May CDP Index: Decline in new donors deepens for radio

As we saw last month, nearly every metric across the Index cohort breakouts continues to perform well above the same period in 2025. Year-over-year results remain strong overall, though the pace of growth has been slowing since September 2025.

The New Donor Index continues to show a nearly 20% lift over last year across all organization types combined. TV and Joint licensees are still seeing a 26% increase in new donors, and median results show continued new donor growth across organization sizes — for now.

Growth among small stations — those with fewer than 15,000 active donors — was much more modest at 2.9%. Because just over half of this cohort is made up of Radio-only organizations, the declines in Radio are likely most visible in this group. At the same time, larger Radio organizations, which saw stronger gains last year, are now experiencing the steepest year-over-year declines.

By contrast, TV and Joint licensees, which saw less new donor growth during this same three-month window in 2025, continue to gain new donors in 2026.

Growth in the Membership Revenue Index slowed from last month’s report, declining from 34% to 30%. Both TV/Joint licensees and Radio-only organizations reported year-over-year revenue increases of roughly 30%, as did organizations across size categories.

Revenue growth continues to be supported by donors giving at higher levels. The High-Dollar Gifts Index remains the strongest-performing metric so far in 2026. In the most recent Index, gifts of $500 or more were up 44% — still a very strong result, though down from 51% last month. TV/Joint licensees saw a 49% increase in higher-level gifts, while Radio was up 36%.

The continued growth in high-dollar gifts suggests that loyal donors remain motivated by the challenges facing public media amid funding cuts. At the same time, the decline in new donors may indicate that, for the broader public, the urgency of this moment has begun to fade from view.

We continue to urge organizations to invest in donor acquisition with strong messaging about the ongoing need for support, stay focused on retaining crisis-driven donors and revenue, and strengthen investment in mid-level and major-donor staff. At the same time, this moment has shown what can happen when people beyond the core audience are reminded of public media’s value, which raises an important question: When will a national marketing campaign begin?

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.