We will be closed for the holidays on Monday, December 26th, 2011 & again on Monday, January 2nd, 2012. If you need help or support during the holidays, please use this form http://info.ds.npr.org//support.html or email help@ds.npr.org to ensure your request is not held up by staff vacation schedules. Thanks in advance and happy holidays to you and yours! We look forward to working with you in the New Year!
Quick Pledge, our industry-specific online pledge system, has an enormous impact on results…and it gets better each year. Just take a look!
During the Fall 2010 drive months (Sept-Oct) stations using Quick Pledge raised $7.7 million online, with 75,000 donor transactions at an average pledge of $103.
This fall during same time period, stations using Quick Pledge raised $9.6 million in some 89,000 donor transactions with average pledge amount $107 .
That’s a 25% increase in dollars raised and a 19% increase in the number of individual transactions!
Looking at the past full year (Nov 1, 2010-Oct 31, 2011), our stations as a whole raised a total of $31 million with Quick Pledge. That’s a whopping 292,000 pledge transactions, with an average pledge amount of $106.
Last year’s numbers in comparison were $22.6 million in 227,000 transactions with an average pledge amount of $100. That makes the increase 37% for dollars raised and 29% for number of transactions
A few of us from Digital Services spent with weekend in D.C. for DUXCamp, a one-day conference on design and user experience put on by NPR. Did I say conference? This was an “un-conference” — an event where sessions are created and led ad hoc by the participants.
About 200 folks who work in public media, news and digital design came together to share ideas about creating better digital experiences. Our own Steve Mulder led a workshop on design and research called UX and Data: BFFs or Frenemies? The answer? It depends — talk to Steve if you want to hear more.
Another session, Blowing Up Online News Design, started a good discussion about moving away from the newspaper metaphor and toward a clean, digital design that engages people without overwhelming them with links.
We’re speaking at the ERPM conference this week, in our home state of MA. Look for our very own Steve Mulder and Bob Kempf.
PUBLIC RADIO AND THE DIGITAL FUTURE: BIG PICTURE, NEXT STEPS
Kinsey Wilson, Senior Vice President & General Manager, NPR Digital Media
Bob Kempf, Vice President & General Manager, NPR Digital Services
Steve Mulder, Director, User Experience & Analytics, NPR Digital Services
NPR’s Digital leaders and station partners outline future opportunities for public radio and demonstrate strategies stations are pursuing today with the support of NPR.
Here are a few useful help, documentation and reference links to help you get the most out of your services.
Online help, tips and documentation: A great place to start when you have a question. Or just search this blog.
Help and Tech Support: Online help form, policy, guidelines and more
http://digitalservices.npr.org/support.html
help email address: help AT ds.npr.org
Portal Page
As master admin, you can access all of your admin tools from this page. Bookmark this page!
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/xxxx/portal.portalmain (substitute your station ID)
Online Demo:
Interested in a new service? Take a peek here:
http://demo.digitalservices.npr.org
SoundExchange Blog: FAQs, guidelines, registration, all things related.
http://blog.ds.npr.org/soundexchange
Sign up for our E-news Updates:
News, product updates, tips, info, more emailed weekly.
http://platform.publicbroadcasting.net/pi/email.emailmain
Here’s how to make a temporary program change, e.g. for the summer or for the holidays, meaning that you’re temporarily airing Program B in place of current Program A.
If the hours match up exactly, simply replace current Program A with temporary Program B:
Quick Pledge has some great real-time reporting features that let you review and analyze your transactions and drive results. All pledge data excluding the credit card numbers are available and searchable via the Quick Pledge reporting tools.
Log in to Quick Pledge Admin and go to Reporting Options section.
We wanted to remind you that we lowered our live streaming service fees starting October 1, 2011. By pooling our bandwidth purchases with NPR, adding a second content delivery vendor and holding out the prospect of additional network buys, we’ve been able to negotiate lower pricing – savings we can pass on to you.
Pricing will be 10-40% lower, depending on the streaming quality (bit rate) and peak user level (streaming pack). All stations can increase to the next level of streaming quality (bit rate) and the same or lower cost!
If you’re thinking about increasing your stream sound quality (the bit rate, e.g 32kbps, 64kbps, etc.) or increasing your listener capacity to avoid or reduce your overages (the streaming pack, e.g. 100 or 200 peak listeners, etc.), now is a good time to consider making that change.
Detailed streaming pricing info:
http://digitalservices.npr.org/media/pdfs/FY12streaming-extended.pdf
Are you entering each of your pledges from Quick Pledge manually?
You have the option to receive pledge data in a consolidated in a daily batch file that you can import into your membership database or upload for processing, and we recommend this option.
With the secure encrypted batch files, the pledge data comes in once per day, allowing you to receive and process the day’s pledges all at once, rather than tracking and processing individual donations throughout the day. Batch pledges files are easier to import into your membership database as well, and can be formatted to match your membership database.
Data filters are available for:
You can always get up-to-the-minute results with the real-time reporting tools in Quick Pledge and via the pledge email notification option so you keep track of your totals.
Reporting Only access to Quick Pledge administration tools allows you to create separate logins for staff members or volunteers who need access to view your pledge totals or run reports, but should not have access to editing your pledge forms or premiums.
For example, show hosts could view real-time pledge totals during pledge drives.
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