Getting a podcast funded can feel like a bit chicken-and-egg.
You’ve got the idea and you can see how a podcast could help you reach people, share stories or get important work heard.
But you need the money to make it happen!
So where do you start getting a podcast funded?
One of the biggest things we’ve learned from producing podcasts with charities, universities, public sector teams and other purpose-led organisations is,
Don’t just look for funding for a podcast, look at what the podcast is there to help you achieve.
So what do we mean by that?
Well, we’ve seen that podcasts made by organisations don’t exist on their own.
They’re made as part of a research project, a public engagement programme, a communications campaign, a piece of community work or an educational project – and that’s just a few examples!
The pattern you can see here is that the podcast is the format, but the purpose is the important bit.
That wee distinction there gives you a much better starting point for thinking about how your podcast idea might get funded.
Start With The Job, Not The Format
It’s super tempting to search for “podcast funding”, and that might get very few results. You might uncover more possibilities if, before you do all that searching, you get dead clear about the job you need the podcast to do.
Grab some Post-it notes, a blank document or the back of a leccy bill and think…
- What are we trying to achieve?
- Who are we trying to reach?
- Who benefits from this work?
- What could a podcast help us do?
Your answers might include making research more accessible, capturing lived experiences, reaching people who aren’t engaging with your existing communications, sharing learning from a project, starting conversations around an issue or creating a resource people can return to.”
This is where one of our fave bits of advice comes in:
Pitch the impact and benefit, not the format.
“We want to make a podcast” might not be a top-banana strategy, but knowing why you want to make one and what you want it to make possible gives you a much stronger place to start.
Look At The Bigger Picture
Once you know what the podcast is there to achieve, look at where it sits in your wider work.
A podcast about research might be one part of a much bigger research or public engagement project. A podcast capturing people’s experiences might support a wider community programme. Another might sit within an organisation’s comms or education work.
That’s a very different starting point from treating the podcast as a completely separate thing that needs its own pot of “podcast money”.
It also means the question becomes less “Who funds podcasts?” and more “How does this podcast help us deliver the work we’re already trying to do?”
Bin The Idea That It Has To Run Forever and Ever
There’s a podcasting assumption worth chucking in the bin whilst we’re at it.
A successful podcast doesn’t have to mean publishing a weekly episode every Tuesday until the end of time.
For many organisations, a limited series can make far more sense. Your idea might have a narrow or defined subject, project or purpose that lends itself to just a set number of episodes.
You can make the series, achieve what you set out to achieve and leave behind an evergreen resource people can continue to discover forever and ever afterwards.
This can be useful when you’re sharing expertise, research, stories or lived experience that will stay relevant after the initial project has finished.
Sustainability doesn’t always mean making a podcast forever. It can mean making something worthwhile that continues to add value once the production has finished.
Be Realistic About What You Can Do In-House
You can make a podcast on a relatively small budget, especially if you already have some equipment and skills in your team.
Yet there’s still a fair amount of graft involved in getting a podcast from an idea to somebody’s headphones. Someone needs to develop the idea, find and book contributors, prepare interviews, record, edit, write show notes, publish episodes and promote them.
More complex projects can bring other considerations too, including in-person recording, contributor support and travel.
It all takes time, and that time needs to be part of your planning. We’ve seen how easily podcast production can become another job squeezed onto somebody’s already overflowing workload when that work hasn’t been properly accounted for in the first place!
Low cost can be high stress.
If you’re trying to work out what you might need to budget for, we’ve broken down the costs you need to think about in our guide to how much it costs to produce a podcast
This is one of the reasons organisations bring MIC in to work with them.
We can support the whole production from the initial idea through to publishing, work alongside your team on particular parts of it, or train your people to produce podcasts themselves.
The right approach depends on what you already have in-house, where the gaps are and how much time your team can realistically give to the podcast.
If you’re putting together a budget, it’s worth costing the support you’ll actually need from the beginning rather than assuming your comms team or your marketing officer will find another day in the week to do it all.
You can read more about our podcast production and podcast training, or have a chat with us about what you’re planning.
Define Success Before You Press Record
Funding and measurement are closely connected. For an organisational podcast, the biggest audience isn’t always the goal.
You might be trying to reach a particular community, make research more accessible, share lived experiences or get useful information to a specific group of people.
In those cases, a smaller audience made up of the right people could be far more meaningful than thousands of listens from people who have little connection to what you’re trying to achieve.
That’s why it’s worth deciding what success looks like before you start recording.
- What do we want listeners to know, feel or do?
- Who do we actually need to reach?
- What would tell us that the podcast has done its job?
That also gives you something much more useful to assess and report afterwards than,
“Well, episode three got 140 listens.”
We’ve written more about why podcast downloads aren’t always the most important measure of success here.
So, How Do You Fund An Organisational Podcast?
There isn’t one answer…and that’s the point!
Instead of looking for a pot of money labelled “podcast”, start by looking at the bigger picture.
What are you trying to achieve? Who is it for? Who benefits? Where does the podcast fit within the wider work? And what would success actually look like?
Those answers give you a much better starting point for thinking about how the podcast could be resourced and what it will realistically take to make it happen.
Purpose first, funding second.
And if you’ve got the beginnings of an organisational podcast but aren’t sure how it fits into the bigger picture, that’s exactly the sort of thing we help organisations work through at MIC.
MIC FAQ
Can organisations get funding to make a podcast?
Yes. Organisational podcasts can be funded in different ways, and a podcast may form part of a wider project, programme or communications activity rather than being funded as a standalone piece of work. What makes sense will depend on the organisation, the project and what the podcast is there to achieve.
Does a podcast need advertising or sponsorship to be sustainable?
No. Advertising and sponsorship are only two possible approaches. For many organisational podcasts, generating income directly from listeners isn’t the purpose at all.
Can a limited podcast series work long-term?
Absolutely! A focused limited series can have a clear purpose and end point while the finished episodes continue to provide value as an evergreen resource. That can also give a project a useful legacy beyond its initial delivery period.
How much should an organisation budget for a podcast?
It depends on the scope, format and production requirements, as well as how much work will be handled internally. Equipment and production costs are only part of the picture. Staff time, marketing, accessibility and other project requirements may need to be considered too. We’ve broken this down in our guide to how much it costs to produce a podcast.
