Development
November CDP Index: High-dollar gifts offset decline in new donors
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In addition, an ongoing and worsening decline among sustainers is a growing concern for radio stations.
Current (https://current.org/author/deb-ashmore/)
In addition, an ongoing and worsening decline among sustainers is a growing concern for radio stations.
Even in the face of declining audiences and high inflation, a CDP analysis finds that many public media organizations experienced new donor growth in FY24.
A declining rate of growth among Passport users is exposing cracks in new donor programs at TV and joint licensees.
The June through August 2024 period was, at best, sluggish for station fundraising across several key performance indicators compared to the same period in 2023.
As audiences decline, pledge has dropped for all station types across the last five years.
Membership revenue is up, driven by high-dollar gifts and consistent increases in sustainers and Passport users.
New donor challenges are having obvious impacts on both overall sustainers and even high-dollar gifts for radio.
Radio stations in particular struggled to grow donor rolls last year, according to a new Contributor Development Partnership report. But public media has a strong legacy of trust to build on.
High-dollar gifts and sustainers continue to be pillars of strength and stability for stations as new donors remain a challenge.
Along with high-dollar giving, a stable sustainer population for radio stations and a growing sustainer pool for TV stations and joint licensees are driving revenue growth.
In the most recent three-month period, sustainers increased by 6.9% due to an 8.4% increase for TV/Joint stations.
“Investing in diverse donor, listener and digital user acquisition is critical to the future of local public news outlets.”
In the latest CDP Index, medium-sized stations had the strongest performance in high-dollar gifts, with 1.9% growth.
National reporting on Giving Tuesday results highlighted flat revenue performance and a 10% decline in donors.
TV stations and joint licensees powered a 5.1% rise in new donor acquisition in the latest Index.
Radio stations, however, persist in showing a “consistent and concerning downward trend” in new donor acquisition.
With the growth in sustainer giving since the end of the recession, both radio and television may find themselves in a position to ride out the pandemic with some stability.
But to continue growing income and increasing donor value, stations will have to get better at upgrading sustainers.
The Target Analytics State of the System report reflects growing listening to public radio news and underscores “startling” payoffs from PBS’ Passport service.