Case Studies: Earned Revenue
Learn from (and with) your peers how to grow earned revenue
According to INN’s 2024 Index, earned revenue made up 17% of total revenue for the nonprofit news sector. But, as some members have proven, the potential to earn revenue from sponsorships, events and advertising are even greater, with some news organizations generating as much as one-quarter or even one-half of their budgets from relationships with businesses.
How Grist leverages sponsored content to build 360 advertising packages
How Block Club Chicago built a robust newsletter advertising operation
How VTDigger launched sponsored virtual events
How The Rivard Report Generates Three Times More Revenue than the Average Nonprofit Newsroom
How Madison365 Stays True to Its Mission While Earning More than Half Its Revenue from Businesses
How Grist leverages sponsored content to build 360 advertising packages
Published on July 20, 2021 and written by Emily Roseman
Grist is a nonprofit news outlet dedicated to covering climate change, environmental justice and climate solutions. Based in Seattle, the site is known for its reporting on equity, energy and culture. Its solutions lab, Fix, connects climate leaders to each other and to the public through events and networking.
The outlet was founded in 1999 and has been running ads since then. So when Senior Manager of Business Development, Brian Troyer, joined the GNI-INN Sponsorships Lab, he was looking for new and creative ways to level up and streamline the site’s long-standing earned revenue offerings.
Grist offers clients advertising opportunities on its website, within its events, and across its five newsletters (two daily, three weekly). But the site’s real earned revenue bread-and-butter comes from its sponsored content. In fiscal year (FY) 2020, Grist made over $160,000 in earned revenue, with close to half of that (46%) coming from sponsored content (the other earned revenue streams are email ads, direct display ads, dedicated email, events and special sponsorship). Over a third of all Grist clients purchase sponsored content.
Grist’s fiscal year 2021 (which started in October) is already impressive, with a 72% growth in sponsored content revenue so far this year. In just the two quarters, Grist surpassed earned income totals and number of clients for all of last year. It had 25 clients in total for FY 2020 and has 34 clients so far for FY 2021. The outlet also grew special sponsorship revenue by 171%.
So, what’s the secret to the record-breaking results? Grist has been hard at work packaging advertising offerings to secure larger and longer-term relationships with partners.
Grist was one of seven outlets that participated in the GNI-INN Sponsorships Lab, a program focused on accelerating revenue for nonprofit news outlets from advertising, sponsorship, and underwriting dollars. Blue Engine Collaborative, a new consortium of independent consultants and advisers with deep experience in driving audience and revenue at for-profits and nonprofits, led the programming. It lasted six months and included a blend of virtual programming, intensive coaching, a community of shared practice, and a capacity-building grant. See the Nonprofit News Guide to Earned Revenue for best practices from the program. Across revenue from advertising, sponsorships and underwriting, and events, the seven publishers in the Lab reported more than 81% YOY growth.
Sponsored content
Sponsored content is when a client works with the Grist team to publish a story about its product, event or company. Grist publishes all sponsored content with the byline of Grist Creative and the sponsor’s name, and each sponsored post is granted one week of exclusivity on Grist’s site.
Troyer keeps track of all the sponsored content pieces through a shared, sitewide calendar. The calendar is mostly used by Troyer to track earned revenue, and the small-dollar donor program to make sure advertisements and calls-to-action for small-dollar donors don’t overlap.
Here’s how sponsored content is produced at Grist: Troyer works with the client to develop a theme or broad topic for the story. Then, Grist hands off the story idea to a freelance editor and writer, who puts together a first draft of 700 to 1,000 words. Grist then shares the first draft with the client, who has an opportunity to edit or change the direction of the post. After the client’s feedback is incorporated, Grist will share it back with the freelance editor to take a final look. Their mission is to match the quality and tone of any other article that would appear on the site.
Grist has about six or seven freelancers on standby who write sponsored content — and none of these writers are a part of Grist’s editorial team. This firewall is a standard practice for most nonprofit news outlets — see page 58 of the Nonprofit News Guide to Earned Revenue for more on sponsored content and ethics.
Each sponsored content post sells for $6,000 per piece, and Troyer estimates that the outlet makes $4,500 in profit per piece after factoring in costs for the freelancer and any paid promotion on social media (which generally costs $300 per piece to purchase Facebook ads).
Clients tell Troyer that they like Grist’s sponsored content because of the collaborative process: Clients can be involved in the story summary, and first and second drafts. Another selling point is that after Grist posts sponsored content, Troyer and the team promote the articles in their newsletter and on social media, including within Facebook ads.
