The 6.5 reasons to run a Pledge Drive for your Catholic Radio Station

by Tom Oglesby, consultant, Our Lady of Good Success, LLC

I talk with a variety of radio station owners of noncommercial licenses and I often get the sense asking for money from their listeners is part of a foreign language.

Responses vary from

“We had a wealthy Catholic donor and that got us started.”

“A group of us threw in some money into the pot.”

“Fr. Soandso got us started with a special collection.”

“We tried to fundraise and it did not go so well.”

You get the idea very quickly the goal was to get the station on the air and then that’s the end of the goal setting. Well if you’re not growing and goal setting you are de facto dying on the vine.

Consider these points:

1. When listeners give to your station they are by default an owner of the station – they have made purchase in their mind. A shared vision begins to take place.
2. When you create more individual owners these owners listen to their station more often.
3. When they listen more often they become more educated in their faith, more fluent in their conversations about their faith.
4. Now these listeners begin to evangelize the culture. That evangelization will by its nature include a reference to the source of the Faith, your Catholic radio station, and now perhaps some new listeners for your next pledge drive.
5. And the summary judgement here is we are all just in sales, The Holy Spirit is in Management, and it is our job to evangelize in the Name of Jesus Christ so His Holy Spirit can enkindle the Fire of His Love in the hearts of the faithful and the not so faithful.
6. By the way, did I mention you receive money in a pledge drive? I have never met with station operators who declared they have too much money in their account.

6.5 All of this allows you grow your database of loyal listeners and supporters.

Fundraising can be challenging at first but it pays off when it is part of a consistent business plan for your radio station. If your team does not have the expertise at the start of a pledge drive program consulting with a third party fundraiser may be the solution for you.