Funding is a major issue for many radio stations, and thus for rural communication services as a whole. Farm Radio International has developed many Broadcaster how-to guides to give radio broadcasters tips on different skills that will improve the quality of their broadcasting. Our most recent Broadcaster how-to guide addresses how station management can prepare a funding proposal for a donor – because good finance leads to sustainability, which is essential for a communication service.
How can a funding proposal help me serve my listeners?
If successful, it could:
- Secure revenue to ensure that listeners receive more regular, relevant, timely, or accurate information, for example in the face of a new problem, an important issue, or a crisis.
- Secure financial resources to assess whether a station’s broadcasts are useful to listeners, identify listeners’ ideas for future programs, or pilot a new program feature that listeners want.
- Secure funding to create more opportunities for rural people to express their experiences, needs, ideas, and concerns on air—to enhance on-air dialogue among rural people.
- Secure funding to create new programming, for example, programming that specifically targets youth or women, or programming on national/local cultural issues.
How can a funding proposal help me produce better programs?
If successful, it could:
- Secure funding to ensure the station has reliable and up-to-date technical equipment.
- Support reporters to travel to the field to carry out interviews with rural people and experts, get feedback from listeners, and enable the station to provide listeners with faster responses to questions from rural people (their peers) and experts.
- Secure resources for an innovative program, support the creation of new feature programs for broadcaster use, or build broadcasters’ capacity to provide better information to listeners.
- Enable radio broadcasters to strengthen their professional skills or their ability to cover topics that are important to their listening audience in more effective and interesting ways.
How do I get started?
- Respond to a call for proposals or a solicitation.
- Arrange a meeting with a donor to assess their interest.
- Understand what is required by the donor.
- Decide what to “pitch” to the donor.
- Show that the station and its staff have the knowledge and capacity to do what you propose to do.
- Make a compelling case for investment.
- Include information on other aspects of the station’s sustainability.
Read the full guide here: https://training.farmradio.fm/funding-proposals/