‘Tis the Season of Begging; the time of year when our hands are out and asking the audience to give us food/clothes/toys. I try not to be cynical, but radio is kind of like being a parole officer… Eventually, you come to expect the worst.
And really, it’s all about math: if we can’t get more than 4% (and that’s optimistic) of the audience to try and play our contests, what percentage will donate something simply because we asked them to?
Exactly.
Chet Buchanan’s toy drive at KLUC is the epitome of how a station took something that everyone does and added a dash of Show Business. If Steven Spielberg did a toy drive, it would look like Chet’s.
One of the companies has a corporate initiative for natural disasters, where, across their stations, they post a link to the Red Cross. I asked one of the Market Managers what the stats were like, and he said, “They won’t tell us, so that kind of answers that.”
As exciting as GoFundMe and texting codes to Blackhole Charities are, perhaps there could be a little bit more?
One of the iHeart people in the Twin Cities once asked me to put together a list of charitable methodologies. Maybe, possibly, this will spark something for you.
Get Plastered For (Cause)
Occasionally, we find ourselves in the position of needing to raise some money quickly. This is about to “hit” somewhere. Very simple (he said, having actually never had it done to him). You take the morning show, wrap them from head to toe in plaster as if they’d fallen down the Matterhorn, and allow people to sign the cast for $10. First done by Joey and Heather at Wild in OKC. The cast was cut off in stages, and pieces were given to the charities that were benefiting from it. One piece is mounted on a wall at a Children’s Hospital.
More Ways to Beg For Donations
Bag/Disease I was at Cub Foods in Forest Lake on a Saturday, and the girls from the high school swim team…pause for several of you to lock in that mental image…got it?were bagging groceries to raise funds for their team. 16 lanes of non-stop bagging. Probably $2 or $3 in tips every five minutes per lane; do the math. Over the course of the afternoon, they made some money.
Filmfest The COOLEST thing I’ve ever seen done at a Cineplex was when a new megaplex, the Ahwatukee 24, opened up in Phoenix. This was the Star Wars of movie theaters. They opened with a Kurt Russell film fest. A Kurt flick on every screen. He flew in. They donated every penny from every ticket to his and Goldie Hawn’s medical missions on the reservations in Arizona. What if you had the audience pick the ten films, they would most love to see on a big screen, and have people vote online. Get the reels and for a weekend, do a Listeners’ Choice Film Fest with a cooperative theater? People love movies. This is Entertainment-Based. It would be huge. Also done as The Canned Film Festival at WDVD in Detroit.
Dress Down I saw B-95 in Fresno raise about $50,000 in one day from offices and workplaces where the bosses let their employees dress casually…for a $10 donation to a food shelf. The drop from “Office Space” about “and don’t forget, Friday is Hawaiian Shirt Day!” is a given.
A Fast Drive That Probably Seems Really Slow The midday woman at one of the stations lives on a bed, in a mall, without eating, every Christmas. Raises bucko bucks.
Roof/Crane/Billboard Sit As witnessed by Chet Buchanan’s 700,000 toys this past Christmas, anytime you stick a DJ on a roof or anyplace above eye-level, it’s huge. One of the morning guys in Charlotte used to sit on the roof of the radio station for two weeks every December. Raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. WIOG regularly has Demas sit on the roof of a McDonald’s for a week. KSFM in Sacramento once hung Mark S. Allen in a shark’s cage from a crane for two weeks. Orlando at Wild in Tampa lived on a billboard for several days. These things WORK.
Pennies From Heaven In 1995, I saw this story in the paper about how the students at an elementary school in Chicago raised $40,000 in pennies to fix the roof of the gym. Since then, we’ve done this promotion at numerous stations. Offer a concert or dance to the school that donates the most pennies.
World’s Largest Garage Sale The Cancer Society in the Twin Cities used to do this. They would spend months collecting items, donations, and over a long weekend, would spread these out on the floor of a warehouse, open the doors, and mayhem would ensue. People would line up overnight just to get first crack at the stuff.
World’s Largest Office Party Used to be a Hyatt thing. Some of the stations have stepped in and filled the void. Basically, it’s a big, swanky holiday party for all of the workplaces whose bosses were too cheap to throw a staff get-together. Celebrity bartenders, dancing, and food. Really a nice, classy event.
A Promotion With Balls This is an old Country thing. After the holidays, the station would go to Target and get a couple of boxes of Christmas ornaments. Then, throughout the year, whenever an artist strolled through, they would take ten minutes and sign all the ornaments. Until they were covered with autographs, and then these were auctioned off pre-Christmas.
The Running Of The Balls This is brilliant and done by the Lions club in my little burg every September. They sell balls and race them. People win money, but a huge chunk goes to the club.
Softball/Dodgeball Anytime you have a hundred or so teams of listeners playing on a Saturday afternoon, it’s a homerun, $250 entry fee. The winning team gets a suite at a concert. Wild in Ft. Wayne did it with Dodgeball. Raised $17,000 in one afternoon.
Celebrity Softball Wild in Tampa had perhaps the biggest hit (sorry) when they raised $50,000 with the airstaff playing a team of celebrities that included Snoop and Eminem. Tickets were $5 and 10,000 people showed up to watch. Money was for a family that had experienced a medical emergency and had no funds/insurance. Nothing is ever bigger than playing ball with the artists.
