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If you plan on a
downturn during a recessionary period do you think that at the end
of the year you will be able to say, “Wow, we planned on a recession
and look at all the funding we received above what we got last
year?” If you plan on a decline it will be realized. Perhaps you
should set the bar even higher and develop a plan to reach the
higher goal. After all, if I were a high jumper in track and field
I would work at jumping eight feet and maybe I could clear seven. I
would also need to change my conditioning practices and prepare for
the greater goal.
Now, I am not
saying that we should not reevaluate expenses. We should always
examine what we are doing and use wisdom. There should constantly
be an effort to weed out efforts that are not working and enhance
those that are. Present conditions need not mean a decline in
funding and thereby ministry and other services. It could mean that
you need a new plan and new strategies.
I am here to encourage you to
boycott the current recession.
It is my desire in
writing this item to redirect your thinking to the possibilities of
growth in a time of recession by working differently. Think of the
recession as an external situation over which you have no control.
You did not invest in sub-prime mortgages so why suffer the
consequences? Perhaps my thoughts here will be useful by sparking an
entirely different line of thinking. In most situations the
realities of where we live began with an adjustment that occurred
between our ears. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he,”
Proverbs 23:7.
Just recently I was
in conversation with someone from a radio station that promotes that
they have a million and a half people in their coverage area. They
report their Arbitron Audience Cume at one hundred and twenty
thousand listeners, but they are having difficulty meeting their
budget. They have had considerable budget cuts and staff lay-offs.
Let’s do the
numbers on this situation. If you were to figure everyone in a
household listened to the station, which is not always the case, and
there are 2.5 people per household that would mean they are reaching
48,000 homes. The fact that not everyone listens in a given
household would boost the number of homes considerably, but we will
be conservative and work with the lower number. Let’s further
adjust that to 43,000 homes to allow for an unemployment effect of a
little more than ten percent. My research and experience in various
situations show that you should be able to attract donations from
fifteen percent of the homes so that you should be able hear from
6450 homes. Some of these homes are going to become monthly
contributors and others will be occasional givers, but your average
will be about $190 annually from each home. This total would give
you an annual income of $1,225,500. This particular radio station’s
budget was about ninety thousand dollars a month or $1,080,000
annually. The numbers show it is possible for them to have adequate
funding.
There are a lot of
variables and really no set formula that will be one hundred percent
accurate for every station and area of the country; however I would
encourage you to look at the numbers in order to set some goals.
What do you need in your annual budget? How many people will it
take giving thirty dollars a month to meet that goal? There will of
course be some that give more and some that give less. How many
people will you need to contact in order to receive a positive
response from enough people to meet the goal? It somewhat depends
on the quality of the contact. If your contacts are listeners who
somewhat have a heart for the ministry about one in eight will
become a donor. However, when the economy has taken a downturn you
may only realize one in ten becoming a donor, so it means you must
work harder and smarter.
I hope you
understand the intent of this article. I would like this item to
give you renewed strength to get the job done. We have experienced
adversity here at Great Plains Christian Radio that has depleted our
energy. On the last day of 2006 our one thousand foot tower
collapsed. We were off the air for nine days and then spent the
next year broadcasting with three hundred feet less elevation. One
week after getting one of our stations fully restored my house
burned. It would be six more months before the other station was
restored as we had difficulty with the contractors getting the work
done. Finally we got the tower restored and everything was back to
normal. My house was completed following the fire and we moved back
in our home after a year of moving to three different locations.
Then the economy started to unravel. Wow! It has been one punch
after another. In spite of these trials we have added three full
power stations during this period. Does this give me a few
credentials to encourage you to press-on regardless the
circumstances?
Be bold! Put
yourself in a position for God to wildly bless a simple act of
faith. Have you contacted every home in your listening area? Why
not? Think and plan big and perhaps you will not reach your wildest
dreams, but be better off than thinking and planning small. Plan an
effort to adequately educate every home in your present listening
area concerning your ministry. At Great Plains Christian Radio we
have written to every home in our coverage area three times. I had
the vision a number of years ago of living on an island and making
an effort to reach everyone on that little world. Then I saw the
region within the limits of our broadcast signal like an island. We
have made an effort to reach every home to tell them what we have
available on the radio and send a presentation of the Gospel.
What have we done
differently during the recession? We had an effort through the mail
to increase automated giving and realized a ten percent increase in
these type gifts. We have looked for book deals and given them away
on the air to increase the mailing list. We have mailed gifts of
books or CDs to people who have not given in awhile to encourage
their support. Our morning announcer Michael Luskey is going to
endeavor to ride a bicycle for 532 miles in our listening area and
we are asking people to donate ten cents a mile or whatever they can
afford. In is likely that no one thing will get the job done,
however each new and different approach can add a little. For the
most part we have tried to sound positive and upbeat and have not
tied our funding to the recession. All the other media outlets are
whining about the circumstances, so we are providing a positive
message.
Once people have
become listeners and expressed a growing interest in the ministry
they need to be challenged to help with the support and share in the
rewards. One common way of drawing in new support is through an
announcement of sixty seconds on the radio.
You will further
the challenge when the on-air announcement is accompanied by a
presentation in a full color brochure in the mail. If the mailing
was to include an item that ministers and shows care for the
individual your response will probably be a little higher. What if
you were to divide your mailing list among your staff and call as
many listeners as possible and ask them, “Thank you for listening is
there someway we can be praying for you?” Write down the prayer
requests, gather the staff for prayer and then send a card to let
them know of your prayer. This could raise the level of response to
a higher degree due to the relationship you are developing with your
constituency. Develop other ideas to increase the quality and
quantity of your contacts with your listeners.
Here is the important point; there
has never been a liberty in living in the old way of doing things.
If you are
experiencing a financial shortfall it could be that the Lord wants
you to reduce your spending and sharpen your skills in better
financial management. It could also mean that the Lord wants you to
expand your ministry to come in contact with more people and enhance
the quality of the contact to improve the ministry you have with
your constituency. In Luke 22:31, Jesus spoke to Peter saying,
“Simon, Simon! Indeed Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you
as wheat.” When someone is sifting wheat they are getting ready to
bake bread. We need to be thankful in the sifting phase even though
it is painful. It is a preparation process to get ready to feed
many.
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Bio:
Don is observing forty years in broadcasting in 2009. Great Plains
Christian Radio consists of seven full power stations and thirty-six
translators. The flagship station, KJIL, has been named Station of
the Year most recently by NRB and in the past they have received
that honor from GMA, NAB (Marconi), Focus on The Family and the
Kansas Association of Broadcasters. Don Hughes and his wife Polly
have been married for thirty-one years and they have six children.
Don Hughes can be reached at
don@kjil.com
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