About one week after the story has been published, Troyer delivers back to the client article views, time spent and engagement metrics.
The power of packaging
Before the GNI-INN Sponsorships Lab, Grist thought about “packaging” in terms of grouping together sponsored content offerings for clients. For example, when a client requested a single sponsored content post, the Grist team would pitch a sponsored content series of two or three stories.
Today, Troyer and the team think about packaging in a more holistic way. They have started to leverage their premium sponsored content as a hook for other earned revenue opportunities, and also as an additional offering for clients that are initially interested in display or newsletter advertising.
The Sponsorships Lab programming and Grist’s coach, Steve Shalit, pushed Troyer and the Grist team to consider ways to sell solutions, which lead to their new approach to packaging — and their historic growth. Now, when a client reaches out for a display advertising opportunity, Troyer will make sure the client knows about all of Grist’s advertising opportunities. If he piques any interest, he’ll try to package a few things together, like a sponsored content post, a few display ads, and then one or two dedicated emails over the course of one or two months. The big value add for clients is creating multiple touch points over a longer period of time.
Use this resource: Starting with your client’s goals is a key foundation of the consultative or solutions selling approach, a strategy outlined in the Nonprofit News Guide to Earned Revenue (see page 37).
In early conversations with clients and potential clients, Grist focuses on deeply understanding their campaign needs and overall goals. If the client has an easy pitch to make to audiences, like advertising an upcoming event, sometimes a display advertising series will work best. If the client has a story to tell or a more complicated pitch, sponsored content typically makes more sense. Troyer helps clients think through what they need, and how this should impact the timing and process of their advertising or sponsorship campaigns. He generally recommends that a client starts by running ads on the site to get readers familiar with the brand or company. Then, they’ll publish a sponsored post or two a few weeks later.
Here’s an example of packaging in action: Grist landed a major deal at the end of its last fiscal year. The ad campaign was going so well (Grist had just published a sponsored post), that the client followed up with Grist and asked to do more.
Tip: Strike while the iron is hot, then immediately try to build a connection. When a prospective or new client reaches out to Troyer through the form on Grist’s website, he uses a lesson learned from the GNI-INN Sponsorships Lab: strike while the iron is hot. Troyer immediately calls the prospective client to follow up on their outreach and starts finding ways to build connections and trust.
Grist was about to roll out a website rebranding with a new tagline, “climate, justice, solutions.” Troyer spoke with the client and shared a mock-up. He also used this touchpoint as an opportunity to learn more about his client’s campaign goals. The result of the conversations with the company: a nine-month, $50,000 package that included three sponsored content posts, a quarterly dedicated email send, and ads on the site for most of the timeframe. This large, 360 ad package for the client was made possible because of that initial sponsored content sale — and by focusing on selling solutions.
Tip: Leverage your news outlet’s improvements as a selling point. In Grist’s case, a big website redesign allowed Troyer and his team to engage clients with a preview. This rebranding gave Troyer talking points to use with current and potential clients, which lets the Grist team show how they are a valuable and ever-improving platform for businesses to reach new audiences. Thankfully, Grist’s website redesign garnered positive media attention, which gave Troyer yet another opportunity to discuss opportunities with partners and prospects.
Sourcing ideas for clients
The vast majority of Grist’s clients (80% to 90%) are national brands. The remainder are local companies, which will often want to work with Grist to target specific audiences (particularly email subscribers in a certain region).
About half of Grist’s clients come to Troyer organically, meaning they are already familiar with Grist or are fans of the outlet’s work.
Other times, Troyer is reaching out to leads and spending time explaining what Grist is, the news outlet’s values and audiences, and reviewing advertising and sponsorship opportunities. Troyer finds new leads by looking at the advertisers of other regional or national nonprofit news outlets, including Mother Jones and High Country News. He also subscribed to newsletters for Grist’s peer sites to see who’s buying ads in similar newsletter products. A final tip from Troyer on how to find new prospects: Keep an eye out for awards in your field. For Troyer, he’s always on the lookout for sustainability awards — using a quick note of “congratulations on the award” as a way to meet prospects who are mission-aligned with Grist.
Tip: Get personal. Troyer noticed an uptick in client outreach after revamping its advertising page, one part of Grist’s major site redesign. Now, the advertising page has a quick form at the bottom where clients can select a few things they’re interested in. There’s a photo of Troyer at the bottom of the page to show the form goes to a real person. After making that change, more potential clients address Troyer by name in emails, which he thinks is a better place to start building a relationship. This is all part of the Lab’s emphasis on leveraging your unique value proposition and continually prospecting and telling your story — and what is different about your company.
