Wednesday 28 February – Friday 2 March 2018 has marked the period of LightFM’s most recent Your Voice, Your Hope fundraising appeal, in the form of promoting Light Partner
This blog post is not merely a recognition that the Christian community radio station that draws an audience of over one million listeners was simply raising funds again, but provides my account of volunteering on the phones. On both Thursday 1 and Friday 2 March, I sacrificed an extra hour of sleep to rise at 5am and made my way into the Mitcham offices of LightFM. For four hours, between 6am and 10am, I helped to answer the phones – being the friendly voice at the other end of the line for all those brilliant individuals and families who took the time to call up 1300 777 899.
As of 2018, my volunteer efforts outside of Clayton Church are now almost exclusively focused on LightFM. For seven years, I journeyed and experienced the Good Friday Appeal “big end of town” approach to fundraising, but as of 2017, this service of taking calls and helping to process donations is to the benefit of LightFM. There are some obvious differences in the experience – the Good Friday Appeal happens once a year, on Good Friday, and has benefited from a continuous television broadcast. The cause behind the Good Friday Appeal has and continues to be a well-deserving community service in the Royal Children’s Hospital. In 2017 a new record was set in fundraising amounts in Australia – over $17.6M. In comparison, LightFM has three specific periods of the year where fundraising is sought – this Light Partner campaign in February/March, an end-of-financial year June appeal, and then a final November-timed campaign. Collectively, by my estimates, Light FM collects close to $3M in donations annually, and a substantial portion of this revenue is stable through the monthly giving of Light Partners.
To be a light partner, giving is simplified into $1 a day, or $30 a month donations. In recent years, LightFM has had the blessing to partner with organisations where incentives and double blessings have been possible – in this March 2018 campaign, $30 has helped to unlock the gift of a radio to a family in Cambodia via partner FEBC (Far East Broadcast) Australia.
Across the two days, I estimate I helped to serve 30 individuals, the majority of whom were listeners who were making the commitment to become a new Light Partner. Whereas the Good Friday Appeal have had a focus on minimising the average call duration, LightFM values aim for a opposite experience, whereby after we receive and process the payment component of a donation, us call centre volunteers then shift into the soft experiential “what inspired you to donate today?”. The stories and testimonies elicited from this final part of the conversation make a huge difference to the whole volunteer effort. When an organisation takes and makes the effort to understand the “why” behind their valued listeners/donors, it can only help enrich the relationship. Indeed, as each individual called in requesting their desire to join up and become partners, I welcomed them into the LightFM family. In this way, as a representative of LightFM, I was playing my small role in helping to create and build the connection of LightFM with the body of donors.
Many callers have a high level of awareness and appreciation for LightFM, having been listening for years. One new donor surprised me in that he was listening for the very first time and the timeliness of the appeal really spoke to his heart condition. Truly, in these situations, God has to be at work in the hearts and minds of his people. Invariably, the vast majority of callers ringing up are believers and we all hail from the same clothe knitted and infused with God’s heart and values. The moment a caller has identified themselves as being a believer, us volunteers are free to express ourselves using the familiar Christian language to encourage and support our brothers and sisters of faith as they stand up for Christ by financially supporting LightFM. I find that the blessing and encouragement is a two-way flow as well. Whilst I helped out to bless LightFM, I received a wonderful blessing from hearing all the wonderful stories and testimonies from the callers.
One story from this morning was from a mother calling on behalf of her primary-school aged daughter. Just yesterday the mother had rung up to become a Light Partner, and parts of the conversation with the daughter in explaining what they as a family had done, inspired the daughter herself to want to donate additionally. Thus, this call I was taking was a second part to what began the day before! I was particularly heartened by the fact that this young child had the heart to want to donate herself. It turned out that this family were also fairly new believers, starting first with the mother, and then six months later with the father/husband and then the daughter. Through this family’s experience of discovering and drawing close to God, you can see how the parent’s care and love for their daughter manifests through the way they raise their child to understand God’s heart and love for her. Praise God for this family!
Another story that was unique to this morning’s experience began with Lucy and Kel, or Kel specifically. At one point, Kel had not just explained the whole campaign drive to raise funds for LightFM to ensure the continued operation, but he tangibly demonstrated – through silence – what the impact of losing LightFM would be like. This short period of silence was heard first hand by one caller, who rang in distraught at the idea of not having LightFM on the air. This caller did not have the current capacity to contribute financially, but that harrowing silence compelled her to call in and really pour out her heart that LightFM really needed us all to rally and support the station. Helping to pass the caller onto the breakfast show producer, I had to pause for a brief moment to let the strong emotions settle.
Hearing the additional incentives that various listener/donors offer periodically is further encouragement. I can totally understand the heart of individuals who have a desire to see their larger donations have a greater impact and influence on the whole fundraising campaign. This morning we had two such incentives – before 9am, our first challenge/incentive was offered as $2000 to LightFM for the next 20 new donors. An hour later, the second challenge/incentive was activated and offered by an anonymous donor who raised the bar to a massive $20,000 donation. Use of these incentives has really helped in multiple ways – not only do these supporters help to provide more financially, but the way the typically large amounts are used to encourage more donors helps to create momentum.
Taking calls is a fairly straightforward activity. Both the Good Friday Appeal and LightFM have graduated from the basic paper-based approaches to electronic systems, and the use of laptops, telephones and headsets. Whilst the Good Friday Appeal have 100s of volunteers in the phone room, at LightFM, it is really just a handful of us volunteers manning the phones. Privacy is a common compliance requirement, and the tools and processes that us volunteers conform to ensure that we protect each and every donor. I found it interesting that the waves of calls tend to be grouped together, Something said on the radio clearly inspires and motivates people to all call at once – and when I was on a call, generally, others were also busy taking calls too. At other times, when I was in between a call, so too were the other volunteers. Majority of people appreciate the structured nature of the process to become a Light Partner – we collect address and contact details, followed by the payment processing details. To round off each call, we seek an understanding of the motivation behind the commitment, and then transfer the call to the on-air show producer. I found the split to be fairly even between individuals happy to go on-air, versus the busy mums who could not stay on the call to chat more.
As of early Friday afternoon, the tally stands at over 60%… Previously, a specific dollar amount was announced as part of the campaign target. I think this approach has changed in recent times, as part of the overall approach to de-emphasis that these appeals are about the hard dollars, which I totally agree with. Instead, the experiential and soft emotive focus of these fundraising appeals, together with the impact and outcomes that LightFM has on the community both locally and abroad make for a better delivery of the whole experience. I trust LightFM will reach its financial goals and continue to serve the community with its message of hope and positivity for Melbourne.
You must be logged in to post a comment.