Here are some ideas to help you develop the needed funding of your broadcast:

• Just as offering envelopes typically have a line item for a building program, missions, etcetera, include a line item for radio. Determine the costs of air time, production and any related costs and divide that by the number of members within your church who would support the broadcast with $1, $2 or a few dollars each week.
   
• A variation of the envelopes concept would be to post a calendar within the church where members can sign-up to pay for a broadcast on a certain day or days.
   
• Develop radio partners who pledge to give a given amount each month. Then determine what to give them in appreciation. This can be a copy of a message, a newsletter, a free book, a CD Bible series. It is best that your appreciation be an extension of your ministry. For example, if you are teaching on the family, offer a CD message or Internet download of a different message you preached on the same subject.
   
• Dedicate a Sunday morning to raise the money to pay for the coming year. Call it Radio Ministry Sunday. During this service, share e-mail, postal mail and in person testimonies of those who have benefited from your broadcast ministry. Particularly if you have new members as a result of the broadcast, ask them to share with your congregation how they came to the church because of your radio ministry.
   
• Form a group of business leaders from within the church or among your friends in the business community. Have them underwrite the program, giving them a word of appreciation at the end of each broadcast. If you are doing a daily Monday through Friday broadcast, for example, each of five businesses could have their own day of sponsorship. Please be sure they understand this will not be an advertisement for their business, but a mention of their business name, location, phone number and Web site address. (See our Sponsorship Policy for details.)
   
• Develop multiple streams of income. The first stream should be that of outright donations as described above. The second should be income in exchange for gift offers, as described above. Gift offer values should range in value from $15 to $100. An example would be the most requested messages of the past year. Factor in the shipping value as a lot of profit is in shipping and handling. (The average listener gift is about $20 per month.)
   
• Listen to other broadcast ministries, particularly those of nationally syndicated programs, and glean ideas from them as to how they develop their donor base.

Call Roger Manning at 304-522-2277.
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