Image by Lee Murry from Pixabay.
Welcome to another episode of the Partnership for America’s Children blog! Today, we’re diving headfirst into a topic that’s music to our ears: how child advocacy organizations are using podcasts to build support for their work. Tune in for podcast profiles, hot tips, plus a fresh playlist of our guests’ favorite podcasts to perk up your next commute or workout.
Impact on the Airwaves
Mara Powell, Chief External Affairs Officer at Kentucky Youth Advocates, says that a big slice of KYA’s existing newsletter subscribers and social media followers prefer to get their news by podcast – and tune in regularly. KYA’s donors are listening too – they have reached out after an episode with kudos, questions, and even follow-up donations. In 2023 Michigan’s Children produced 8 podcast episodes, and those podcasts saw nearly 1,400 downloads, as well as 318 views on YouTube.
Podcasting has created a great way for child advocacy organizations to build stronger relationships with the elected officials who serve kids and families in their states. Podcast guests include elected and appointed officials including Governors, Lieutenant Governors, U.S. Senators, state legislators, education leaders, child advocates, and of course their own team members. Mara Powell says that KYA often hears from state legislators and other elected officials with questions about what they’ve heard, and even requests to be on the show to discuss pressing issues facing kids and families.
Teri Banas at Michigan’s Children says the best guests on their show are the people directly impacted by the issues. For example, in a recent show on juvenile detention, guests included a Detroit Free Press reporter who had conducted an investigation in the Wayne County detention facility, a lobbyist for youth issues, and the mother of a teenager who was being held at the facility.
Members of the media are also listening. “Several times, reporters have used the show to inform their reporting,” says Jackie Zubrzycki of Colorado Children’s Campaign, “and several have worked with us to use quotes directly from our episodes.”
Podcast Profiles
Listen up: Kentucky Youth Advocates Podcast: Making Kids Count
KYA started podcasting way before it was cool – back in 2018! Since then the podcast has grown and evolved significantly, but some basic ingredients remain the same.
- Host: KYA’s Executive Director Terry Brooks
- Frequency: Varies, but the podcast is produced frequently during the legislative session (weekly or biweekly).
- Length: 30 minutes to less than one hour
- Guests: Child advocates and experts in lots of subject areas impacting kids and families, state legislators and other elected officials, KYA staff members.
- Production: Produced entirely in-house by a staff team. KYA’s Chief External Affairs Officer, Mara Powell, is the project manager.
- Distribution: Soundcloud, which reaches all podcast distribution platforms. KYA also promotes each episode across its communications channels (newsletter, blog, and social media).
- Dream Guest: Mara would love to have Brené Brown on the podcast to talk about building trauma-informed organizations.
Listen up: Michigan’s Children’s podcast, Speaking for Kids
Michigan’s Children launched Speaking for Kids in 2021, using a combination of both video (YouTube) and audio streaming sites to distribute the podcast. In 2023, Speaking for Kids explored issues such as paid family and medical leave, new developments in kinship care, the rising voices of Michigan youth around gun violence, and universal PreK.
- Host: Michigan’s Children CEO Matt Gillard
- Frequency: Monthly, with occasional breaks for holidays and special events
- Length: Around 30 minutes
- Guests: Child advocates, elected officials, journalists, lobbyists, and Michigan’s Children team members.
- Production: Teri Banas produces the podcast with help from outreach associate Stephen Wallace. The team records the interviews on a Zoom call, and then a local video company adds the intro and outro.
- Distribution: Michigan’s Children distributes the podcast on their YouTube page, through Spotify, Apple and Google podcasts. “Promote, promote, promote,” says Teri Banas. “After the recording, we think of who needs to hear this besides our usual listeners. We promote it in our e-bulletin blasts, and share it in direct emails to partners (asking them to share it through their communications channels) and where appropriate we send it to every member of the state legislature with key messages on what they will hear and why it’s important.”
- Dream Guest: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
Listen up: Colorado Children’s Campaign podcast, The West Steps
The West Steps of the state capitol building are a landmark in Colorado – both as a popular Denver selfie spot, and as a gateway to state policy-making. The Colorado Children’s Campaign named its podcast The West Steps because the organization wanted to create a new way for the public to learn about policymaking, and how it impacts Colorado’s kids. “Our aim is to not just explain how ideas become laws, but to entirely demystify the process so that you can engage in it,” the podcast’s online description declares.
- Host: VP of Communications Jackie Zubrzycki
Frequency: Twice monthly during the legislative session (January-May); Most episodes are tied to a piece of legislation that’s in the works. They have also created special mini-series focused on examining important issues. - Length: 20-30 minutes
- Guests: Colorado Children’s Campaign team members, state legislators, child advocates from other organizations, researchers, teachers, and more.
- Production: CCC produces episodes in-house using a platform called Podcastle to record episodes remotely. The Communications Manager edits and produces episodes using a tool from Adobe.
- Distribution: Buzzsprout, which reaches all podcast distribution platforms. The Colorado Children’s Campaign also promotes the podcast through its various communications channels, including its blog, newsletter, and social media.
- Dream Guest: “We are always excited when we can feature teachers, health care providers, and other people who are working directly with kids and families,” says Jackie. “Their perspective adds so much to policy conversations that risk being wonky or in the weeds.”
West Steps of the Colorado State Capitol building. Photo by Wally Gobetz via Flickr
Hot Tips
Teri, Mara, and Jackie shared some great tips for child advocacy organizations who are thinking about starting a podcast.
Use the podcast to drive your advocacy priorities forward: “The conversations we have on the podcast can often have more nuance and personal detail than we can get into in other formats,” says Jackie. “The podcast also allows us to build relationships with and elevate the voices of our partners and Colorado policy leaders.”
Focus on your audience: Think first about what your audience needs to learn and understand about an issue. Then tailor the guest and questions around educating, empowering, and inspiring them to take action. Production doesn’t need to be fancy, says Teri. “Content is key. People will always listen to good content that matters to them.”
Get a sponsor! Kentucky Youth Advocates have long partnered with a Kentucky managed care organization (MCO) to sponsor their podcast, making it possible for one of their growing and most important communications channels to pay for itself.
Create a content calendar and put that podcast on a schedule. It can be hard to figure out where to fit in podcast guests and production when you’re juggling the legislative session, plus lots of other tasks and special events. Planning it out in advance so that you have known spots to fill can make it much easier to schedule guests and build time into busy schedules – not to mention creating a predictable rhythm for your listeners.
🎧 Freshen up your playlist
These podcasters don’t spend all their listening time on children’s issues and state government scuttlebutt. They love storytelling and political commentary, foreign language learning, books, arts, culture, music, and their local NPR news stations. Looking for a new favorite podcast? Check out the Partnership Podcast Playlist on Spotify!
Many thanks to Mara Powell of Kentucky Youth Advocates, Teri Banas of Michigan’s Children, and Jackie Zubrzycki of Colorado Children’s Campaign for generously sharing their expertise and insights for this blog.
