Christian Aid Ministries (“CAM”) is a US non-profit which spent approximately $5 million to purchase ads on 1,700 billboards in 2025. Billboard Insider spoke with Jay Stotzfus and Jeff Nisly about the program.
Give an overview of CAM
CAM is an Ohio-headquartered, non-profit which raised $171 million last year to operate relief, development and evangelism programs around the world. We have more than 60 programs to meet physical and spiritual needs, including the Billboard Evangelism program.
How many billboards did you rent last year.
We had roughly $5 million in billboard space, plus vinyl and install costs on top of that. We averaged about 1,700 billboards throughout the year, in every state that permits billboards. For the four states that don’t allow them, we run messages on box trucks. Total daily impressions came to around 22 million.
What formats do you buy?
Primarily roadside static. We do posters as well. We’re always open to digital as a bonus if an operator wants to offer it — and we’ll sometimes purchase digital — but we generally prefer to own the face rather than be one rotation among six or eight. That said, as digital prices keep coming down, it may eventually make more sense to do more of it.
Do you work with posters, airports, other formats?
We do posters. One of the things we started last year is partnering with churches. CAM piloted a program where they ran about 100 billboards through Clear Channel throughout the city for four weeks. During that time, a church went into Chicago and distributed roughly 3,000 outreach materials tied to the campaign. The connection was remarkable.
If I’m an out-of-home operator and I want to do business with you, what do I do?
Contact Jeff Nisly jeffnisly@camoh.org. We’ll add you to our list and send you RFPs with our available options.
Is there a best time of year for billboard operators to reach out to CAM?
We like to start our buying process for the coming year in September and October. That’s when operators are going to get the most traction with us. Send options as our RFPs go out — we start toward the end of September.
What information do you use to evaluate buys?
We need exact locations, impressions, and your best rate. Good photos of the location matter too — we always want to see where a board sits and what surrounds it.
What about impressions? Do you use Geopath or Perview, or both?
We’ve historically used Geopath but we’re fine with using Perview. We also run traffic counts through our own formula that gets us close to Geopath numbers, so we can compare apples to apples.
How do your contracts typically work?
Most of our billboards are annual contracts. We also run 80 to 100 boards on summer contracts starting June 1st. For poster campaigns in cities, we typically run September through April, though this year we’re extending into summer to support church groups heading out for outreach events.
Do you change creative?
We change vinyl once or twice during the year — it depends on location. Rural boards tend to stay longer; busier surface-street locations may get a swap.
What do you want for proof of performance?
Good approach photos. They’re important to our donors — sponsors want to see where their board is placed and that it reads well. We actually compile photo sheets from those images and give them back to the donor so they can see the specific board they sponsored.
What should someone do to get involved as a billboard program donor?
They can donate directly at 83fortruth.org. If they want to sponsor a specific location, there’s an adopt-a-billboard program on the Christian Aid Ministries website — they can go online and choose an available location to sponsor. We are also willing to send out vinyl for cover copy if operators wish to be involved in that way.
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