Grist takes a similar ethical stance as many nonprofit news outlets do when it comes to working with clients — they’re looking to partner with mission-aligned groups. As Troyer put it: “We’re never going to work with Exxon Mobil.” Troyer vets every company and potential clients that come across his desk to learn about the company’s products and mission. If a company raises a concern, like one potential client that produced a “clean” fuel additive, Troyer will take it to Grist’s managers’ meeting. In that case, the team decided not to pursue a partnership. See page 58 of the Nonprofit News Guide to Earned Revenue for more on how to navigate the ethical issues around sponsored content and to stay mission-centered.
“Grist was able to significantly increase sponsored content revenue by packaging stories for clients as extended sponsorable series options rather than as one-off offers as they had previously.” – Steve Shalit, Grist’s GNI-INN Sponsorships Lab coach and director of business development at NJ Spotlight
What’s next for Grist?
Grist is thinking of ways to leverage existing editorial series and products for sponsorship opportunities. Troyer’s team is also brainstorming other ways they can even more proactively get in front of potential clients. One idea: sending a dedicated email to their newsletter lists to outline advertising opportunities.
They’re also considering how to lean more into events in the year ahead. Grist Creative works well as a sponsored content umbrella, so they’re considering starting a new Grist Creative Events arm.
Overall, the Sponsorships Lab inspired a growth mind-set for Troyer and the Grist team. As he put it: “It was eye opening to see what is possible. We’ve had some great success over the past few years, but the program really showed us how much more we can grow.”
Grist offers clients advertising opportunities on its website, within its events, and across its five newsletters (two daily, three weekly). But the site’s real earned revenue bread-and-butter comes from its sponsored content. In FY 2020, Grist made over $160,000 in earned revenue, with close to half of that (46%) coming from sponsored content.
How Block Club Chicago built a robust newsletter advertising operation
Published on July 20, 2021 and written by Emily Roseman
Maple Walker Lloyd is the only full-time employee on the 21-person team at Block Club Chicago who is dedicated to bringing in earned revenue, so she’s a busy person. When Block Club joined the GNI-INN Sponsorships Lab in the fall of 2020, she knew she needed to focus on a clear, concrete way that she could help build earned revenue at an outlet that had no earned ad revenue the previous year.
With more than 100,000 daily newsletter subscribers, the team knew there was potential for newsletter sponsorship opportunities. So Maple got to work securing these deals.
Block Club Chicago is a local, nonprofit news outlet that covers Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods. Founded in 2018, the outlet has quickly become a leading source of reporting on the city and a model for creative revenue experimentation.
Lloyd joined the team in July 2019 as director of development and community engagement. At that point, Block Club Chicago had no system to sell newsletter advertising but would place an ad here or there on request. At the beginning of 2020 the outlet started offering ads systematically. By the end of 2020, just five months after joining the GNI-INN Sponsorships Labs, the organization generated over $20,000 entirely from newsletter ads.
From the start of the Lab in October 2020 through May 2021, Block Club grew its earned advertising revenue 10% year over year (YOY) and drove a 15% increase in average revenue per client.
Lloyd cites the program’s coaches as key drivers for Block Club’s earned advertising revenue success and experimentation — and particularly Susan Scott who, in addition to her role as a coach at Blue Engine, is the chief growth officer for UNC-TV. Through Scott’s guidance, Lloyd launched an advertising referral program for clients to build on Block Club’s growing newsletter advertisement operation. Lloyd said, “It’s challenging because we don’t have the bandwidth to implement a lot of our ideas to increase earned revenue. It wasn’t until we joined the training program that my coach, Susan, was able to reframe my thinking about how we could tackle earned revenue in simple ways.”
Block Club Chicago was one of seven outlets that participated in the first cohort of the GNI-INN Sponsorships Lab, a program focused on accelerating revenue for nonprofit news outlets from advertising, sponsorship, and underwriting dollars. Blue Engine Collaborative, a new consortium of independent consultants and advisers with deep experience in driving audience and revenue at for-profits and nonprofits, led the programming that lasted six months and included a blend of virtual programming, intensive coaching, a community of shared practice, and a capacity-building grant. See the Nonprofit News Guide to Earned Revenue for best practices from the program. Across revenue from direct sold advertising, sponsorships and underwriting, and events, the seven publishers in the Lab reported more than 81% YOY growth.
