Multiple Organizations Team Up To Fund Public Radio.

In the wake of Congress’ vote to rescind $1.1 billion in previously approved public media funding, several philanthropic groups have banded together to provide nearly $27 million to public stations most in need, with the hope of raising more funds to hit the $50 million mark this year.

The Knight Foundation, which regularly supports hundreds of nonprofit news organizations, has committed $10 million to the Public Media Bridge Fund, joined by the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Schmidt Family Foundation, Pivotal Ventures, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The goal is to get this money to public radio and TV stations that have regularly received more than 30% of their funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has announced it will shut down later this year due to the elimination of funding. These stations, many of which have already begun to lay off staff in anticipation of these cuts, tend to be located in rural areas without access to alternate sources of news and information.

“We believe it’s crucial to have a concerted, coordinated effort to make sure that the stations that most critically need these funds right now have a pathway to get them,” Knight Foundation President and CEO Maribel Pérez Wadsworth tells The New York Times. Wadsworth has urged these foundations to “move philanthropy at the speed of news.”

The effort to keep these stations afloat in the event of cancelled funding began shortly after President Trump's election, when Tim Isgitt, head of the consulting firm Public Media Company, began working with Erik Langner, chief executive of the nonprofit Information Equity Initiative. After meeting with the CEOs of PBS and NPR, Isgitt addressed a group of philanthropists just before the House vote, laying out what losing federal funding would mean for public media: a shutdown of an estimated 115 local stations, that could lead to fewer dollars for public radio and TV programming, which may eventually cause additional local stations to close.

Following the vote to rescind, Wadsworth contacted Isgitt to discuss how philanthropists could work together to help stations, followed by meetings with these other foundations. “I wanted them to understand what was at stake,” she says.

The fund, administered by Isgitt's Public Media Company with Langner acting as Executive Director, will solicit applications from stations, giving priority to those that have received much of their funding from CPB, and which are among the only sources of information in their communities.

Both Isgitt and Wadsworth caution that long-term, this effort cannot substitute for the federal funding public stations had regularly received, with Isgitt noting nearly $100 million would be needed over the next two years to avoid widespread closures, which could lead to stations being sold to owners who would eliminate local news and emergency services. “We’ll do the best we can with the resources available to us to secure as much local service as possible,” he says, “but if we aren’t able to raise the money, we can’t fill all the gaps.”