1. Catherine Green
Deputy editor, Voice of San Diego
catherine@vosd.org; @c_s_green

2. NOT GREAT

3. SO GREAT

5. VOSD STAFF
CEO
V.P.
Director of Corporate Development
Membership & Events Manager
Part-Time Program Manager
Managing Editor
Deputy Editor
5 Full-Time Reporters and 4 Freelance Reporters
2 Paid Editorial Interns

6. VOSD REVENUE
$1.6 million revenue this year
Foundations: 38%
Major Donors ($5,000+): 35%
Individual Members ($35-$5,000): 15% (1,971 members)
Community Partners, Media Partners, Sponsors: 12%

7. BASICALLY CRUSHIN’ IT

9. THE KEY QUESTIONS
Do you need the money?
Do you have a loyal audience who appreciates your work and
recognizes that you’re producing it?
Do you, or can you, collect their contact info so you can email
them?
Can you commit to managing a relationship with members?

11. SURVEYS + FOCUS GROUPS
News consumption habits: How often, what topics, what device?
Qualities: What do they value most about your organization?
What is your most popular product?
What would motivate them to support you?
Demographics: Sex, ethnicity, age, education, employment, income,
neighborhood or ZIP code
Affinities/hobbies: What do they do? What do they care about?

12. WHAT WE FOUND OUT
People didn’t understand the nonprofit news model.
They didn’t know how they could help.
They didn’t know the difference between being a member and a
subscriber.
We had done a great job telling other people’s stories but never took
the time to craft or tell the VOSD story.

13. OUR STORY
Voice of San Diego is a member-based nonprofit
investigative news organization that gives concerned
citizens the tools they need to engage in important
conversations about their community. We are unlike
any news outlet in San Diego because we dig deeper
to uncover the truth and devote the time necessary to
turn the chaos of news into a story people can access
and understand.

14. OUR STORY, CONTINUED
We believe concerned residents are the true Voice of
San Diego and it’s their collective voice we represent
in our honest and irreverent approach to reporting. We
are building a community of educated San Diegans
who dare to ask tough questions and demand
answers. Join our community and Raise Your Voice by
becoming a sustaining member today.

16. STEP ONE : DEVELOP YOUR BRAND + THEME
Raise Your Voice membership program –
“I am the Voice of San Diego.”

17. STEP TWO: ITEMIZE YOUR EXISTING INVENTORY
Web content
Newsletters
News alerts
Magazine
Events
Access and experiences

18. STEP THREE: DETERMINE NEW MEMBER
EXCLUSIVE BENEFITS
 Member Report – weekly email blast from
CEO
 Inside Scoop – preview of big investigations
 One Voice at a Time conversation series
 Brews & News panel discussions
 VOSD Quarterly Magazine
 VOSD Roundtable – high-level donors

19. STEP FOUR: PACKAGE YOUR BENEFITS
Conversation Starter - $35-$100
Special delivery of: Morning Report, Culture Report,
Inside Scoop and Member Report. Invitation to member
events including Member Coffees and Brews & News
and special recognition on our website.
Inside Voice - $101-$500
All the above, plus a subscription to VOSD Quarterly
magazine, free admission to One Voice at a Time and
Meeting of the Minds events.

20. TOP-TIER BENEFITS
Speaking Up - $501-$1,000
All of the above, plus a household membership and a
free ad to plug your favorite cause on the VOSD
website and magazine.
Loud & Clear - $1,001-$5,000
All of the above, plus special invitation to a roundtable
discussion and dinner with VOSD board members and
the VOSD Experience member outing, sponsor VOSD
memberships for local classroom or group.

21. PRO-TIPS
 Choose benefits you can easily fulfill.
 Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
 Assign fulfillment to someone and hold them
accountable.
 Research and get to know members.

23. CATEGORIZE THE PIPELINE: FROM POTENTIALS
TO MEMBERS
Informed: people who read our content on the website
Involved: people who subscribe to our newsletters or
comment on our site
Invested: people who give us money

24. BUILD YOUR DATABASE
 Make sure you’re collecting and storing as much
information as possible about members and potential
members:
• First and last name
• Email addresses
• ZIP codes
• Affinities and content preferences
• Event attendance
• Affiliations

25. BUT HOW?
 Develop methods for capturing this data:
• Require subscriptions for email blasts
• Require registration for online commenters
• Require pre-registration for events
• Capture info at events with sign-up sheets
• Encourage social media followers to sign-up for
special offerings
• Add design elements on site to entice sign-ups

26. MANAGE YOUR TECH
 WordPress: web platform
 Givalike: donation processor
 MailChimp: email provider
 Predictive Response: automated renewal emails
 Eventbrite: event registration
 Survey Monkey: surveys
 SalesForce: customer relationship management (CRM)

27. PRO-TIPS
 Hire a CRM consultant
 Learn from best practices
 Don’t discount the importance of customer
relationship management
 Maintain a clean database

29. RECRUITMENT GOALS
 Determine membership revenue goal ($230,000)
 Determine how many new members you need each
month (60 new members)
 Renew existing members (80 percent retention rate)
 Track progress with solid metrics

30. MEMBERSHIP BREAKDOWN

31. TARGETED COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
 Potential members:
• Three emails per month (emotional, intellectual,
competitive approaches)
 Existing members:
• 90, 60, 30 day renewal reminders
• “We miss you” expired donors
• Lapsed donor phone calls
• Quarterly campaigns (Spring, Politifest, Year-End)

32. USE EVENTS TO CULTIVATE MEMBERSHIP
 Create events that can bring your stories to life.
 Heavily promote events to member community and
beyond to raise awareness.
 Include audience engagement opportunities.
 Encourage existing members to bring guests.
 Give special benefits to members: discounted or free
admission, etc.
 Work toward more members-only events.

33. MEETING OF THE MINDS

34. ONE VOICE AT A TIME INTERVIEW SERIES

35. BREWS + NEWS PANEL DISCUSSIONS

36. POLITIFEST CIVICS FESTIVAL

38. WEAVE MARKETING INTO YOUR JOURNALISM
Don’t freak out!
Remind people you are nonprofit, member-based
Weave membership “ask” into all personal appearances
Place “donate” option at end of articles
Remind people of your impact (quarterly emails to major
donors)

39. INCORPORATE MEMBERS INTO WEBSITE

40. WEAVING MARKETING INTO JOURNALISM
Include pitches at the end of articles:

41. REMEMBER WHO YOU’RE SERVING
“The attributes of a person who contributes to political
campaigns, who wants to change the world, who
cares passionately about the community – that’s
the kind of person who gives.”
-Evan Smith
Texas Tribune CEO and Editor in Chief

42. Questions? Wanna chat?
catherine@vosd.org
@c_s_green