“Innovation” seems to be a word we can’t escape these days. Some might even say it’s a buzzword that’s so overused it’s lost its meaning. So what is it, and what does it mean for public media fundraising? I’ve spent the past few months contemplating and exploring this question, as I’ve stepped into a role where “innovation” is literally named in the title: CDP’s Senior Director of Innovation & Partner Services.  

Innovation is, at its simplest, the introduction of anything new and useful. When we think of innovation, it often conjures up the fast-moving, tech-based concept of ideas evolving into digital platforms that transform our everyday experiences. Living in the age of information, innovation has become inextricably linked to the word “digital.” And in public media, the link between innovation and digital is even stronger, as our viewers and listeners increasingly turn to digital platforms to consume content. It makes sense, then, that we as fundraisers should follow suit, expanding our fundraising portfolios to include digital platforms, tactics and tools.  

The advent of PBS Passport is just one example of digital innovation in action. I bring Passport up in particular because while it’s specific to digital, it also represents another aspect of innovation: a more methodical form where products, services or processes are tweaked and tinkered with until a certain level of optimization is reached. Thanks to station and member feedback, PBS Passport’s success as a new member acquisition channel has evolved through the iterative process of testing donation forms, marketing messaging and content offerings and making platform improvements. With the recent launch of the NPR Network initiative, we’ll get to see firsthand the evolution of a new digital fundraising platform in the months and years ahead. Inevitably, innovation is about progress, not perfection.  

But innovation doesn’t have to be limited to just digital platforms, tactics and tools. Take canvassing for example. Door-to-door fundraising is a new (to public media, anyway) way to acquire donors (especially sustainers) that also helps raise station visibility and brand awareness in local communities. Personal relationship-based giving can be just as innovative as digital fundraising. Imagine that! 

Knowing innovation exists in various forms and sizes, it’s not surprising that individual stations may define and approach innovation in different ways. To do something new and useful requires uncertainty and change, which inherently brings risk. Everyone’s threshold for risk is different, kind of like a dial that can be turned up or down depending on circumstances. When approaching innovation, it’s important to regulate and balance risk, especially in fundraising when revenue may be on the line. But with year-over-year revenue down across public media, now is the time to incrementally turn up our risk dial and embrace experimentation. 

The chart above shows the year-over-year change in membership revenue, where each bar represents a TV or joint licensee station. While many stations have seen solid revenue growth (denoted by the green and yellow bars above the center line), the other 50% of stations have not. The same trend applies to radio-only stations’ year-over-year revenue.

We see a similar picture with year-over-year change in donor counts, where TV and joint licensee stations are losing more donors than they are gaining. Again, the same goes for radio-only stations but with even sharper declines. Clearly, innovation is no longer a luxury in public media fundraising. Rather, it’s a necessity for our system’s future sustainability. 

So how do we embrace experimentation and make space for innovation? The answer is collaboration. While some inventions have been the result of a eureka moment of one individual, true innovation is more commonly created by the collective ideas and input of many. There’s power in numbers! Looking at the data above, what are those stations in green doing that the stations in yellow and red can benefit from? Each station truly has something incredible to contribute to our system’s shared learning. Some of the most impactful innovations in public media fundraising have come from stations and been leveraged for the benefit of the entire system. By building partnerships among stations and across public media, together we can create new best practices that are widely adopted until a new problem arises and innovation strikes again. 

At its core, innovation solves problems. So what specific fundraising problems are you trying to solve at your station? And what trends are you seeing in your ROAR report? Is there a metric you want to improve on or one where your station is doing better than all the others? Let’s be curious and come together to explore new innovative solutions and fundraising ideas! I’m embarking on a listening tour of sorts, reaching out to stations and colleagues across the system to gain insights and collect feedback on the challenges and successes stations are experiencing. I’d love to hear from you! Reach out to cdp@cdpcommunity.org, and I’ll be sure to get in touch.