About Block Club Chicago’s newsletters
Block Club sold its first newsletter ad in March 2020. Lloyd brought in eight more clients through the end of the year, and six more by May 2021.
Block Club offers 10 newsletters, including two free, daily products. A daily newsletter and an afternoon coronavirus update go out to 100,000 people every weekday, with 27% of recipients opening it. Block Club also sends six neighborhood focused newsletters to its paid subscribers twice per week, and two free newsletters twice a week to additional neighborhoods. Those neighborhood lists range from 2,000 to 6,000 subscribers each, with open rates at an impressive 37% to 48%.
Establishing inventory and pricing for newsletter ads
One of the first steps to take when selling newsletter advertising is determining inventory (or availability) and setting prices.
Block Club’s editor in chief helped figure out the pricing after consulting with a few contacts, and eventually landed on a pay-per-edition system with an incentive to bulk buy ads. A client can pay $1,200 for a single ad in the morning newsletter, $3,000 for 3 ads ($1,000 per ad), all the way up to $12,000 for 20 ads ($600 per ad). For the neighborhood-specific newsletters, the smaller list sizes merit a lower charge. A client can pay $300 for 1 ad, $250 each for 2 ads, and the cost lowers to $130 each for 12 ads.
Use this resource: See page 26 of the Nonprofit News Guide to Earned Revenue for pricing best practices, including how to consider the two primary factors for pricing: willingness to pay and competitive market value. As Lloyd learned in the Lab, too, with pricing the most important thing is to experiment with what you can offer by framing the opportunity around your prospects’ needs — and providing solutions to those needs.
For inventory, the Block Club Chicago team knew they did not want to oversaturate their valuable newsletters with too many ad spots. So, they decided to only offer one ad spot per newsletter edition. This limit enhances the reader’s experience, but also allows Lloyd to guarantee the client exclusivity. And, perhaps most importantly, limiting the inventory streamlines the work for this lean and busy local team. In the Lab, Lloyd learned how narrowing inventory in this way (and as Block Club has done, selling out that inventory quickly) is also a way to create a premium or demand that can allow you to raise prices.
Attracting newsletter advertising clients
Lloyd says the key to her success in actually selling these new positions was the GNI-INN Sponsorships Lab and Susan Scott, who helped her reframe her thinking of earned revenue as a process of a few, simple building blocks.
One of those foundational building blocks is to be continually experimenting and pursuing what you can in the simplest way possible — based on what your capacity allows. For Lloyd, that involved devising a simple plan to launch a new, email ad referral program: If an existing client refers another to Block Club’s ad program who then buys an ad, the referring client gets one ad free.
The referral program began in January 2021 when Lloyd announced it to nine existing or former clients. Two responded and thought it was a great idea. One client placed two additional ads thanks to the referral program. Lloyd plans to keep offering this referral program to grow the client base, especially in this early phase of newsletter advertising operations.
Lloyd also started another outreach by promoting Block Club’s advertising opportunities in the daily newsletter. A quarterly note will remind newsletter subscribers that the outlet is always looking for community partners to help support Block Club’s impactful storytelling.
On a recent push to the daily list, 10 people responded with advertising inquiries. Four turned out to be real prospects. Two were stalled by budget issues, but two moved forward with advertising deals.
TIP: If you don’t hear back from a client, always follow up. Lloyd initially interpreted no response from her email outreach to mean people weren’t interested. She followed up by email and proved herself wrong. Some of her prospects thanked her for getting back in touch, saying they had forgotten to respond or that their budget initially hadn’t allowed for ads, but now they were interested. The Lab emphasized to continually follow up and to never assume that silence is a no.
Working with clients
Lloyd’s biggest sales come from the daily newsletter. The smaller, neighborhood specific lists are the cherry on top. Lists sorted by location allow clients to reach specific pockets of people across Chicago, which can come in handy when promoting a neighborhood event. They help Lloyd reach out to distinct, and different, prospects across Chicago and the surrounding region.
Typically, clients buy ads in sets of two or three at a time. Sometimes a client will buy a few ads in the daily newsletter and some in the neighborhood lists for one campaign. Lloyd emphasizes that she remains flexible in this part of the sale: working with the clients to understand their needs so she can recommend the right ad mix and frequency. This is a key part of solutions or consultative selling that the Lab emphasized is the key for publishers like Block Club to maximize their earned revenue potential.
Clients are local businesses, a mix of universities and schools, and nonprofit organizations. This past year, Block Club sold five ads over two to three month to the U.S. Census Bureau, which needed help reaching certain communities across Chicago.
