We Can Do This! Podcast Case Study: Production Management on a Nonprofit Budget

Role: Senior Producer & Communications Manager

Timeline: Spring 2019 – June 2021 (launch to departure)

Budget: ~$6,500 for initial 8 episodes, renewable contract

Context: 120-year-old consumer advocacy nonprofit, first podcast attempt, executive director who idolized Terry Gross

Link(s): Apple Podcast

When Your Boss Says "Make Me Terry Gross"

Sally Greenberg, NCL's Executive Director, had been casually floating the podcast idea for about a year—the kind of "wouldn't it be nice if" comments that hover between suggestion and directive. Then in Spring 2019, during my VP of Communications' visit from Pittsburgh, Sally made it official: "Let's make this a thing."

The brief was refreshingly vague: try one season of 8 episodes over a year, interview policy experts and advocates, maybe attract donors who'd appreciate uncensored conversations with interesting people. Sally loved Fresh Air and wanted something in that vein, but for consumer advocacy instead of cultural commentary.

What she didn't specify: production standards, episode length, success metrics, or really any concrete deliverables beyond "8 episodes in a year." This is where project management gets interesting—when you have executive enthusiasm but minimal requirements.

Vendor Selection: When You Only Have Three Options

Budget and geography narrowed our choices fast. The studio needed to be near NCL's Farragut North office and affordable for a small nonprofit. That left three viable options.

Then a board member recommended Paul Woodhull—"Woody"—and District Productive, a podcast production company on Capitol Hill. The initial meeting sold it. Woody had decades of broadcast experience, understood nonprofit constraints, and mentioned he could structure the contract as a tax write-off to give us better pricing.

Contract structure: Fixed price for 8 episodes, renewable after completion. This gave us predictability while maintaining flexibility—we could test the concept without committing to perpetual production. District Productive handled recording, editing, sound mixing, and remote recording setup—everything we didn't know how to do.

Translating "Terry Gross Vibes" Into Actual Infrastructure

I immersed myself in podcast research—Fresh Air, NPR's catalog, Vox Media shows, Heavyweight, The Daily. The common thread: professional intros/outros, clean audio, consistent branding, episodes under 45 minutes.

I built the brand infrastructure in-house: designed the logo, researched Fresh Air's music style and commissioned a Fiverr composer (with Woody advising on technical specs), wrote intro/outro scripts, and coordinated the voice-over artist Woody connected us with. Then I established the production workflow: guest research and booking, interview question drafting, recording coordination, episode editing with District Productive, transcription management, publishing to Art19 and NCLnet.org, and performance monitoring.

None of this was formally requested. I built it because that's how podcasts work, and because Sally's "Terry Gross aspirations" needed tactical translation.

The Naming Battle: Data Beats Opinions

The first few episodes exposed a classic stakeholder conflict. Reid Maki, a policy lead, and Sally both wanted control over episode naming. The results were... academic. "Two dynamos of women's rights law crashed through the glass ceiling—part 1" and "Ending the scourge of child labor with Kailash Satyarthi."

Who clicks on that?

I pushed for more engaging titles—puns, humor, curiosity hooks. Pushback was immediate and defensive, particularly from Reid who clearly didn't appreciate creative input on "his" episode content.

Coalition-building strategy: I recruited Woody. When I pitched episode names, I'd casually mention Woody's support for the approach. Sally trusted Woody's professional judgment, which gave my suggestions more weight.

Turning point: "What's for dinner? Whatever's in the waste bin"—my title for the Scott Nash episode about feeding his family from expired food. I asked Scott directly during recording if he liked it. He laughed and approved. That episode became our top performer: 50% higher click rates, 32% better listener engagement than other episodes by the time I left NCL.

After that, the pushback stopped. Sally gave me tacit approval to name episodes independently. Subsequent top performers included "Add pics to get rid of that debt monkey on your back" with Michelle Singletary and "Does recycling even work?" with Beth Porter.

Lesson learned: Sometimes you prove your point by shipping it and letting the data speak.

The COVID Pivot Nobody Panicked About

March 2020 brought pandemic shutdowns, but we had two episodes banked and zero time pressure for sporadic releases. This gave District Productive and me runway to test virtual recording environments.

Challenge: Sally wasn't tech-savvy, and other potential hosts had varying audio setups. Poor home recording quality would tank production value.

Solution: I scheduled dedicated tech support sessions where Woody and his sound engineer worked with hosts to test equipment and troubleshoot audio environments. We tested everything before booking guests, ensuring professional quality standards remained intact. Post-COVID recording actually improved scheduling flexibility—guests no longer needed to travel to Capitol Hill.

Building for Longevity: Documentation That Outlasted Me

Throughout production, I maintained systems knowing I might not be there forever. Before leaving NCL in June 2021, I organized process documentation (guest selection, booking workflow, publishing protocols), asset archives (organized by date with interview questions, edit notes, final mixdowns), and resource lists (realistic guest targets, vendor contacts, brand files).

Six years later, "We Can Do This!" is still running—30 episodes total, same District Productive partnership, same intro/outro I commissioned, latest episode dropped December 22, 2025. Production remains sporadic (averaging 5 episodes/year), which was always the realistic cadence for a small nonprofit where hosts had primary policy responsibilities.

Results: Sustainable Content on Sustainable Budget

Production metrics:

• 8-episode initial contract → 30+ episodes over 6 years

• ~20K total listens by June 2021 across 14 episodes

• Professional production quality matching larger organizations

Budget efficiency:

• ~$6,500 for 8 episodes including studio time, editing, distribution

• Built reusable infrastructure (branding, workflows, vendor relationships)

• Leftover budget allocated to guest gifts, enhancing relationship-building

Organizational impact:

• New channel for reaching general public beyond Hill staffers and donors

• Framework proven sustainable enough to continue 4+ years post-departure

• Professional content library supporting NCL's 120+ year advocacy mission

Lessons in Building Things That Last

Pick your battles, then win them with data. The naming conflict could've become protracted political infighting. Instead, I shipped one strong example, let performance validate the approach, and moved on.

Vendor relationships are stakeholder relationships. Woody wasn't just a service provider—he was an ally in managing Sally's expectations, a technical advisor when I needed backup, and a tax-savvy partner who structured contracts beneficially.

Build for the organization you have, not the one you wish existed. I knew NCL wouldn't sustain weekly releases. Rather than force an unsustainable cadence, I designed systems that worked sporadically: evergreen content, flexible scheduling, minimal ongoing maintenance. That's why it's still running.

Document everything, even when it feels tedious. The process guides I created were strategic frameworks flexible enough for whoever inherited the project. That flexibility is why the podcast survived staff turnover and is still producing episodes today.

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Pull Quote: "Sometimes the best project management is translating 'make me like Terry Gross' into systems so sustainable that the podcast is still running six years later, long after you've moved on."