Public Stations Are Finding Their Pledge Drive Contributions Are Up

With the country beset by recession, layoffs and mortgage woes, officials at Washington public radio station WAMU-FM have been understandably nervous about their on-air fundraisers over the past year. As each pledge drive approached, the same question loomed: Would listeners continue to heed the station's plea for dollars?

The answer, it turns out, has been surprising. Each of the station's past three quarterly drives has set records, including the most recent one in May. Four months into its new fiscal year, donations are 50 percent higher than at the same time last year, and membership -- public broadcasting-speak for people who contribute -- is up 53 percent. "We're getting astounding numbers," says Walt Gillette, WAMU's head of fundraising.

WAMU's numbers are at the sunny end of the spectrum, but things are looking up elsewhere in the Land of Pledge Drives. As money from government and corporate sources has shriveled, struggling public stations have found that the public is willing to step up. Stations across the country say contributions from viewers and listeners have held steady, and in some cases have been rising in defiance of the worst recession in decades.

In June, Maryland Public Television, the Baltimore area broadcaster that reaches the Washington area, raised $667,000, a 3 percent increase over the year before. "Given everything that's going on, we thought that was pretty solid," says MPT Vice President Joe Krushinsky. Arlington-based WETA says annual giving was off 11 percent overall, mainly because of weakness at its TV station; contributions to its radio station alone rose about 2 percent.

Membership revenues at Colorado Public Radio rose 15 percent in the fiscal year that closed in June, says Max Wysick, the president of the 12-station organization. KPBS of San Diego, which operates a radio and TV station, has attracted a record number of donations over $1,200 this year, according to Associate General Manager Stephanie Bergsma. Last week, the station landed a $2.5 million gift from Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs and his wife, Joan.

"Having been in this industry for 30 years, my gut tells me that people really value public broadcasting and its place in the community," says Helen Kennedy, whose company, Lewis Kennedy Associates, consults with public broadcasters on fundraising. "They're passionate." Speaking anecdotally, because comprehensive data aren't available, she says, "When they can afford it, people give, even if they can only afford to give a little less."

But public support hasn't grown fast enough to offset declining revenue elsewhere. Public stations rely on a patchwork of financial sources -- individual donations, state and federal tax money, foundation grants, corporate advertising -- and many of these sources have been squeezed.

Many stations have seen steep declines in sponsorship revenue, as companies cut back on their "this program made possible by" messages. At the same time, stations that rely on state subsidies are worried about deficit-riddled government budgets. Public stations in Pennsylvania, for instance, are facing the potential loss of all state funds in Gov. Ed Rendell's latest budget proposal.

The result across the public broadcasting system has been layoffs, furloughs, pay cuts and other belt-tightening measures. A small sample: In February, WETA eliminated 13 percent of its staff and cut management salaries by a similar amount. PBS, also based in Arlington, said in June that it would eliminate 45 positions, or about 10 percent of its workforce, to close a projected $3.4 million deficit.

But individual contributions have helped avert widespread calamity. When the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- the entity that distributes federal tax dollars to stations -- began taking applications for emergency financial aid this summer, it got only two requests. Both came from stations in Illinois whose financial problems predated the recession.

"From everything I know anecdotally, and I speak constantly to the stations, individual giving has held up," says Doug Eichten, the president of Development Exchange, a nonprofit organization that advises public radio stations on fundraising and marketing. "People are extremely loyal. I've worked in other industries and I haven't seen loyalty like this."

Kennedy suggests that public broadcasting, particularly public radio, has benefited from the decline in other news sources, particularly local newspapers and radio.

But others suggest that public broadcasters are simply getting smarter about raising money. In acknowledgment of the recession, many stations have sought smaller donations, calculating that more smaller contributors will compensate for the loss of big-money contributors.

WBEZ in Chicago -- the home station of "This American Life" and "Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!" -- began a campaign in May in which it solicited contributions as small as $20. Other stations are introducing "sustainer" memberships, in which a station automatically withdraws as little as $5 a month from a contributor's bank account, says Barbara Appleby, NPR's director of new-media strategies.

At WAMU, Gillette says the on-air script began to change with the station's February fundraiser. "Perhaps you can't give as generously as you have in the past, but your continuing support is vital," read one line. Says Gillette, "We tried to be respectful of people who were in financial pain and maybe couldn't give as much. Our hope is that as the economy recovers, those people will remember how nice we were and not forget us the next time."