Here’s how the sales process works at Block Club: Once Lloyd has a lead for a client, she’ll send a document that reviews the outlet’s newsletter sponsorship options. This email usually prompts a conversation in which Lloyd can learn more about the client’s needs and recommend a newsletter advertising package. From initial outreach to a sale can take a few days, weeks, or months. Some clients reach out months in advance; others reach out last minute. Whatever the time frame, Lloyd is ready to make the sale, part of the Lab emphasis on always striking while the iron is hot.
After Lloyd makes the sale, the client sends their ad with the ratio requirements, and then a link to the site where they want the ad to jump when clicked. Block Club requests that the ads are no more than 30 words.
Lloyd then sends the editors the ad, URL, and the date(s) the ad will run. Block Club doesn’t guarantee specific placement for newsletters ads (sometimes an ad will be placed in the middle of stories, and other times, near the end), so it’s up to the editor to upload and make the judgment call of where to place the ad. It depends on what’s being published that day, and the editor will sometimes move the ad further down the page if there’s breaking news in the newsletter.
After they run the ad, Lloyd sends an email with a link to the newsletter to the client. If a client asks, Lloyd will send the open and click rate of the newsletter where the ad ran. This is an opportunity to emphasize the value of Block Club’s audiences and the impact of the campaign and how it met the clients’ needs, closing a key part of the loop on the solutions selling process.
What’s next for Block Club?
Lloyd and the Block Club team are just getting started with earned revenue, and are excited to build on the successes that she gained through the Lab.
Lloyd has her sights set on getting a sponsor for an entire newsletter. That might look like a $100,000 package where the client gets its logo and an ad in every single edition of the daily newsletter for a year. Through continued growth, Lloyd also hopes to one day have a direct report who can fully jump with her into earned revenue work — strategizing and pitching opportunities like this one to more clients.
Tip: Just try it. Here’s Lloyd’s advice for other news outlets just getting started with earned revenue: Find out what you can do and just try it and see what works. Newsletter ads could either become a steady source of revenue, or it could not work for your audiences or in your market. Either way, it’s worth trying and you’ll learn quickly. Especially if your news outlet already has a large and engaged email list, the time and effort to get the ball rolling is more than worth the potential for any return on investment.
How VTDigger launched sponsored virtual events
Published on July 20, 2021 and written by Emily Roseman
In August 2020, Jim Lehnhoff moved from New Jersey to Vermont to join the team at VTDigger as chief revenue officer. He’d been in sales for a few national commercial media sites, including Gawker and Slate, when he decided it was time to move to the world of public service journalism.
In 2020 VTDigger grew revenue from sponsorship and underwriting by more than 10%, a particularly important triumph in the face of the pandemic and financial uncertainty (including economic challenges for VTDigger itself).
Among other initiatives, Lehnhoff and team streamlined their ad availability and packaging process and landed a single large sponsor to cover costs (and more) for a virtual event series over the fall and winter.
VTDigger was one of seven outlets that participated in the GNI-INN Sponsorships Lab, a program focused on accelerating revenue for nonprofit news outlets from advertising, sponsorship, and underwriting. Blue Engine Collaborative, a new consortium of independent consultants and advisers with deep experience in driving audience and revenue at for-profits and nonprofits, led the programming that lasted six months and included a blend of virtual programming, team coaching, a community of shared practice, and a capacity-building grant. See the Nonprofit News Guide to Earned Revenue for best practices from the program. Across revenue from direct sold advertising, sponsorships and underwriting, and events, the seven publishers in the Lab reported more than 81% YOY growth.
Making changes
After joining Digger, Lehnhoff realized the news outlet was underselling itself and relying on processes that required too many resources for a small team.
Back in August 2020, Digger offered ad spots randomly throughout its newsletters and placements on the homepage for a hodgepodge of days at a time. In some instances, Digger sold five placements per newsletter to five different clients. This a complex process to manage and execute internally, and meant that each sponsor was in effect competing for attention with several other sponsors within a single email. From a pricing perspective, Digger sold newsletter ads for $100 each, quite low for a newsletter with a 46,000 list size, 43% average open rate, and high trust in the community.
Leveraging insights from the GNI-INN Sponsorships Lab on packaging and pricing, Lehnhoff and team decided to reduce five ad spots to three and required clients to purchase a newsletter takeover (all three ad positions). They raised the individual ad rate to $250.
