Public radio and television stations have encountered a surge in private donations and funding, spurred in large part by emotion-driven charity after the U.S. Congress agreed to cut hundreds of millions of dollars for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting earlier this month.
According to a report from the New York Times, PBS and NPR member stations have seen a collective boost in the number of individual donors — more than 120,000 — who have contributed an estimated $20 million in additional annual value. The Times sourced its data to Michal Heiplik, the President and CEO of the Contributor Development Partnership, an organization that tracks public media fundraising efforts and outcomes.
The donations offer some PBS and NPR member stations short-term relief, but the amount raised is still not enough to fully offset the $550 million cut from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which provides financial grants to stations.
Stations in affluent parts of the country are likely to see the biggest individual donor contributions, while small and rural-area stations — which have historically depended on CPB grants for their ongoing operations — are less likely to see sizable donations, despite having the greatest need.
“Stations can’t plan on this level of increased giving as a permanent strategy to fill the gap,” Amanda Mountain, the CEO of Rocky Mountain Public Media, which provides PBS and NPR programming to Colorado, told the newspaper.
Leadership at PBS and NPR addressed the crisis with staff last week. Paula Kerger, PBS’s president and CEO, told employees at the network’s Washington headquarters that she is in discussions with philanthropic organizations to secure emergency support for local stations. Katherine Maher, CEO of NPR, spoke to staff during a fundraising trip through California, emphasizing the need for careful financial planning while rejecting the notion that the organization can simply cut its way out of the crisis.
PBS is freezing open positions and suspending nonessential spending. NPR is adopting a similarly cautious approach to hiring. Both organizations are working to adapt to a new funding environment while preserving essential services.
Despite the uncertainty, there are small signs of long-term donor commitment. Heiplik noted that sustaining memberships, which take the form of recurring monthly or annual donations, are up 51 percent from last year. Some fundraising appeals issued on the day of the congressional vote saw response rates three times higher than year-end campaigns, traditionally the most successful.
“It is great to see the community respond as it shows how much appreciation, and need, there is for public media,” Heiplik told the Times. “Now we need this level of support to continue as we reinvent the infrastructure impacted by loss of federal funding.”
