour, except the goal is to raise an entire pledge drive’s worth of money in a single day. Even with fewer days of on-air fundraising, stations can get all the members needed to grow the donor database. The 1-Day Drive works because of two things public radio knows for certain about fundraising.
1. Listeners don’t like pledge drives. 2. Listeners don’t mind being asked for money.
The idea of getting 4 to 9 days of regular programming back without fundraising interruptions causes listeners to respond quickly and generously through the mail, on the web, and with just one day of on-air fundraising.
The 1-Day Drive is a simple concept that listeners will support if implemented properly. A 1-Day Drive replaces an entire on-air drive and is a media and marketing event for the station. It generates excitement and enthusiasm throughout the community.
Stations typically get good press coverage, especially the first time out, which helps further results. A pre-drive Kick-Off event helps build staff and community involvement and bring in early money.
Like Power Hours and the More Programming and Less On-air Fundraising campaigns, 1-Day Drives utilize direct mail, the web, and forward promotion to generate listener interest and involvement.
This multi-media approach is essential to the success of the 1-Day Drive.It reaches out to many known donors who typically give near the middle or end of a traditional pledge drive and causes them to give before the 1-Day Drive event. These donors will give.The 1-Day drive just gives them a great reason to give sooner. The core message about the value of the programming and the listeners’ role in supporting the programming eliminates the need for challenge grants, sweepstakes, and a long list of premiums.This makes for a message that is easy to say and understand; the air isn’t cluttered with pledge levels and premiums.
KBBI makes the 1-Day Drive work with just a single mug as a thank-you gift.Everyone who pledges at any level receives a mug. The typical hour has about 30-minutes of fundraisingbut the philosophy is that listeners can tolerate more and longer interruptions if they are occurring for just one day.
Every hour is produced like a Power Hour, with frequent breaks. The key still is to deliver valuable content, be sensitive to the positive character of the station and make the pledge drive sound good.
Be sure the strongest on-air pitchers are used on the day of the drive. From phone volunteers, to pledge producers, to pitchers, the station needs to be at its best the entire day.
Succeeding with a 1-Day Drive requires a strong working relationship between development and programming, but staff, management and Boards need to buy-in as well.
The 1-Day Drive does require several weeks of planning, but the payoff is less staff time and effort diverted from the station’s core business of making great radio.