A new report from Contributor Development Partnership finds a downturn in new station donors in FY24 but cause for optimism as well. The full report can be accessed here. This introduction is republished here with the permission of the authors.
Welcome to the Fiscal Year 2024 State of Fundraising for Public Media report. The findings in this report are drawn from data from 178 public media organizations that participated in CDP’s National Reference File in June 2024. The defined fiscal year period is July 1–June 30, aligning with many public media organizations’ fiscal years.
While FY24 was challenging for the nonprofit sector, there was much to celebrate for public media.
- Overall revenue increased modestly for TV (2.3%) and joint licensees (2.9%) and held steady for radio (0.4%)
- Despite new donor challenges, year-over-year total donor counts for the system remained constant
- Donor counts are holding up due to large shares of sustainers — exceeding 50% at the >median for the first time in FY24
- Revenue from higher-level donors ($1,000+) increased by a median 4% across all organization types
- The share of new donors making sustainer gifts continues to rise for all organization types
- First-year, 13th-month retention of those donors is positively stellar
All very good news, indeed, and all factors shoring up public media’s development programs against the tide of audience declines and the new donor challenges faced by most nonprofit sectors. In the first quarter alone, nonprofits faced a new donor decline of 10.1%, as reported by the Fundraising Effectiveness Project.
In FY24 new donors declined at the medians for all public media organization types, with radio being hardest hit. TV and joint licensees were down by roughly 3% each, and radio suffered a nearly 17% decline in new donors from the preceding year. This is the third year in a row for new donor declines across the system.
But even in the face of declining audiences and high inflation, many organizations experienced new donor growth in FY24. A careful review of 35 organizations experiencing greater than 5% growth in new donors revealed some interesting findings.
For the 10 public radio stations with strong new donor growth, pledge was the primary driver. Pledge-acquired donors still represent more than half of all new donors to public radio. Public radio is crying out for more acquisition channel diversity.
For TV and joint licensees, many of the 25 top performers had strong growth in both digital acquisition and direct mail. Some also had growth in pledge and Passport, and the top performer launched canvassing this year. Beyond the common growth factors of digital and direct mail, note that these organizations had another commonality: channel diversity.
Looking ahead to FY25, we remain optimistic. The Radio Research Consortium released July listening reports that showed marked increases in listening during the last week of the July survey, which was followed by the shake-up in the Democratic party ticket. The tumultuous election season could have translated into heavier listening and more website visits for public radio.
For television, the PBS fall and winter seasons could find new Passport donors, with the third installment of Wolf Hall arriving, Miss Austen debuting and a slate of Masterpiece and other PBS favorites returning.
Converting audience spikes to loyal lifetime donors will be key for the remainder of the year. Inspiring the funding of creative acquisition strategies, digital content development and marketing, as well as convening and amplifying the voices in your local community, will be key for the future.