Big Bird says "So long" to Big Brother

The Children's Television Workshop lost its government funding in 1981; but was supplemented by grants.

In 1998, the producers of Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop (formerly Children's Television Workshop) opened their brand to corporate sponsorships and product licensing. By 2004, 68% of their annual revenue came from this. Their TV episodes are syndicated worldwide and have been running for 48 seasons so far. If you think that this long running childrens' media brand will be hurt by government cutting of public broadcast funding, sadly you are mistaken about how large this franchise really is.

In 2005, their annual revenue grew 4% to $96m and that was due to international licensing.
Sesame Street on HBO is why you won't find the show running on Netflix or Amazon Prime.

Sesame Workshop: Funding by Source, 2015

Non-profit status does not mean you don't rake in millions of dollars in revenues; it simply means how you run the organization and its tax liability is different than a for-profit one.

I can see the financial rationale behind cutting government support of "public" broadcasting, as purely a budgetary numbers game. 

Sesame Workshop has both non-profit and for-profit subsidiaries. It has built a very successful business model from an initial $8 million investment (this is how Sesame Street got created) to the more than $120m in assets the production company owns today. It is likely that Sesame Workshop will be unaffected by any measure of government cuts to public broadcasting.

Did you know that in the City of Portland, Oregon, there's an arts tax and funding comes out of the pockets of its adult residents earning more than $1,000 per year. The city tax benefits everyone who visits Portland's downtown area with all the public art displays.

Read more:
Sesame Workshop financials
Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
Children's Television Workshop Origins
Trump's Proposed Cuts of Funding For Arts, Humanities And Public Media

Social Media Metrics for NonProfits - Facebook

It would appear that the only engagement lift this nonprofit association gets is when posts are promoted for recruitment or to get members and non-members to participate in an activity, and by promoted, I mean to say that we have to pay Facebook a scaled nominal fee each time we want to promote an event. The worthwhile metrics aren't tied to views, reach or engagements; but rather followers who become active, paid members; and subsequently those who renew their membership status year-over-year.

When I joined this professional association group at the start of the year, we had just over 1,500 followers. We now have roughly 1,890 followers; though no real data to benchmark how we are gaining or losing followers, e.g., as a result of event or new membership promotions.

Facebook's default report dashboard

Facebook's default report dashboard for latest posts

The table for engagement by latest posts pretty much tell you what common sense tells you. Compared to the total reach (number of followers), the individual posts have practically no traction with our members. And, the only times when we show some measure of reach is when we pay to promote certain event posts.

One thing to watch out for is how your whole community page or association page is setup on Facebook, because in the above example with the latest posts, you might be the administrator and manage access; but you won't have any access to detailed reports if you didn't setup the promotion yourself. Now, tell me Facebook, how is that sane?

A typical reporting error in Facebook. It begs the question,
why can't all admins see the same reports?

OPB Advertising

If you reside in the Portland metro area and wake up to the radio tuned to an OPB station, you may have noticed that it's pledge week where the radio station tries to encourage passive listeners to convert into active subscribers. Have you ever wondered if the minimum $5 donation actually does anything? Well, by itself it doesn't. Collectively with tens of thousands subscribers it could; though not as much as partner (business) sponsorships bring in.

OPB's media kit states that "OPB Radio dedicates no more than 3 minutes per hour to sponsorship spots, while commercial radio airs eight to 15 minutes (or more) of commercials per hour." Just in today's 6-7am time slot, I heard sponsorship messages from 13 advertisers. This roughly translates to $455/3 minutes per hour in revenue. That set of ad sponsors generates about $9k/month if only advertising on weekdays for the month. It's still relatively inexpensive, though, advertisers like Angie's List need to book weeks or months of radio time to gain the mindshare and exposure that established partner advertisers already have, such as Fred Meyer, Visa, or Microsoft.com/cloud.

Now, take into consideration that primetime radio is a lot like primetime television with a scaling ad rate based on what shows are on and when. In the morning's broadcast, during one of the pledge interruptions, OPB said that the three most expensive programs that are syndicated by NPR (costing roughly $1 million per year in broadcasting fees), are the Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and the Weekend Edition slots; which are KBBI's most expensive ad slots. One could surmise that the advertising model is about the same from one public radio station to the next. It's a model that works, why fix it?

Anyhow. Ad slots for the aformentioned slots range from $20 to $35 per mention. There are only a couple slots where advertising is not allowed: BBC World Service and PRI's The World.

Related:

OPB Media Kit
OPB Auditor Report 2010-2009
KBBI Alaska Public Radio

NonProfit Marketing

Having attended my first marketing committee meeting with the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, I have come to realize that the outreach efforts employed by nonprofits is largely the same as a B2C business, with major exceptions: tiny budget, utilizes mostly volunteer time, and very little of the actual marketing (collateral creaton, web content, print production, etc.) is done by its volunteers. Committee meetings are held at the SW Washington chapter office, 2nd Wednesdays 5pm. Every year the marketing coordinator for the nonprofit changes since it is a stipend-paid position that is sponsored by the AmeriCorps VISTA program.

