NPR expects to close its current fiscal year with revenues about 2% over budget due in part to growth in development.
In a report to the NPR board’s finance committee Wednesday, CFO Daphne Kwon described NPR’s year-to-date performance as “strong.”
“We’re doing well in fundraising and development areas, which we project to be up about over 17% over last year,” she said. NPR’s projections show an increase of about 3% in revenues from member station fees. Corporate sponsorship income will be roughly flat when fiscal 2024 closes at the end of September.
NPR’s spending by the end of the fiscal year will be higher than budgeted, but “all the increases in expenses are attributable to grants” that weren’t included in the budget, Kwon said.
“If you back out those grant-covered additional expenses, we are actually lower in expenses than budgeted and almost exactly flat to fiscal ’23,” she added.
NPR’s operating margin for FY24 is expected to be $1.3 million over budget Sept. 30. NPR plans to invest those funds in “some long-deferred capital needs for this year,” she said.
Kwon also presented the FY25 budget, for which NPR is assuming “stability in our operations.”
The budget presented to the committee forecasts break-even operating cash in FY25 to match the results projected for FY24.
The FY25 budget maintains “our revenue on all our major revenue streams” and is “very conservative with our spending,” she said.