WBEZ asks listeners to "Give 20"

Chicago's WBEZ is asking its listeners to make donations of $20 in an innovative fundraising campaign running on WBEZ20.org. The website combines goofy videos, half-serious quizzes, and donor testimonials--along with a great big orange button soliciting contributions. Videos starring Carl Kasell, Peter Sagal, and Kai Ryssdal predict dire outcomes if individuals who don't pony up, with titles such as, "Without your $20 . . . Carl Kasell's voice is wasted on youth." The campaign, created to help the station meet its fiscal-year-end fundraising goals, is designed to keep pledge drives and program interruptions to a minimum, says WBEZ's Cindy Hansen. Even bloggers at Chicagoist think it's pretty clever.