Our barnstorming meeting about December outreach methods came up with the following avenues for getting the word out:

• Advertisement in the EH4H e-newsletter
• Email to newsletter distribution group about upcoming events
• Posts to the shared chapter FB page
• Twitter
• Handing out flyer and brochures to the neighborhood
• Personal invitation calls to the Home Dedication Ceremony made by committee members to executives that participated in the CEO and Elected Officials build day
• Contacting local news outlets for Public Service Announcements

Price of a loaf

Any home baker with a bread machine will tell you that it takes roughly 3 hours to make your own loaf of bread, and while you can control the quality of the ingredients that goes into that loaf, it still takes 3 hours. And, depending on your machine, you can at most only make one or two loaves at any time. For a consumer buying ingredients at retail, the cost to make your own loaf is about 30% of the price it costs to buy the finished good from a grocery store. You can imagine what the profit margin is like for restaurants that buy their raw materials at wholesale prices. 


People shop and eat at restaurants like Panera Bread because these places have an economy of scale working in their favor, larger ovens, the competitive advantage offering a multitude of culinary dishes not just breads, but also desserts, soups, salads, pizzas, and other common lunch fare. They even brew their own iced tea. Plus, it helps tremendously that the food that they make tastes really good. And, they offer free wifi and a casual, comfortable environment for people to meet and gather. You'll also note that aside from customers buying gift certificates for other future customers, Panera does not offer coupons or discounts on any of their bakery cafe items to attract new customers. Panera customers aren't all that frugal, nor are they value shoppers in that the discount a coupon would offer is the key decision point of that purchase decision. Because, as Michael Silverstein and Neil Fiske (CEO, Eddie Bauer) would tell you in Trading Up, "people are willing to pay more for quality products that matter to them."


In May, Panera Bread Company opened up a nonprofit restaurant location, branded under the Panera Cares name, where customers could pay what they felt their meal was worth and limited the program to one meal per person.  Barely six months later, the bakery-cafe which offers the same menu items as its for-profit counterparts reports that 4,000 people a day visit the restaurant and about 65% pay the recommended amount with the remainder divided among over-payers and those who pay less or nothing. The store almost breaks even and the company has plans to open more "shared responsibility" restaurants. (The Economist, 10/09/2010, p.94)


Is this a competitive strategy and could other restaurants compete with such a model? Well, let's backtrack a little bit to just before this restaurant opened.


Panera Bread rakes in $1.35 Billion in revenues (FY 2009) with over 1,300 for-profit locations and 85% of those revenues comes from bakery-cafe sales (the other 15% from franchise royalties/fees and fresh dough sold to franchises). The premise of the restaurant, how it is run and what it stands for is all neatly laid out in its annual report:


"Our bakery-cafes are principally located in suburban, strip mall and regional mall locations. We feature high quality, reasonably priced food in a warm, inviting, and comfortable environment. With our identity rooted in handcrafted, fresh-baked, artisan bread, we are committed to providing great tasting, quality food that people can trust. Nearly all of our bakery-cafes have a menu highlighted by antibiotic-free chicken, whole grain bread and select organic and all-natural ingredients, with zero grams of artificial trans fat per serving, which provide flavorful, wholesome offerings. Our menu includes a wide variety of year-round favorites complemented by new items introduced seasonally with the goal of creating new standards in everyday food choices. In neighborhoods across this country and in Ontario, Canada, our customers enjoy our warm and welcoming environment featuring comfortable gathering areas, relaxing decor, and free internet access. Our bakery-cafes routinely donate bread and baked goods to community organizations in need.


Bread is our platform and the entry point to the Panera experience at our bakery-cafes. It is the symbol of Panera quality and a reminder of Panera Warmth, the totality of the experience the customer receives and can take home to share with friends and family. We strive to offer a memorable experience with superior customer service. Our associates are passionate about sharing their expertise and commitment with our customers. We strive to achieve what we call Concept Essence, our blueprint for attracting and retaining our targeted customers that we believe differentiates us from our competitors. Concept Essence begins with artisan bread, quality products and a warm, friendly and comfortable environment. It calls for each of our bakery-cafes to be a place customers can trust to serve high quality food. Bread is our passion, soul, and expertise, and the platform that makes all of our other food special."


The short answer is no, other restaurants cannot compete against Panera's philosophy. But, before Panera became mainstream, there was the privately-held Corner Bakery and Cafe which operates the same type of upscale, fast-casual eatery and is thriving more with franchise operations than the restaurant being the core of its operation. But, that is a business strategy for restaurants for another blog post.

There are plenty of examples of for-profit restaurants that tried to offer the same "free meal" concept as Panera Cares and failed and/or went bankrupt as a result. But what boggles the mind is why would a for-profit business try to or want to compete with one operating as a nonprofit? The goals are different and revenue isn't the keystone of the Panera Cares operation.