Maintaining and Sustaining a Low-Power Station
For the last ten years, Sound Partners has encouraged successful partnerships between community broadcasters and nonprofit community health organizations. These partnerships help stretch resources farther and provide insight and access to new audiences.
Low-power stations because of their size and relationship to the community are particularly suited for initiating and benefiting from these types of media-community partnerships. Partnerships with both local and national organizations can be important for funding, advocacy, and remaining an integral part of the community. Equally important to low-power stations is direct funding of activities through grants, underwriting, and individual contributions. This page includes a sampling of some of the best media funding resources out there.
Partnership Resources
How to Build Effective Partnerships
In How to Build Effective Partnerships, the experiences of many of the partnerships developed through the Sound Partners program are summarized from the perspective of both the media organization and community organization. This article explores positive and challenging aspects of these partnerships and solutions for making the experience more rewarding.
Managing Your Partnership
These elements for successfully managing a partnership will help partnering organizations think about the best way to oversee their alliance in a way that benefits both parties.
Partnership and Problem Solving Communications
Communication is extremely important in maintaining an effective partnership. This list of the characteristics needed to facilitate a successful project and the six steps for problem solving communications will help organizations plan for and better communicate their needs.
Lessons Learned in Civic Journalism
The relationships among community broadcasters, community programming, and community partners can be very complex. Sound Partners grantees discuss the merits and some of the lessons they’ve learned from doing civic journalism.
Environmental Defense Sample Partnership Agreement
This sample partnership agreement helps organizations outline a potential partnership and the parameters for each member of that partnership.
Local Initiative Funding Partners (LIFP)
Through the Local Initiative Funding Partners, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation partners with local grantmakers to support community-based projects addressing the health needs or health care of underserved populations.
National Center for Outreach
The Building Community Partnerships outreach kit helps organizations and communities “build partnerships, define partner roles, share resources, and successfully collaborate on projects that prompt positive change” in the community. The kit includes a checklist for defining partnerships as well as a "pre-nuptial" contract that takes a relationship point of view on the questions organizations should be asking when entering into a partnership.
Washington Reading Corps (PDF)
Although specifically geared toward school and mentoring program partnerships, the Guide to Community Partnerships and the Media includes useful information on creating a successful partnership. Included in this PDF are chapters on creating and maintaining partnerships, and appendices that contain a goal setting worksheet and sample partnership letter.
Community-Campus Partnerships for Health http://depts.washington.edu/ccph/
The CCPH toolkit offers links to useful tools, including a partnership self-assessment. While the resources found here are focused on community/campus alliances, there are many resources that could be applied to community partnerships in general.
Potential Local and National Partners
In 2005, the Benton Foundation conducted a survey asking low-power radio stations to discuss their experiences with partnerships. From that survey, it was clear that many low-power stations are using both local and national partnerships as a means of creating a sustainable, community-based organization. Organizations cited as potential local partners included locally owned business underwriters, arts festivals, a local full-power radio station, newspapers, Volunteer Fire Departments, retailers, other community nonprofits, and school sports teams. In addition, the local affiliates for the following organizations were suggested as potential partnering organizations.
United Way
Girl Scouts
Kiwanis Clubs
YMCA/YWCA
Salvation Army
ACLU
American Red Cross
Potential Funding Sources
The following links to potential funding sources and tools provide a good start for those organizations seeking help with this complex and often challenging area of nonprofit management.
Funding Tools and Opportunities
Sound Partners includes this list of potential funding sources and places to go for help when writing grant proposals for media projects.
Prometheus Radio Fundraising Guidelines
Prometheus’ fundraising guidelines offer very specific examples of fundraising tools that have worked for other radio stations in the past, including underwriting, events, mailings, and on-air fundraising. They also include some general rules for fundraising.
National Federation of Community Broadcasters: Funding Sources
Kai Aiyetoro, director of the LPFM program at NFCB has prepared this PowerPoint presentation on various potential fundraising options for low-power radio stations. In addition, he provides separate notes to help organizations think about asking for support. NFCB also offers a Guide to Underwriting ($20) includes updated legal considerations for underwriting credits, political underwriting, and logo use.
NAMAC Guide to Media Grantmaking
According to this article by Karen Hirsch, media organizations often have a difficult time seeking grants. Hirsch explores these difficulties and offers strategies for overcoming them, including the benefits of partnerships for grantseeking.
How Do Foundations View Youth Media
This article from the Open Society Institute discusses the current state of youth media programs and how each foundation approaches funding youth media programs.
Grantmakers in the Arts
Grantmakers in the Arts is a national membership organization made up of funders of the arts. Its membership includes some organizations interested in funding media projects.
Foundation Center’s Foundation Finder
The Foundation Center’s Foundation Finder allows grantseekers to search for funders by name. Their advanced search feature, the Foundation Directory, has an annual fee, but allows grantseekers to search by city, state, and field of interest.
Council on Foundations: Community Foundation Locator
Community Foundations are increasingly becoming important sources of funding for nonprofit community- based organizations. The Council on Foundations hosts this community foundation locator listing community foundations across the country searchable by name, region, state, and zip code.