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PUBLIC INTERACTIVE®
Pulse™ and Quick Pledge™

Raising expectations and money

What if you could give your members the information they want when they want it, raise more money, shorten your pledge drives and go a little greener — all at the same time?

Some stations are doing just that, with the help of Public Interactive's Pulse and Quick Pledge. Pulse is the first integrated e-mail marketing system designed especially for public broadcasting. Quick Pledge is an industry-specific tool for managing online pledging. Used separately, they are efficient and effective. Used together, they 're unbeatable.

Bryan Talbott, WFAE
WFAE/Charlotte has been a Quick Pledge client for years and has used Pulse since serving as a beta-test station over a year ago. Membership Associate Bryan Talbott finds both tools very easy to use, but it's the bottom line that really counts. He says, "In our last pledge drive, of about $400,000 raised, at least $150,000 came from online pledging," adding that the time is right since people are increasingly used to paying for things via the Web.

"Lots of people don't have checks and stamps lying around. Online pledging is just more convenient. It's also a conservation thing — we're not using so much paper. And it's faster. We import the pledges directly into Memsys, so we save on staff time."

Talbott uses both tools to produce a monthly e-newsletter, create and manage e-mail renewals, run ticket contests, communicate with volunteers and acquire new members. "One of the great things with Pulse is that you can put so much information into your different fields, so you can pull members by renewal dates, by whether they've pledged and so on."

With Quick Pledge, "it's very easy to set up the Web pledge form exactly as we want it. Maintaining or changing things is easy too." Plus, Talbott notes, the system is accessible remotely, so even when he was out of town over the holidays, he could monitor the results of the station's year-end solicitation.

Sarianne Palmesano, Public Interactive
Public Interactive's Product Manager Sarianne Palmesano points out that pledge tracking is a key, new Pulse feature. "Stations can easily track the amount of money raised and the number of pledges for particular e-mail solicitations. Most other applications can't show you that kind of detail, for example, an October 15 e-mail resulted in 104 pledges totaling $50,000."

Because many stations are just starting out in e-mail marketing and fundraising, Public Interactive offers extensive support. Stations "can always give us a call to work things through," says Palmesano. "They come to me with 'What do you think? How should we do this?'"

Talbott concurs. "I usually just e-mail Sarianne," he says. "She gets back in touch very promptly. I had a lot of questions in the beginning, but now it's much easier."

In addition, Public Interactive has partnered with DEI to offer webinars on e-fundraising and to make DEI online fundraising copy available via the Pulse content library. "Best practices really help stations that are just starting out in e-mail marketing to be successful," says Palmesano.

Tom Haydon, OPB
Tom Haydon, membership coordinator at Oregon Public Broadcasting, began using Pulse in November and is already enjoying its advantages. OPB struggled for two years with a different software product before making the switch to Pulse.

Overall, Haydon reports, Pulse's WYSIWYG editor is very user friendly. The data sync tools allow for easy data transfer between Pulse and Team Approach, its modular system is easy to use, and he can produce e-mail newsletters faster than ever. Haydon is also planning to use Pulse for fundraising. "Ideally, we would have been doing e-renewals two to three years ago," he says, but under the old system, it never happened.

Using Pulse, Haydon sent out an e-mail solicitation during his last fund drive. "It exceeded all of our expectations. I don't know if we can keep it up," he jokes. "Now our expectations are raised."

Both Haydon and Talbott appreciate the many ways that the Public Interactive tools facilitate communication with members. "I can follow a person's history," says Haydon. "If someone has clicked on a program in the past, I can target them a year later when the artist comes to town."

For his part, Talbott is eager to use Pulse more aggressively to target donors based on their interests, favorite programs and more. "Right now, we have more of a one-way street in terms of communication," he says. "But I think that the more you contact people via e-mail, the more they can reply — and it's easy for them to do so. We give contact information at the bottom of every newsletter. We want the door to be wide open."

Communicate better with your donors — and make it easier for them to support your station — by using Quick Pledge and Pulse. For more information, contact your PRI Client Relations Manager.