Lessons learned from three years of matching campaigns
Christine Schmidt, Nieman Lab,The year-end fundraising strategies we’ve referenced are a key, tool in a publisher’s revenue kit, and the match structure multiplies the revenue potential. NewsMatch has encouraged local news organizations to invest in longer-burn donor cultivation with millions of dollars in matching funds.
NewsMatch started at the Knight Foundation in 2016 as a “call to action for everyone who believes in quality, trustworthy, in-depth journalism and the role nonprofit news organizations play in building strong communities.” But in an area of the industry that now generates nearly $350 million in annual revenue, the effort has also helped train everyone from editors to interns on how to actually fundraise, with guidance from the Institute for Nonprofit News and the News Revenue Hub. (NewsMatch participants must also be INN members.)
This rundown of four case studies shows how a variety of news orgs capitalized on NewsMatch’s turnkey email campaign, earning bonus funds for recruiting new donors in addition to total dollar matches.