Leveraging “Local” for Major Giving Success
One of the biggest opportunities in public media fundraising is expanding mid-level, major, and planned giving programs. This will require us to leverage our robust member base — which is built largely on transactional giving behavior — and encourage a shift towards a philanthropic mindset and transformational giving.
Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Kristina Martin, Director of Development at Montana PBS and a member of the CDP Innovation Council. We discussed their major giving program and the remarkable success they've achieved by leveraging local content and demonstrating direct impact.
Susannah: Can you tell us about your station, your major giving team and the overall program? How many donors are currently on your file?
Kristina: Montana PBS serves the entire state from our headquarters at Montana State University. We're a television-only licensee with about 40 full-time employees, including five on the development team.
Our major giving efforts are relatively new. We added our first major giving staff member five years ago. When I joined 6 1/2 years ago, one of my main goals was to strengthen our major giving efforts, especially since I was hired to lead a capital campaign.
We have around 23,000 members across Montana, with 800 major donors contributing $1,000 or more each year.
Susannah: That definition of what constitutes a major gift at your station is important since it varies greatly across the system and in relation to nonprofit industry standards. So, how do you lead and direct the major giving program at your station?
Kristina: There are two of us focused on growing our major gifts program. Recently, we launched a mid-level giving program that our membership manager oversees and transitions those “bridge members” to us once they convert.
As a result, our portfolios are quite large. I manage about 100 donors, while our major gifts officer handles nearly 300. The mid-level portfolio has around 400 donors, though we approach them differently than our established major donors. Despite Montana's vast size, which makes in-person stewardship more challenging, we've successfully been strengthening major donor relationships.
Susannah: Tell me more about that. As a statewide network, how have you successfully built those relationships if you aren’t always able to meet with a donor in person? What's enabled you to connect with donors and build close relationships across the state?
Kristina: We meet with our donors in person when we can, especially in the summer when driving is easier. Interestingly, what we do when we can’t meet in person was informed by the pandemic. We began calling all our donors, not just the major givers. This allowed us to connect, understand their concerns and engage on a personal level. We also started sending handwritten cards and small things in the mail. When COVID hit, it was springtime and planting season in Montana, so we started sending wildflower and vegetable seeds with a personal note about how it was the perfect time to grow a garden.
The personalized approach we adopted during the pandemic marked the start of a new strategy. We realized how effective it is to take the time to reach out personally to people, beyond just a thank-you call, to make very deliberate connections.
Susannah: Has this personalized approach lent itself to any other success beyond annual major giving?
Kristina: Like many stations, we don’t have a full-time planned giving staff member, so our major gifts officer also handles planned giving. Thanks to the personalized approach taken with donors, we've seen significant returns in bequests. Some donors have even left their homes and large pieces of land to us in their wills, a direct result of the effort to spend quality time with them.
Susannah: What do you do to build a culture of philanthropy internally at your station?
Kristina: At Montana PBS, we take a team-based approach to everything. If we ask our production or marketing staff to engage in philanthropy, we also need to show our support for the rest of the station.
For us that means we infuse donor stewardship into everything we do, particularly with local productions. For example, we have a local music program that we film during the summer that the development staff dedicates an entire week to supporting. We provide catering and help take care of the musicians, as the production staff are already working long hours. The entire week is an organization-wide effort to welcome the community into our studio, not only to watch the filming but also to interact with our production staff. Everyone is prepared to do studio tours and give donors a behind-the-scenes look at making the program. This is just one way we engage the community through our productions.
Susannah: That’s great. What other ways have you been able to highlight Montana PBS’s local value and impact to grow giving?
Kristina: We partner with many events and community organizations in Bozeman. For example, a local baroque music group asked us to film and produce a notable performance for the purpose of broadcasting it to our audience. This partnership has led to significant contributions for local productions and beyond. We've also collaborated with the Bozeman Film Society for years around their festival, and our content often ties into the work of local conservation groups.
Our partnerships with other community organizations have led to incredible fundraising success. Whenever possible, we collaborate with local nonprofits to help raise all boats, so to speak.
Susannah: It sounds like you’re being very intentional about the way you approach "local” from an impact perspective. How does this translate into messaging that may help shift donor behavior from transactional giving to a more philanthropic mindset?
Kristina: Montana is a huge state and "local" means different things in different areas. During our capital campaign, we leveraged our strong ties with Montana State University in Bozeman, where we've been affiliated for 40 years. However, creating messaging that resonated statewide was more challenging.
In the public phase of our campaign, we reached out to our entire membership base to inform them about our efforts, using transformational messaging that highlighted our 40-year history and beloved local productions. This approach resonated deeply with people who love Montana and its communities.
We also emphasized the future, explaining how the campaign would help us produce more local content and reach more teachers with our educational programs. The response was incredible, with about 600 regular members contributing, some multiple times. Their feedback showed excitement about our future and appreciation for being part of the community.
This experience taught us that transformational messaging works for everyone, and we plan to continue experimenting with it in the future.
Susannah: I have one last question for you. What advice would you give to other organizations looking to improve their major donor efforts?
Kristina: I've been a fundraiser outside of public media for over 20 years and it's the same everywhere: it's super important to take the time to find out what matters to donors. For us, it's often local content, but it's very specific kinds of local content.
As fundraisers, we often stick to our metrics, plans and schedules. But the real magic happens when we spend a day with a donor or get out into the community. It takes a lot of effort and has to be deliberate, but when you take the time to meet with people, learn what matters to them, and use that to engage them, success will follow.
It's a good reminder, especially for those new to major giving, that having genuine conversations and asking what people care about is essential.