Lehnhoff applied a similar framework to display ads on the site. The previous approach was to offer clients (typically local businesses throughout Vermont) a single ad unit. Now clients are sold site full-day takeovers (four units) in 24-hour increments. After making this change, Lehnhoff and team communicated the shift to clients and partners, emphasizing the value and impact to audiences of seeing a single sponsor each day rather than a smattering of many.
Leveraging virtual events for sponsorship opportunities
For Lehnhoff, coming from the world of commercial media to a local, mission-driven organization meant having to learn the tricks of the trade in local markets.
One idea Lehnhoff took from the program, thanks to Steve Shalit, a Blue Engine Collaborative coach and the business development director at NJ Spotlight News: the power of virtual events. Shalit shared how virtual events are a relatively low-cost and high-impact offering for clients, especially for a news site with local and engaged audiences like VTDigger. One of Shalit’s favorite parts about selling virtual events: They’re perishable. Having an event date to pitch creates a sense of urgency.
Use this resource: For virtual event best practices, see page 24 of the Nonprofit News Guide to Earned Revenue.
The Digger team immediately went to work on the idea, ultimately making a short series of five, live streamed events called FAQ Live.
Each FAQ Live session involves a member of the Digger team (sometimes a reporter, sometimes founder and executive director Anne Galloway) interviewing a local expert on a topic of concern to Vermonters. The team also brainstormed what they could offer sponsors, including exclusive sponsorship of a coronavirus FAQ page, sponsor mention and logo throughout the livestream, and sponsorship of emails leading up to the events.
Selling the sponsorship spot
Lehnhoff put together a simple one-pager about the event series and what sponsorship would entail. Then, he pulled 400 contacts out of Digger’s customer relationship management (CRM) database — a mix of people and organizations that the outlet had worked with previously or that the team had contacted about previous sponsorship opportunities — and hit send.
| “Next week VTDigger is going to be launching a new virtual event series called FAQ Live…Here’s where you come in. We rely on the financial support of our underwriters and advertisers to continue our work, and this event series is no exception. We’re looking for sponsors to underwrite this project. Attached to this email, you’ll find information on what this sponsorship entails and the kind of exposure sponsors can expect to receive. Become a sponsor today, and let our readers know that you care about helping them to successfully navigate a complicated holiday season. Please let me know if you would like to schedule a time to discuss in more detail. Thank you for your support.” |
Of those 400 emailed contacts, 20 responded. Garnet Healthcare, a company that offered COVID testing to Vermonters, was the first to say yes.
The Digger team made sure Garnet Healthcare’s name and logo were visible throughout the five Zoom sessions. In addition to the interviewee’s screen and the local expert’s, they set up the Zoom room to include a third screen — a title card with the sponsor’s name and logo. Throughout the event, the Digger team clicked over to this sponsor title card to make it front and center for the event’s audiences. They also mentioned the sponsor’s name in the YouTube description and within a few newsletter editions leading up to the event.
The resulting five-video series included discussions on what to know about COVID-19 and the holidays, how and when will Vermonters receive a vaccine, and food insecurity in Vermont during COVID. Before each event, Digger solicited questions from the audiences to ask the expert. Each event had 200 to 600 attendees and between Zooms and site units, Garnet Healthcare’s spots had about 170,000 views and nearly 600 click-thrus.
Tip: Don’t stop at events — practice consultative or solutions selling. Digger builds campaigns that are as specific to clients’ objectives as possible. Every conversation with a client should start with asking, “what are your objectives?” Based on those goals, Lehnhoff will recommend a mix of offerings, including display advertising, podcast advertising, or a sponsorship spot in an upcoming virtual event. Starting with your client’s goals is a key part of the consultative or solutions selling approach, a strategy outlined in the Nonprofit News Guide to Earned Revenue (see page 37).
What’s next for Digger?
Lehnhoff plans to continue hosting and offering virtual events as prime spots for sponsors, but will begin integrating real-world events in addition to virtual, likely opening doors for more sponsorship opportunities.
“It’s really nice to be working for a mission-driven organization as opposed to one that’s just laser focused on revenue,” Lehnhoff said. “It makes a big difference, showing up to work every day and knowing that the work you’re doing is having a real and meaningful impact on the community. That’s been a huge breath of fresh air.”
How The Rivard Report Generates Three Times More Revenue than the Average Nonprofit Newsroom
How Madison365 Stays True to Its Mission While Earning More than Half Its Revenue from Businesses
Looking for more advice? Check out INN’s Nonprofit News Guide to Earned Revenue.