My name is Sarah Cassidy Hipsher and I am the Membership Manager at WFSU Public Media in Tallahassee, FL. We are a dual-licensee and a university affiliate news station. I have been producing pledge drives at WFSU for 9 years now and I don’t necessarily have a lot of pain points. We have the normal issues of slow periods and revenue slumps, but I don’t look at those as pain points, just normal hurdles to overcome.
One thing that is unique about WFSU- we use volunteers for about 90% of our live pitching during pledge drives. Tallahassee is a small town in a lot of ways, and that is the way it’s always been! It’s worked for us, so we’ve kept it that way. Usually we have a team of two volunteers for a two hour shift. Staff sits right next to them (without a mic) to help them and make sure they don’t get too far off course. Yes, they need a lot of coaching, but we do make our goals! We have a good team of dedicated people, some have been pitching once a year for decades.
I have used Greater Public as a resource for all my years at WFSU and take workshops and review webinars whenever I can. It’s been such a valuable resource. We have a new staff member, so from this course, I’m hoping she and I can work together to help make our drives even better.