Fundraising

North Country Public Radio launches fundraiser for investigative reporting

By Tyler Falk, Assistant Editor | June 5, 2017

The station hopes to raise $50,000 in listener support for its “Daylight Reporting Fund.”

What’s a major gift in public media? Depends on who you ask

By April Simpson, Associate Editor | March 23, 2017

At most stations, individuals who contribute at least $1,000 cumulatively over a year are considered major donors. But outside of public media, major gifts involve much larger donations.

Pubcasters maintain opposition to looser third-party fundraising rules as FCC leadership changes

By Doug Halonen | March 16, 2017

A long-pending proposal would allow noncommercial stations to devote up to 1 percent of their annual air time to raising funds for other nonprofits.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting joins stations airing flood-relief telethon

By Alyssa Anderson | July 1, 2016

After scrambling to provide broadcast and online news coverage of the flood, the network is participating in a telethon benefiting Red Cross relief efforts.

With new service, DMW seeks to help stations boost mobile giving

By | October 9, 2014

A new service from DMW Direct Fundraising aims to help pubmedia stations reach members and donors through cellphones and tablets, using software for creating mobile-friendly pledge forms.
According to DMW, the new service will be more effective than the text-to-give format many stations have experimented with because it doesn’t rely on cellphone carriers to collect money and allows for larger donations. It also offers more opportunities for individualized communications. Mobile giving can be an important revenue stream, but stations should view it as more than just dollars and cents, said DMW President Debbie Merlino. “It’s really important to not just think of this as another channel for revenue only,” she said. “It really needs to be about engagement.

Development

PBS to track behavior of viewers pledging to core-schedule programs

By Dru Sefton, Senior Editor | July 7, 2014

In an experiment signaling public TV’s resolve to address concerns about the long-term effects of transactional pledging on its donor base, PBS plans to test whether fundraising around regularly scheduled signature series can convert more viewers into loyal members and donors. Though traditional fundraising programs generate more cash for stations, many development professionals believe that pledging around core programs could yield better-quality donors who are committed to public TV’s mission. Stations such as Maryland Public Television and PBS SoCal in Orange County, Calif., have successfully pledged series from PBS’s National Program Service, as well as popular British dramas and comedies acquired from other distributors. Their results prompted PBS to take a deeper dive into the approach. “As we transition from a goal of gross dollars into a broader philosophy of the long-term value of donors, this seemed like a great time to look seriously at best practices with emphasis on sustaining donations,” said Joe Campbell, v.p. of fundraising programming.