Sustainer Communication During the Pandemic

We love our monthly Sustainers, and our Sustainers love to support what we do.  The same goes for all non-profits.  Therefore, the inclination during this pandemic is to craft stewardship and upgrade messaging to reach out and remind Sustainers of their ongoing support.  My own gut says that this makes sense.  But it turns out that guts can be punched, too.

Recently on a call with various non-profits that did that type of outreach, CDP President Director Michal Heiplik heard reports that those who reminded Sustainers of their ongoing giving saw cancellations in droves.  Rather than reap support in the form of upgrades, they were instead asking canceling Sustainers to pause their giving for a few months in an effort to save their Sustainer files. 

Yes, we should absolutely thank ALL of our donors, local corporate supporters, and any other entity that supports the organization for their support, and to give them credit for the excellence of the public service. 

We should provide updates on the services being delivered, the changes in staff logistics that make it possible to deliver those services, and the fact that public media is a FREE service available to all---always has, always will. 

We can do this through digital, social, on-air, and handwritten notes to major donors.

Sustainers come in many flavors.  For those who became Sustainers to get PBS Passport as a type of ‘subscription’, for example, there is no need to address monthly giving in communications; rather, remind them of the great content available with their membership in a regular Passport Picks email.  This is especially important if they haven’t used Passport in the last 12 months.

A new report says podcast listening is down since early March.  Those Sustainers who joined to support podcasts will likely start listening again when commutes resume. 

“Philanthropic” Sustainers (versus ‘subscription’-model) would likely respond well to a message of gratitude, and it would be wise right now to frame it in general terms such as ‘loyal support’ to provide a ‘strong foundation’ for station services.

Sometimes our gut instinct happens in a vacuum.  Apparently, the same message that would have yielded upgrades and loyalty in December is being read amidst tumultuous economic, market and social conditions that have cause donors to re-evaluate their financial situations, resulting in an uncharacteristic reaction. 

Now that we have informal data from non-profits that tried such an approach, CDP is advising against contacting Sustainers to remind them of their monthly support and to save upgrade solicitations until the economic engines restart.  That could be the end of the fiscal year, for example.   

For the time being, it’s better to keep those gratitude messages geared toward giving in general.