Since I suspect that listening to headphones would be frowned on, and since I don’t have any speakers for my MP3 player, I listen to my local K-LOVE station at work. For the last week or so, K-LOVE has been involved in its periodic pledge drive. As a listener-supported station, K-LOVE doesn’t support itself with ads, but from listener donations.

I’ll readily admit that I’m not an expert in economics, or marketing, or whatever you’d need to know how to get people to donate. However, I still have a few thoughts.

The President of K-LOVE (Dick Jenkins? I think that’s his name, but I can’t confirm it on their website) has been on the radio several times in the last few days, talking about how they’re coming in well below their pledge goal. K-LOVE has grown considerably, he tells us, but it seems like, as its audience grows, K-LOVE has been finding that it’s harder and harder to get enough donations to pay the bills. Then, he tells us this (paraphrased).

I just don’t understand. If only 1% of our remaining [that is, not yet donating -ed.] listeners would donate $40 per month [the standard pledge amount; the average needed for one hour of broadcasting -ed.], we’d be able to fund all K-LOVE stations in all areas. One percent. God can work a miracle, but He’ll do so by working on your hearts, and if only one percent of you would donate, we would reach our goal.

Does anyone else see the problem that I have with this? Here’s what I hear Dick Jenkins saying every time he’s on the radio:

“Most of you don’t need to donate. Ninety-nine percent of you don’t need to donate. Most of you could sit on your butts and do nothing, and we’d be perfectly fine.”

I could be wrong, but “most of you don’t have to do squat to help us” doesn’t seem like the best motivational slogan ever. Still, it wouldn’t be right of me to say, “You’re doing it wrong, Dick,” and then not offer a suggestion on how I think it could be done right. If I did that, I’d be a Democrat*!
Here’s what I’d say:

We’re still short of our goal, and we only have a short time left in our pledge drive. It costs an average of $40 for one hour of broadcasting on your local station. That’s about $30,000 per month, and without that money, we won’t be able to maintain your local K-LOVE station.

I know, for some of you, $40 per month is a lot of money. Some of you simply can’t afford that, and that’s fine. If everyone pledged only what they could afford, we’d be able to keep K-LOVE running in every location that it currently broadcasts from. Pray about it. God will tell you how much to donate, even if your situation means that’s simply a prayer. Listen to Him, and He will make sure that we get enough to keep K-LOVE on the air.

Instead of saying, “Most of you don’t have to do anything,” isn’t it a better approach to say, “If we all work together, none of us individually have to give very much?”

Assume that 4% of their listeners already give $40 per month, and that what Dick means when he says that they need 1% more is that they actually need a total of 5% of their listeners to give $40 per month. Now, for the sake of discussion, let’s assume an audience of 100 listeners.

5% of 100 giving $40 each rakes in $200 per month. If they could get 10% to donate, they could make do with $20. With 20% donating, a $10 donation would get them through. With 50%, it would take $4.

Like I said, I’m not an expert. I’ve taken economics classes, and I know that dropping the “price” to even just $2 per month (which is the amount they’d need with everyone donating by my calculations above) isn’t going to get everyone to donate. But 50%? That’s probably doable. 40% (at $5 per month) should be almost easy. Especially if you go with the “price discrimination**” technique and get those who are willing (or able) to give more money to actually do so.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m just mouthing off about something that I’m completely unequipped to comprehend. Still, operating solely on common sense and my understanding of human nature, I don’t think I am.

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* Actually, I am registered Democrat, but for the sake of the gag, let’s ignore that fact, okay?

** Price discrimination is, if I’m remembering my Econ 54 class correctly, like what publishers do with books. They release hardcover books at $25 and get those people willing to pay that much, then release the paperbacks at 1/3 to 1/4 the price.