KBIA, Kansas Public Radio turn football rivalry into fundraising contest

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Something different was in the air in Columbia, Mo., the morning of Sept. 6. Along with the first hint of a fall breeze, a palpable energy not felt in over a decade brought goosebumps to the forearms. The University of Missouri’s football team was set to face Kansas that afternoon, renewing a storied rivalry, and the anticipation was nearing its climax.

For KBIA in Columbia and Kansas Public Radio in Lawrence, the event offered a chance to win over new fans. The revival of the so-called “Border War” between the stations’ two schools, the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas, spurred the inaugural year of Radio Rivals, the brainchild of KBIA Health Reporter Rebecca Smith. The stations sought to earn the most points during a campaign that ran Sept. 4–7. A contribution from an existing donor earned one point; a new donor, two points.

Smith hatched the idea for Radio Rivals in July, after the Trump administration rescinded $1.1 billion in federal funding that CPB was due to receive through fiscal year 2027. Shortly after Congress approved the rescission July 17, Smith reached out to KPR.

“We’re dealing with this unprecedented funding loss, and so all of us are panicking a little bit — you know, ‘How do we make up half a million dollars that we thought we already had?’” Smith said. “And so we were just trying to make sure it was feasible. Eventually, we decided everyone was on board. We thought we had the time and energy to do it, and so we got the ball rolling.”

When she contacted KPR, Smith pointed to public radio stations in other major cities like St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo., hosting friendly competitions during the World Series or Super Bowl. She wanted to create one that leveraged a sports event of similar caliber to draw attention to the funding crisis among people unfamiliar with public radio but who share the same community values. 

“We’re all just trying to think of creative ways to fundraise and interact with new donors and new listeners,” said Joanna Fewins, KPR’s director of development. “So we were right on board from the very beginning.”

Hitting up tailgates

KBIA focused on Missouri’s home-field advantage as a surefire way to connect with a variety of people in a condensed period of time. Tailgates popping up as early as sunrise around campus and Memorial Stadium offered a chance to meet current and prospective audience members. A group of four station and School of Journalism staffers solicited donations all morning. They also carried Mizzou-themed signs and a wheel that donors could spin to win KBIA swag. Their goal was to attract the attention of passersby and have genuine conversations about the importance of public radio.

“One of the things that’s always been frustrating, but especially frustrating right now, is the fact that people assume they know what we do, but they don’t actually know what we do, who we are, the kind of work we do, why we’re doing the kind of work we’re doing,” Smith said. “And so it was kind of that in my brain, and then also just thinking about, like, ‘How can we get people to understand and get more eyes on this thing that I love?’”  

The team encountered people familiar with KBIA or who had even worked for the station. But potential donors also included football diehards unfamiliar with the station’s mission. No matter their social or political background, Smith said fans she encountered showed genuine interest.

“It was a really great thing and also made me really excited about other engagement efforts we could have with our community,” Smith said. 

In Lawrence, even though Kansas was the away team, proximity played a large role in fundraising efforts. The station’s studio is within walking distance of the school’s football stadium, which hosted a viewing party during the game. KPR set up a sandwich board in its driveway for fans to check out on their way to the stadium.

Promotional efforts around Lawrence were also in high gear. The fundraising team put up flyers around town. Local organizations of people connected to the KU community, like the Welcome Club of Lawrence, banded together to provide donations. 

From the fundraiser’s beginning, Emily Lytle, editor of the Innovation in Focus series on the Innovation Team at the Reynolds Journalism Institute in Columbia, collaborated with Smith and KPR to put together promotional efforts before game day, including a 10- to 15-second pre-recorded broadcast promo and a 29-second script for a live read. KPR’s hosts also shouted out recent donors by name on air throughout the weekend.

Both stations recognized that their collaborative effort would reach a lot of new donors and younger people and lowered the amounts listed first on the campaign’s donation page.

“I don’t think that either of the public radio stations would claim that football is their niche,” said Lytle, who dedicated an Innovation in Focus article to the unique fundraising method and its broader takeaways. “But this was a way for them to identify new donors and new audience members, and that’s what was exciting about it.”

KPR and KBIA put together promotional copy, graphics and reels for their websites and social media channels, and KPR did an email push. KBIA made merchandise a central attraction, with donors who contributed over $50 receiving a bandana emblazoned with the official Radio Rivals logo. 

In addition to promotional efforts, KBIA’s Smith and KPR sports reporter Greg Echlin reported on the roots of the MU-KU rivalry dating back to the Civil War. KPR included Smith’s story in its “thank you” email to donors, and it received one of their highest click-through rates. 

Representatives from both stations say the content-sharing effort was a success and that they hope to continue it in future campaigns. They’re also considering making the competition annual and introducing a trophy for the winner. 

The value of collaboration

In the end, Missouri beat Kansas in the Border War, 42-31. But KPR made up for its team’s loss on the football field with a resounding fundraising victory, 272-138. KPR signed up 81 new donors and got 110 gifts from existing donors. In Columbia, KBIA earned 49 gifts from new donors and 40 gifts from existing donors. KBIA officially conceded during its Morning Edition broadcast Sept. 8 with the University of Missouri’s Marching Mizzou playing “Home on the Range,” the Kansas state song.

The donations were particularly helpful in the wake of the rescission. KBIA lost $500,000 in annual CPB funds, while KPR is losing approximately $244,000. For each station, the loss represents about 10% of income. 

After the cuts, KBIA GM Kyle Felling started the KBIA Resilience Fund to address the funding gap. By the start of Radio Rivals, KBIA had already covered half its losses through the emergency drive. The station brought in just over $3,000 from Radio Rivals.

KPR raised a little over $7,500 during Radio Rivals, according to Fewins’ estimates. Though that’s not a lot for a typical campaign, Fewins said the money will help KPR shorten its fall on-air drive. The station raised several hundred thousand dollars in just a few days during its own emergency drive after the rescission, she said. 

“[Donors] recognize that we need the money because of the situation we’re in,” Fewins said. “But the bigger understanding I’m getting from this is that we have the opportunities to make fundraising more fun for the audience. … The fact that both stations received so many new donations is a testament to that.”

Smith and Fewins both see Radio Rivals as a success and an example for future fundraisers that could reach a variety of audiences faster and in a less intrusive way. Lytle, the Innovation in Focus editor, added that the collaboration between the stations was a unique aspect of the fundraiser that other stations should learn from.

“Collaboration is a helpful strategy for not just editorial goals, but also revenue goals,” she said. “When you bring two organizations with similar values together to plan a fundraising campaign, even though it was a competition, it [grows] a lot of goodwill between the two stations.”

Furthermore, the fact that a health reporter launched the Radio Rivals effort should inspire other stations to utilize their newsrooms as part of their fundraising and sustainability efforts. 

“More news organizations can learn from that, to really give people that aren’t in traditional fundraising roles the opportunity to pitch their own ideas and take leadership and ownership over a project like this,” Lytle said.

Alex Goldstein is a fourth-year undergraduate studying journalism and German at the University of Missouri-Columbia.