August CDP Index: Federal defunding drives giving to new highs
As the march toward the ultimate passage of the bill to rescind all federal funding for public media progressed through 2025, audiences have been voicing their support for the sector through increased giving. The final vote in July spurred giving to heights not seen in the last five years.
The Membership Revenue Index showed a 45.7% increase for the three-month period ending July 31 compared to the same three months in 2024, with a lift of almost 44% for TV/Joint licensees and Radio seeing nearly 58% more revenue received during this period. Comparing a full year of data ending July 31 to a full year ending July 31, 2024, revenues increased 12.6% at the median for the system.
The New Donor Index has been truly astounding all year. Over the most recent three-month report period, the median increase for all public media organizations was 155.9% compared to the same period last year. The number of new donors to Radio in May, June and July of 2025 was five times greater than the same three months last year. TV/Joint new donors more than doubled at a 133% increase.
Of the 172 organizations that submitted data this month, all but 17 had growth in new donors that exceeded 15%.
The strong performance in new donor growth during this intense first half of 2025 lifted results for the entire 12-month period by 24.6%. Radio had a greater 12-month increase at almost 68%; however, TV/Joint licensees achieved a very strong 21% gain over the 12-month period.
Increasing investment in midlevel and major-giving efforts has driven ongoing growth for the High-Dollar Gifts Index, tracking gifts of $500 or more, for many years. The funding crisis has also provided a lift in this steady performer, with growth in the last three months of 124%. TV/Joint licensees had gains of 119%, and Radio saw growth of 158%.
High-dollar growth doubled across organizations of all sizes, with both the largest (those with 40,000 current donors or more) and the smallest (those organizations with fewer than 15,000 current donors) both seeing lifts near 130%. In fact, across all key fundraising metrics in the Public Media Index, performance was relatively similar for all breakouts by organization size.
The same is true for the Passport Users Index as well. The median increase in the number of donors using Passport was 8.5% for the 3-month period, the biggest increase in more than a year. This lift was felt across organizations of all sizes.
Increased use of Passport is an indicator of increased audience engagement, which could bode well for retention in 2026. This will be crucial for ongoing file and revenue stability. Organizations must focus on engaging and retaining these new donors and the revenue from donors who have given larger gifts or more gifts than their typical public media contributions.
A webinar to discuss retention strategies for “crisis” donors will be held in partnership with Greater Public Sept. 18. You may register here for this free webinar.
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.