Dance-A-Thon Did this for AIDS at UC-Berkeley. Students got pledge forms and raised donations for every hour they danced. Went all night.
Fill The Field CBS in Denver did something post-Katrina where they lined up a mile of quarters around a track. How about covering an entire football field with dollar bills? Until every square inch is covered. The morning show lives in a tent in the middle of the field until it’s done.
(Blank) Aid Station concerts have become huge NTR generators. Why can’t we do something for charity?
Make It Stop Want a quick cash hit? Find the most annoying song imaginable and lock yourself in the studio, and play it until you hit your goal. I think “Achy Breaky Heart” was the song they did in Wichita at Channel 96.3 to raise $10,000 in one morning. I would have said “Barbie Girl” or “I’m With The DJ” by Katalina. Done by Gello last Christmas for toys with Mariah Carey’s holiday song.
Free Willy Any time you take a turkey or a dog or a bunny or a kitten and threaten to execute it unless your cash goal is reached, well, that’s just ribald tomfoolery©. “Free Willy” remains the biggest food drive methodology I know of.
A Second Job 99% of our charity stuff is just getting on the air and asking for money. Scintillating. No service. No product. Just “give us the money”. The whole morning show at KSFM in Sacramento went and got part-time jobs during the month of December. Davey made pizzas at Mountain Mikes. Chris waited tables at the Hungry Hunter. Juan was a fragrance spritzer at Macy’s. They donated all their wages and tips to a food shelf. Historic. Chris was getting $200 tips.
She’s A Brick and I’m Drowning Slowly The money to build Pioneer Square in downtown Portland was funded almost entirely from bricks that people bought and sponsored. Go to the square now and it is paved in printed bricks with the names of people and businesses. The charity would have to be right, but again, for my donation, I’m actually “getting” something.
Calendars I’ve referenced this maybe ten times in the past year. This little town where I live? Has raised over $70,000 from calendar sales for a local girl who has cancer. These are nice, good-quality things that picture various business people from the community in stages of undress. Not dirty. Tasteful. Funny. $70,000. In Scandia-freaking-Minnesota.
Expose Your Listeners to Art There are more than a few musicians who are also artists. John Lennon. Jerry Garcia. Ringo Starr. If you go to Flinn Broadcasting in Memphis, the lobby wall is covered in charcoal sketches from artists who have come through. Like Rob Thomas. Over the course of a year, every time a celebrity comes through, give them a sketch pad, have them draw something, and sign it. Then do an expo and sell this stuff.
The Can Jam KUBE in Seattle did this. The high school that collected the most aluminum for recycling, won a concert in their gym. All the money from the cans went to DARE.
This Space for Rent Got a pregnant DJ? Sell ad space on her belly. Did this with Sandy at 98PXY in Rochester. Huge.
Cheerleader Carwash Yes. I do thoroughly enjoy getting twenty high school cheerleading squads, taking over a stadium parking lot, and washing 1000 cars. But only because you can make a TON of money for charity. (Obviously, as a Mennonite, I’m offended by any implications that may have). Again, you’re selling a service. Not just begging for money.
Change Bandits This has been done multiple times for quick cash hits: you have volunteers at intersections with buckets collecting coins from motorists.
Gift cards From Kiss in Seattle, where, for Christmas, they got Jackie & Bender gift cards. $30 was the cost, and they had a $25 value at Applebee’s. Users got a $5 bounce-back coupon for their next visit, and the morning show got their faces on thousands of nice plastic gift cards. People LOVE gift cards.
A Haunted House Charity haunted houses in October can generate a LOT of money. But they are also a lot of work. Clear Channel in El Paso used to do its own every year. Use high school theater departments to staff the thing.
Tree Lots Can raise a lot of money. Again, we’re offering a product. Not just begging for money.
Pumpkin Sales Back when I used to host Brazilian Exchange Students (the Golden Days, as I like to think of them), I once donated about 800 pumpkins to Isabel’s high school girls’ hockey team. They made over $12,000 in one weekend, selling them on the side of the road. Again, you’re offering a product. And, again, high school girls move product. (Word)
Power Of a Dollar Post-Katrina, one of the stations theorized that if everyone in their market donated ONE lousy dollar, they’d make $1.2 million for relief efforts. They got close to $900,000.
Give (Insert Problem) A Hand Both KKMG in Colorado Springs and WIOG in Saginaw have done billboards made of listeners’ handprints. Come by, dip your hand in paint, give us $10 and you will be part of a billboard that helps support the troops or fight cancer.
Pay For Play The good kind. Newcap in Edmonton raised $72,000 in one weekend for Katrina relief by selling requests for $97. They’d play anything. You could also BLOCK an upcoming song by donating $197. So, if you don’t want to hear “Macarena”, call NOW.
Or Just Do Something Stupid JV from The Doghouse in San Francisco once raised $10,000 in pledges during the morning show for some family in San Jose whose kid needed a bone marrow transplant. Solicited the pledges and, late in the morning, swam to Alcatraz.
Cupcakes For the Cure Another “selling a product” campaign, as done by KOB-FM in Albuquerque, where they had listeners create amazing cupcakes and they did a big sale to raise money for Breast Cancer research.
