Can leveraging scale accomplish goals while lowering the cost to raise a dollar, resulting in higher net revenue to invest in mission? Or if an organization decides to go it alone with direct marketing, is it being the best stewards of our donors’ investment in our mission?  

Answering those questions and putting scale to work for public media organizations are core to the work of the Contributor Development Partnership (CDP). Member stations have the option to receive free monthly Revenue Opportunity & Action Reports (ROAR) that explicitly detail money being left on the table that could be going into the station’s mission. The aggregated data is called the National Reference File (NRF).

The NRF = Insight
CDP uses data in the NRF to identify and monitor trends in public media fundraising. We share those insights during quarterly webinars. For the 170 stations that contribute data to the NRF, we deliver monthly ROARs that allow stations to compare themselves against the national performance. These reports were created BY stations FOR stations to be a key resource and competitive advantage in a tough fundraising landscape. No matter the station size, none of us can afford to spend resources duplicating tests and techniques where learnings have already been established. You don’t have to go it alone.

Negotiating At Scale

Based on the size of the community of CDP stations (250 at this writing), we are then able to negotiate special pricing on your behalf with partners such as FreeWill, DonorSearch and Gravyty to help stations access tools that would otherwise require many hours of staff time, energy and a much larger investment.  

CDP has scaled partner services such as CDP Direct which is an outsourcing option that brings heavily tested, expertly written creative to bear through multi-channel mail and email series (with the option to add texting). Your mail program is fully managed by CDP, including segmentation, printing, postage, and delivery via USPS. That frees up time locally to develop and deepen relationships with donors, the true joys of fundraising. 

The per-piece pricing model has CDP’s DNA baked into it. That is, to help stations realize higher NET revenue that can be invested back into delivering on the mission. Lowering the cost to raise a dollar is a way to respect the wishes of donors. When stations demonstrate that ethic to boards, major donors, and other funders, the case for future support strengthens.

Looking Forward

The fundraising landscape in 2022 and beyond is going to demand more insight to reveal new revenue opportunities, more time spent on deepening donor relationships, and more NET revenue to invest in mission and new tools/training that help public media further our much-needed mission.

Contact us:
- To initiate ROAR reports if your station doesn’t yet receive them

-   To get a refresher on using your current ROAR as a strategic resource

-   To explore CDP partner services that save time and money