October CDP Index: Giving remains at peak levels at end of third quarter

The vote to rescind federal funding for public media spurred giving in the third quarter of 2025 to record-breaking heights for all organizational types and sizes.

The Membership Revenue Index showed an 82.4% increase for the three-month period ending Sep. 30 compared to the same three months in 2024, with comparable lifts for both TV/Joint licensees and Radio-only organizations. Comparing a full year of data ending Sept. 30 to a full year ending Sept. 30, 2024, revenues increased 24% at the median for the system.

A key driver for revenue growth is donors giving at higher levels. The High-Dollar Gifts Index, tracking gifts of $500 or more, surpassed new donor growth in this most recent reporting period. The three-month index shows an increase in larger gifts of nearly 223.4%, and the 12-month index shows growth at nearly 55%.

For the three-month period ending Sept. 30, TV/Joint licensees had gains of 232%, and Radio saw growth of 204% in gifts of $500 or more. High-dollar growth exceeded 200% across organizations of all sizes. 

New donor growth continues to astound as well. The New Donor Index again exceeded 200% growth for the three-month period. The number of new donors to Radio in the months of July, August and September increased by 307.2% over the same period last year. TV/Joint licensees are seeing a 185.2% increase in new donors.

Of the 174 organizations that submitted data this month, all but one had growth in new donors in the three-month index. The range in growth in new donors in this three-month period was 31% to over 1500%.

The strong performance in new donor growth since early this year lifted results for the entire 12-month period by 51.6%. Radio had a greater 12-month increase, exceeding 100%; TV/Joint licensees achieved a very strong 48% gain over the 12-month period.

This strong performance in new donor acquisition is fueling growth in our sustainer populations as well. For most of the year prior to the federal funding crisis, TV and Joint licensees saw an increase in sustainers, while we were wringing our hands watching radio sustainer populations stagnate. We can now report significant increases of 14% for this vital group of donors for all organization types in the Sustainer Index. We have analyzed early retention trends for this new group of sustainers and found their retention rate in the fourth month following their acquisition month is as strong as donors acquired in any other year in the last five years.

Finally, TV and Joint licensees are enjoying strong growth in Passport users as well, with a three-month Passport Users Index increase of 12.7% and year-over-year growth nearing 8%.

Of course, this growth is in response to the federal funding crisis. It stands to reason that telling your audience that the crisis makes their support even more crucial would draw more giving than if you did not. We did throw some data behind this hypothesis by surveying the public media organizations participating in Epiphany benchmarking. Not surprisingly, we found that those who had been leaning into messaging about the threat to funding and, later, the recission had stronger new donor growth than those that did not. 

To be clear, nearly every public media organization is experiencing new donor growth, and every organization must consider many different aspects when presenting any case for giving, especially a potentially controversial one. However, as you’re considering your Giving Tuesday and end-of-calendar-year campaigns, take into account this unscientific but interesting finding when deciding how hard or even whether to lean into the federal funding crisis. Clearly, within this group, it was a good idea to talk about federal funding, and our guess is that it still is.

This monthly report on the fundraising performance of public media stations is provided through an editorial collaboration between Current and Contributor Development Partnership (CDP). The collaboration draws from CDP’s National Reference File, which collects monthly membership and revenue data from more than 170 public media stations. (Read more about the methodology.)

Deb Ashmore joined CDP as Analytics Strategist in September 2023. With more than 25 years of experience in the nonprofit sector and public media fundraising, she is passionate about working to help clients understand their fundraising data to inform strategies for long-term file health and growth. Her previous public media experience includes 10 years as director of individual giving for WXPN in Philadelphia.