Wow, it’s been an incredible year at Mission Network News. We just concluded our 2007-2008 budget year. What a blessing — despite a small short-fall. Yes, that’s right ‘debt.’ That dreaded word. ‘red stuff’ It doesn’t feel real good saying it, but I need to tell you about the blessing of this debt.
Last year at this time, we were forecasting a $45,000 shortfall for our 2007-08 budget year. In other words, we were planning for about $45,000 worth of red ink at the end of last month (May). We took a step (praying the money would come in somehow) of faith and submitted it and it was approved. However, I was not satisfied with the fact that it was approved. I wanted to erase the red ink. So, we developed a plan that would increase the number of donors and increase the amount of non-traditional revenue coming in to MNN. It worked.
I know what you’re saying, “It didn’t work too well if you ended the year with red ink.” The amount of red ink? $173 Can you believe it? Praise God.
Here’s what we did.
Each month we sent letters to everyone who contacted MNN asking for something and requesting information. We collected every name, address, email address and telephone number of everyone contacting us. Within days of them contacting us they received a letter, email or telephone call from MNN thanking them for contacting us and requesting (whatever they asked for) something. Maybe they just called to complain, or called to thank us. We took their information and sent them that thank you note. But, we also did a direct ask. Most people tell you NOT to do this. Well, we did. I figured if we helped them, even if it was simply to vent, they needed to remember how WE helped them and then give them a compelling reason to give.
The way we did that was to give away something worth while. We gave away prayer guides, CDs, DVDs, books and other resources that were directly associated with missions or evangelism. These resources were something of value to the people in our target demographic. (Actually, I consider this an integral part of our ministry — to provide resources that will help individuals in the quest to be more missions minded) Then we simply asked people to give a gift of any amount. Almost every gift was worth 10 times the amount we spent on the premium. These mailing are seeing anywhere from a five to 10 percent return — much different results than our bulk mailings.
Every piece of mail that left the office had a return envelope inside with a call to action. “We’re offering (item) to help you in your quest to be missions minded. For your gift of any amount we’ll send this (cool thing) to you.” Many people responded to that — even though there was no letter to go with it. Almost each month we had something different.
We did more email soliciting this year, too. We saw a nearly 10-percent return on all email ‘asks’ this year. Now, the gifts were small (on average), but the return was much better than the 2 or 3 percent return we’ve been receiving on bulk mailings.
We also did a Phone-a-thon. We hired five college students to call all of our lapsed donors. We looked at everyone who had given before, but hadn’t given a gift in the last 18 months. We didn’t ask for much, we asked for what they had given the previous year, plus a five-percent increase. So, if they gave $100, we asked for $105. Anyone who gave under $50 we asked them to give $50. Anyone who gave more than $50 were given a ‘Better Than Life’ CD. The return? almost 40%.
We’re now rethinking our ‘bulk mail’ altogether. To send out thousands of pieces of mail to only see a 1 or 2 percent return isn’t worth it any more. We’ll still do a year end ask and MAY continue to send out newsletters, but the rest of the mailings may come to an end.
One last thing we did? We sold advertising on our website. With the amount of traffic we receive, we’re able to charge a decent amount for each ad. We currently have six spaces for sale. We’ve been able to bring in anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500 per month on the web ads alone.
Bottom line MNN had more donors in the last fiscal year, giving more money, for more ministry than ever before in our history.
How does this apply to Christian radio? Simple — keep in mind who you’re reaching. Target the ‘individual’ and use creative ways to not only help people understand your mission so they’ll give, but give them something that will help them in return for their investment.
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