There’s no escaping the collective tightening of belts that is going on across the charity sector. And that makes trying something new even harder. Nobody wants to lose money for the charity they work for.
And podcasting isn’t always the easiest investment to sell to your directors or trustees. They, quite rightly, want to ensure there will be a good ROI.
So here’s 5 ways your charity podcast can bring in the money.
Direct call to action for donate now
Sometimes it’s the simplest solutions that you need and a direct call for people to donate while listening to your podcast is an easy and simple solution.
There are lots of reasons why it’s also an effective solution too. Listeners have a high level of trust when it comes to podcasts. They respond in a positive way to what to what is said (a lot of this is down to the way podcasts are consumed by people on their own and whilst wearing headphones). The good news is your audience is super receptive to messages delivered by your regular podcast presenter. And that means if your podcast presenter asks them to donate they are more willing to hear and act on that message.
Throw in an easy to remember link and you can track how many have come from the podcast (although, keep in mind that there will be some who go via a different route to donate).
Sponsorship
Direct calls to donate are great, for specific campaigns. But for the podcasts that are raising awareness or building authority there’s another really simple way to generate ROI from your podcast for your charity. Offer sponsorship of the podcast to your corporate donors. This gives them a new platform, a new audience and a great bit of positive PR for them to shout about. You could get them to pay for a series or if you are producing an ongoing podcast a fixed number of episodes.
And let’s take inspiration from the world of sport for a moment. You can also offer individuals the option of sponsoring an episode in the same way I’ve seen football and rugby clubs encourage fans to sponsor either individual team members or bricks in a stadium. It’s a lovely way for a person to remember a family member or friend and you can get people to record short voice notes about why they are sponsoring the episode. As well as bringing in funds it adds to a sense of community around your charity and the podcast.
Advertising
Advertising can be a tricky one when it comes to podcasting because you want to retain control over who advertises on your podcast. And where the adverts are placed. Some options out there don’t provide that level of control - and that’s where you’ll hear adverts crashing in during an inopportune moment or halfway through somebody speaking. It’s normally down to the automation going wrong.
But that’s not to say working with networks to automatically put adverts on your podcast is a bad idea, just make sure you understand what you’re getting and they understand what you don’t want advertised on your podcast.
Another option though is to advertise your charity. If your organisation has charity shops, sells merchandise online or perhaps even offers services such as will writing, pet microchipping or training then create adverts that you can add to your podcast to sell those services.
Private podcast
Your podcast does not have to be for public consumption. A private podcast, which is still accessible on podcast apps in the same way public podcasts are, is a great way to reward your regular donors. This can be extra episodes to your regular podcast or a straight up donor only series. Create that FOMO around missing some golden content and you’ve got people paying to listen to your podcast.And this is all fairly simple to set up too before you worry too much about the tech side of things - both for your charity and for your audience.
Live events!
This is not a way to generate money from your podcast early on in your podcasting journey, but putting on a live podcast and charging people to be part of the audience is a great way to bring in money from your podcast.
You can record your podcast with special guests and ask people to buy tickets to watch it happen. They’ll get all the behind the scenes gossip, and who doesn’t love the peek behind the curtain moments. And they’ll also get the “unedited” version of the podcast as well.
And of course an event like this is a great opportunity to sign up donors, sell merchandise for your charity and make everybody involved feel more connected to your charity and cause.
If this has helped you make a case for a podcast for your charity then get in touch and we'll set up a meeting.