Most of the coverage of podcasting focuses on creator businesses, advertising revenue, YouTube strategy, and the overall economics of the medium. It is that laser – some would say, obsessive – focus on monetization, profitability, and balance sheets that obscures an important and overlooked segment of the podcast industry. Remarkably, there is little attention paid to mission-driven organizations.
In an interview, Molly DeMellier, Head Of Communications at Sounds Profitable, remarked, “At a time when nonprofit communicators are facing unprecedented pressure, podcasting may be one of the most underutilized tools available to them.”
According to Molly, recent nonprofit communications research found that 63% of nonprofits cite fear of government retaliation or loss of funding as a major communications challenge, while 48% report concerns about backlash when addressing politically sensitive issues, only 5% of nonprofit communicators say their role is understood very well within their organizations, and just 35% of organizations issued a public response to recent government actions
A mission-driven organization is an entity whose primary reason for existing is rooted in a specific social, environmental, or cultural purpose rather than solely maximizing profits, according to Oyster, a global employment consulting firm. This core cause dictates their strategic decisions, daily operations, and company culture.
Mission-driven companies work beyond the business or corporate purpose of earning profits and seek to change the world for the better, a view supported by most modern executives—according to McKinsey, only seven percent of Fortune 500 CEOs believe companies should not be distracted by social goals. These companies are committed to solving social problems and demonstrate responsibility for supporting positive change. Instead of leaving the work of solving social and environmental issues to governments or non-profit organizations, mission-driven companies engage their employees, communities, and stakeholders in addressing challenges.
Most companies have a mission statement that highlights their business goals and how they earn a profit. However, being a mission-driven company means more than having a written mission statement.
Some of the best mission-driven companies include Patagonia, Trader Joe’s, Kiva, Donors Choose, DoSomething, Rothy’s, and Bombas, the well-known sock company.
An example of a mission-driven podcast is Building Local Power, which is a podcast by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) that highlights stories and strategies for dismantling corporate monopolies and strengthening community control over local economies. It features interviews with policymakers, activists, and experts focused on sustainable development, renewable energy, and economic equity.
A mission-driven podcasting framework
Richard Fawal, CEO of Voxtopica, recently led the development of a Mission-Driven Podcasting Framework based on years of work helping nonprofits, foundations, advocacy groups, and public-interest organizations use podcasting to educate stakeholders, build community, and advance organizational goals.
In an interview with Sam Sethi, Richard Fawal, CEO of Voxtopica explained, “It was founded in 2019, out of a consulting firm that I had founded. We are designed to help people in nonprofits, government agencies, trade associations, and the general mission-driven world, to have success in podcasting.”
In that same interview, Mr. Fawal noted, “The key things that we help them do is understand, first of all, the landscape that they work in, which is very different from commercial podcasting. Nonprofits are governed by budgets and timelines and bureaucracy. There’s not a lot of education in the podcast world on sort of how to deal with those things. So we help them understand how to communicate effectively within their organization about what podcasting is and how it can help them, using language that is better understood by the nonprofit world. Instead of talking about downloads, we talk about engagement and reach to an audience you’re trying to reach. And instead of consumption rates, we talk about depth of the message, because that’s language that they use in this environment.”
Your Mission, if you wish to accept it
Mission-driven podcasts include educational organizations such as The University Of Chicago, which is a private research university in Chicago, with its main campus in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. The university has developed an impressive roster of podcasts that focus on the study of key educational subjects from psychology to economics, and physics to mathematics.
For example, Big Brains is an award-winning podcast that features stories about the pioneering research and pivotal breakthroughs by scholars at the University of Chicago and leading universities across the country. For example, recent episodes about the benefits of music, the health costs of air pollution, solving societal and economic inequality, and the importance of gut health can help listeners.
Another example is Capitalisn’t, where hosts and guests talk about the ways in which capitalism is—or more often isn’t—working in our world today. Hosted by Vanity Fair contributing editor, Bethany McLean and world renowned economics professor Luigi Zingales, they explain how capitalism can go wrong, and what we can do to fix it.
Mission-driven organizations often focus on issues of justice, criminal and socioeconomic. According to The Innocence Project, estimates suggest that between 2% and 10% of convicted individuals in U.S. prisons are innocent, which translates to approximately 46,000 to over 230,000 people out of the roughly 2.3 million incarcerated, according to various studies.
The Overturn is a podcast focused on miscarriages of justice, produced and hosted by Marnie Duke for The Justice Gap. It highlights cases of wrongfully convicted individuals, supported by The Future Justice Project. The series explores legal failures.
Finally, there are podcasts that are sponsored by mission-driven organizations. An excellent example is The Rest Is Science, hosted by mathematician Professor Hannah Fry and YouTuber Michael Stevens that explores big scientific questions twice a week, with a main episode diving deep into a single topic and a second “Field Notes” episode focusing on a single object’s journey through scientific ideas.
The show is sponsored by Cancer Research UK: “We fund scientists, doctors, and nurses to help beat cancer sooner. We also provide cancer information to the public. Every step we make towards beating cancer relies on every pound donated. A number of bodies work together to ensure that we make the best use of the funds we receive and continue to carry out world-class research.”
Future missions
Richard Fawal, CEO of Voxtopica, who recently led the development of a Mission-Driven Podcasting Framework, has a lot of thoughts about the future of mission-driven podcasting.
Mr. Fawal explains: “We talk about mission-driven podcasting, and we often compare them to commercial podcasts. But non-profit podcasts can actually have revenue. Subscriptions do work sometimes for nonprofits, if the quality of the content and the value that it’s providing is high enough. But, ultimately for most of them, they don’t want to go that route. It’s an extra layer of complexity, and sometimes it just doesn’t feel right to them.”
Mr. Fawal continues: “Often the mistakes that they make are that they come in thinking, well, great, we’re just going to turn our newsletter into a podcast, or we’re just going to, go over the last white paper we’ve done. One of the things we have to help them overcome is to remind them that their podcast is only going to be listened to by people who listen to podcasts. We’ve spent a lot of time helping them understand what are the basics of how podcast listeners, how podcast audiences behave, the way they consume, the way they choose what podcast to listen to; all to help them understand that their white paper isn’t going to make an interesting podcast. But they can take what’s in that white paper and make it very engaging – if they think about the audience first.”
There is no other media industry as welcoming and inviting to mission-driven organizations as podcasting. While print and digital journalism come close, TV, radio, and the movies exist a primarily ‘values-free’ zone, where entertainment is the overriding priority. Music has a distinct dynamic, with musicians concerned and passionate about a topic affecting our world and communities, performing at concerts to raise money for the organizations driving positive change.
Mission-driven organizations are important because they anchor daily operations in a core purpose beyond just profit. By prioritizing societal and environmental well-being, these organizations help bridge community gaps and drive positive global change.
