Every year, podcast listeners grow exponentially. In the U.S. alone, over 100 million people have listened to podcasts. Unlike videos or blog posts, a podcast can be consumed passively while engaging in other tasks. People listen to podcasts during their daily commute, while doing house chores or taking their dogs for a walk. That’s why it’s essential that non-profits master how to start a podcast.
As a non-profit organization, you have a cause and a message to pass along. Podcasting is a way of getting their message about your cause to the right audience. It doesn’t hurt to know that podcasting creates a relationship between hosts and listeners. So, getting your audience to empathize with the mission of your non-profit is easier with podcasting. There are other reasons a non-profit organization needs to have a podcast.
In this piece, we will be discussing how to start a podcast as a non-profit organization including the benefits and the stages of podcast production.
The Benefits of Starting a Podcast as a Non-Profit
Expands Your Non-Profit Organization Support Base.
As a non-profit, you need numbers, and podcasting is a great way of finding new volunteers. If your audience is informed about your podcast, they will develop an interest in the cause of your non-profit.
Everyone who gets to listen to your podcast are your potential volunteer. This is because podcasts are easy to share. Other people end up identifying with the mission of your organization by listening to some episodes of your podcast shared with them.
An Avenue To Share Stories about Your Cause
Your non-profit probably already have social media channels that boast of interesting stories. Imagine an on-demand avenue to share your organization’s mission and how far you have come.
Podcasting allows you to control the narrative and people’s perspectives on the social issues dear to your non-profit. You can tell your organization’s success stories directly to people through the storytelling format.
You can also bring in people to share their personal stories, highlighting how they benefit from your organization.
Reaching Out to Donors
Podcasting is a way of reaching out to your organization’s benefactor. You can use a podcast as a channel to discuss your fundraising activities and what your non-profit stands for.
Apart from supporters, your potential donors will access backlogs of episodes with information about your organization.
A Medium For Internal Communication With Your Team
Non-profits with a global support base can use podcasts to pass information to volunteers. You can use a podcast to boost your volunteers’ morale, encourage them, and create awareness about new developments in other branches.
On the other hand, non-profits that are based regionally can have a segment in their podcast dedicated to their team members.
Offering Education And Skills
Non-profits can use podcasts to educate on social issues important to their organization. Podcasting is one of the easiest ways to enlighten people about your cause.
You can also propagate your non-profit’s mission by sharing expertise in short tips and tricks as well as useful social skills.
A Resource For Other Contents
A podcast is a great resource for creating other content. You can repurpose your podcast into a blog by automatically transcribing it or creating video series. By directing people to your website, a podcast gives your organization more visibility. You can share certain quotes on social media like Facebook and Twitter.
What You Need To Start A Podcast As A Non-Profit
A Podcast Objective
Before you pick up a mic to start a podcast for your non-profit, ask yourself and your team these questions:
- Does my organization need a podcast at this moment?
- Is the podcast worth it?
Podcasting might seem like a walk in the park to you. But it is not as simple as it seems. Podcasting requires a lot of dedication and planning. Therefore, having a clear goal will make it easier to stay on track.
If you are determined to make the necessary sacrifice to create a podcast, you can set your goals. Visualize where you want your podcast to be in a given year and how it will benefit your organization. This way, it will be easy to track how successful it has been after.
Podcast Resources
How do I start a podcast for my non-profit? Does my non-profit have resources in place to keep the podcast going? With the right resources in place, a podcast is easy to start. The tools needed to start a podcast are a quality microphone, software, and a laptop or a smartphone. You also need a website, cover image, and content.
You must decide what your content should be from the onset. One understated resource is time. Dedicate a particular time to your podcast, so you will not disappoint your audience. The best way to do this is to have a subteam in place from your marketing and communication team that will handle podcasting for your non-profit organization.
Podcast Format
What is your podcast style? Is it an interview, storytelling, or a conversational method? Different podcast formats serve different purposes. The conversational podcast format can be used in a roundtable discussion with your organization’s executives. Conversational podcast styles can be scripted or unscripted. On the other hand, the interview format is especially useful if you have industry experts as guests on the show.
You can divide your show into many segments in order to use different styles in one podcast. Most importantly, you need to employ the right format so your message will not be lost in transmission.
Audience
Who are you speaking to? What are your audience demographics? Your audience is what you need to start a podcast. The most successful podcasters speak to their audience personally. Podcasts give a sense of personal connection that might not be there in other channels of communication. But first, you need to identify your audience before you can craft your content around them. If you understand your audience, you will easily know where they are and how to take your podcast to them.
Stages of How to Start a Podcast for a Non-profit
You might be wondering, how do I start a podcast for a non-profit? There are three stages in the creation of any well-thought-out podcast.
Pre-production Stage
The preproduction stage involves
- Planning
The planning stage is where you define the purpose of your podcast. Is it to share inspiring stories or teach certain skills to people? Maybe you are creating a podcast to gain new donors or expand your community.
Additionally, you have to sort out the human resources aspect of podcasting at the planning stage. For instance, curate the list with the host of your show, potential guests, and co-host if necessary.
- Content
You should then decide on the theme, name, episode length, segments, and podcast schedule. It will be helpful to listen to other podcasts to know what is trending, possible competitions, and how you can make your podcast unique. In addition, listening to podcasts by other non-profits will give you the right idea for your own.
For easy identification and SEO purposes, you can derive your podcast name from that of your organization. However, it doesn’t necessarily have to be literal as long as the mission of your non-profit is reflected. For instance, Habitat for Humanity has a podcast called Home Sapiens, while Seeking Peace is a podcast by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security.
Production Stage
The production stage involves recording your podcast. If the host is following a script, ensure it is not obvious that they are reading from a script.
You can do a behind-the-scenes video of your podcast for promotional purposes during the production stage. More so, you can produce many episodes of your podcast at once, so you will have materials to publish later.
Post-production Stage
The post-production stage is where you fine-tune your podcast before publishing. The post-production stage also includes promotional activities to ensure your podcast reaches the right ears.
Here you will need an audio engineer to cut unnecessary fillers and add the music, intros, and outros. Also, choose the right host and subscribe to as many streaming services as possible to expand your audience base.
Final Thoughts
After you have established that your non-profit needs a podcast, Next is to determine whether you can start a podcast long-term without losing steam. This is because, apart from content and tools, dedication is very crucial to podcasting.
A podcast is easy to start, and with the surge in listenership, non-profit organizations like yours need to leverage it. You might not see the result instantly, but with consistency, podcasting will help you achieve the objective of your non-profit.
