Monetizing Trust

Monetizing Trust: Best practices for a membership model

This webinar took place on November 30, with Alina Radu, CEO of Ziarul de Garda (Moldova), Enrique Gasteazoro, CEO of Confidencial (Nicaragua), and Cinthia Membreno, Audience Loyalty Member of Confidencial.

Key take-aways:
Timing: members tend to sign up when a medium is in a crisis situation (such as being sued) or after the medium publishes a large investigative story;
Communicate often and clearly with potential members: make sure that they see the same message over and over again, state what you need and why it is important that they support you;
Surveys: collect information about (potential) members using surveys. This will give you information
on which groups you might want to reach out to more often or in a different way.
Share: members support you because they believe in what you do. It is important to tell your story, and share the impact of your work.
Flexbility: do not be too rigid in the way you would like to receive support. Create a community of support that works for whoever wants to support you by making it possible for people to donate occasionally or become a member.
Consider context: the context in which you work might create bottlenecks. In Nicaragua, for example, PayPal is the only financial service outside the jurisdiction of the government. For safety considerations towards paying members, Confidencial therefore chooses to use PayPal, even though this results in fewer paying members.