Three strategies for communicating and engaging a younger, active donor – a new audience who wants to have meaningful contact with you – not just hear about program updates!

[For background on the Big Idea Challenge, read the first and second posts in this series.]

Earlier in May, Panhandle PBS and a team of volunteers completed the month-long Big Idea Challenge, a social competition that relies on individual fundraising and team puzzle-solving on behalf of the station in Amarillo, Texas. Now in its third year, Big Idea Challenge is designed to appeal to younger viewers. It brings the station an entirely new base of potential supporters, underwriters, and connections in the community.

Even though the 2016 event attracted fewer teams and participants than previous years, Panhandle PBS membership services coordinator Julie Mann describes it as a success. “Our average amount raised per player for 2016 was $227,” she says. “That’s the highest we’ve had by far.” In fact, she says, that fundraising amount is nearly twice the $114 raised per player in the event’s first year. Though fewer teams participated in 2016, all but two teams raised enough to qualify for the final event. “This year, the players and teams were more engaged than ever,” says Mann, citing improvements in everything from the fundraising amount to engagement with Panhandle PBS on social media. “The question we’re facing now is ‘How do we find more of these people for next year?’”

Mann says the dynamic teams in 2016 were all created and led by successful players from last year’s event—she describes these participants as “Big Idea Challenge all-stars”—and has found that maintaining contact with this new audience after the event is just as important as during the Challenge itself. “These players are Generation X and Generation Y. They’re different from the typical members who send a check every year and want content on DVDs. They’re younger. They’re active. They want to do something.”

Communication with players is intense during Big Idea Challenge, and primarily occurs through social media and email. The open and click-through rates for Big Idea Challenge emails are higher than anything else Panhandle PBS sends out. “[The players] are accustomed to getting emails from us about Big Idea Challenge, so once the event is over, we have a good opportunity to keep them engaged and maintain the relationship with email,” Mann says.

It must be relevant. “If we’re emailing them every week just to stay in front of them, then all we end up doing is talking about programming—just to have something to say,” she explains. If the content doesn’t interest them, “they’ll tune out or unsubscribe.” Instead, Mann only gets in touch when Panhandle PBS is involved with something she believes will attract their interest. “Maybe it’s once a quarter, or once a month. It has to be for a purpose.”

Relevance = participatory. “These players liked Big Idea Challenge because they liked participating in an event,” Mann says. “These aren’t passive donors.” So she communicates with the players only to alert them to a Panhandle PBS activity. “It might be when we are partnering with the Amarillo Zoo for an event, or when we have a Yellow City Sounds concert [a Panhandle PBS-produced concert series featuring local musicians]. These are highly participatory things we know they’ll be interested in anyway.”

Remind them of their fundraising. “At the bottom of every email, in the final paragraph, I remind them that whatever activity we’re promoting is being provided to the Panhandle community thanks to funds raised by Big Idea Challenge participants,” says Mann. “That reinforces that this opportunity is something they worked for. They funded it.” When the players feel that kind of ownership, they’re much more likely to respond.

Email Insider Information from Panhandle PBS

This strategic approach to email communication keeps Panhandle PBS in front of the players and, of course, makes them more likely to get involved for the next Big Idea Challenge. “That’s the goal,” Mann says. “We maintain a relationship after the event, and then when we ask them to participate again next year, they’ll say yes.”

Questions? Contact Tracy Ferrier with PBS Development Services at tbferrier@pbs.org or 703-739-5065 or Julie Mann with Panhandle PBS at jamann@actx.edu