As we’re getting geared up for the big BGSU One Day online fundraiser, we thought it might help if we explained where we might use some of the funds. While big gifts are great, every little bit helps because our operating budget can handle things like printing the BG News and paying our executive staff but the Fund for the BG News offsets some important expenses. Here are just a few examples:
1: Reporters notebooks
Can you believe we still use these? Yes, despite capturing so much on video and the availability of transcription services, these venerable notebooks remain a valuable tool for our young journalists. And if you used them back in the day, you probably remember how fast you can fill them, so we go through a fair amount. How can your donation help? Well, a dozen of these notebooks run about $20.
2: Flash drives
With so much digital work being done, these are staples in today’s BGSU newsroom. One of the ways we hope to deploy them more frequently involves the former BGRSO (now the Falcon Media Sports Network). We aspire to make better use of our live event broadcasts by creating highlight packages and rebroadcasting games. These 64GB flash drives are integral to those plans and much more. We could use a dozen or so of these little devices and they run about $9 a piece.
3. Memory cards
As you probably know, we do so video these days, which makes these 64 GB memory cards a big part of our regular operations. We do a lot of video for the BG24 newscast, of course, but we are working hard to make video part of our daily reportage, so we really need to having a ready supply of these available. We need at least a dozen or so of these and they run about $80 each
4. Promotions stickers
Stickers, you say? Yes indeed. At our request, a marketing class did some audience research for us to help clarify the type of content students expected from us as well as measuring our brand awareness. We found the latter quite lacking and have been making a hard push to make our brands top of mind and we’ve found that stickers are quite popular with our students. Whether it’s on a laptop or a Yeti, students love a free sticker and we’ve been distributing them every chance we get. We go through several hundred each year and a single order of 100 stickers (like the one pictured above) runs about $60.
How you can multiple your One Day gift
When you make a donation to Falcon Media through BGSU One Day, not only will 100% of your donation go directly to student media, you can help us unlock a challenge gift. More details to come, but here’s the nut graf for you old schoolers – If we get more than 50 people donating to Falcon Media during One Day, it will trigger a $5,000 challenge gift from four of our student media alumni. Even though journalists have a reputation for not being good at math, you can see how even a small donation can turn into something big.
How can you help us unlock that gift? Simple:
• Make an “early” donation with this link
• Make a donation during BGSU One Day using this link
• Share this link with others, remember, we need 50 people to donate to trigger a $5,000 challenge gift