Three Things for October 21, 2021
This week: Don't cash the check yet, but there was some good news in DC this week. Also, big gifts in smaller markets, plus Nielsen's Audio Consumer Sentiment Survey.
THING ONE: The Magic Number is $565,000,000
There are still several steps to get to the finish line, but a giant leap forward occurred this week in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with Sen. Patty Murray’s recommendation of $565 million for Fiscal Year 2024. Sen. Murray is the chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, so her recommendation is a big deal on the road to what could be a 19-percent increase in CPB’s annual federal appropriation. CPB’s advance funding for FY 2023 was approved by Congress late last year at $475 million.
Murray is also recommending level funding of $20 million for interconnection and $30 million for public TV’s Ready To Learn program.
According to published reports, the recommendation will likely serve as the basis for negotiation with the House of Representatives on the final appropriations bills. Since the House has already approved the same $565 million for CPB, there is a strong likelihood that this could be the final number.
A $90 million increase in the CPB appropriation has the potential to be transformational for the system at a time when significant investments are needed to spur efforts to expand our services to underserved audiences and further invest in digital infrastructure while sustaining stations of all sizes across the country.
This would mean approximately $20 million in additional federal funds going to public radio, most of which would go directly to stations.
A more interesting conversation is that this increased appropriation would mean a $6 million increase in System Support Funds. CPB’s System Support Fund is a mixed bag of investments that includes music copyright fees, collaborative initiatives in journalism and education, training, research, numerous other projects, and half the costs of operating the interconnection system for public television.
Here’s one idea that might be worth exploring for some of these additional funds.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about a report from McKinsey & Company that discussed key priorities for the next normal based on conversations with global executives as they seek to navigate the future. At the top of the list was to center your corporate strategy on sustainability.
As I discussed in the post, this rarely comes up in strategic discussions in public media. However, there is no doubt that we are facing a global climate crisis, and public media, as an industry, should be working to create an agenda around innovation and best practices for organizations, both large and small, to reduce their carbon emissions. CPB could help move these changes along by adding provisions in the Community Service Grant program that organizations adopt requirements demonstrating that they are working to address and implement processes and policies as part of this initiative.
Perhaps this model from McKinsey could serve as a guide for developing a system-wide effort in public media to address the climate crisis.
In addition, adding journalism and educational efforts specifically around sustainability issues could leverage additional outside funding to support our mission and this initiative. For example, Axios reported earlier this week that James and Kathryn Murdoch are nearing a deal to make a multi-million dollar investment to support the formation of a new climate reporting hub at The Associated Press.
What investments would you suggest with an additional $6 million annually in System Support Funds?
I have some further ideas, but I would love to hear your thoughts. So leave a comment, and let’s brainstorm.
THING TWO: Smaller Markets Thinking Major Gifts
About a year ago, news crept out of Idaho that Boise State Public Radio was the recipient of a $1.1 million gift from the estate of Charles and Lorraine Childers.
The story of the Childers is not an unusual one for many estate gifts. According to the station, the Childers donated about $500 during their lifetime so that you wouldn’t classify them as major donors. Mr. Childers was an engineer who grew up on a farm in Idaho and spent his career working for Idaho Power. Mrs. Childers was from South Dakota and worked as a nurse. They had no children.
The Childers could be a case study of wealth described in Thomas Stanley’s 1998 book The Millionaire Next Door. The feature about the gift on the BSPR website noted that Mr. Childers was a conservative spender and a savvy investor. The donation led to the creation of the station’s Endowment for Local News.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, KUAR/KLRE in Little Rock announced that it had received an anonymous gift of $1.5 million to the stations, which is operated by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Nathan Vandiver, KUAR’s General Manager, said that the donation would go into an endowment expected to generate around $60,000 a year in revenue, which is about 4% of the station’s overall budget.
These two examples of philanthropy (and I’m sure there are others), separated by about a year, demonstrate the potential for transformational gifts to support our mission. What’s important is that these two stations are not major market stations1, which should inspire smaller stations across the public radio system that seven-figure gifts are not just for major markets.
The fact that these gifts are going into endowments also speaks to the confidence of station leadership and the donors that these organizations will be around for the long haul.
The gift to BSPR also demonstrates the power and potential that an effective planned giving program can have on an organization2. Last month, the folks at FreeWill shared its 2021 Planned Giving Report, where they analyzed estate plans and charitable bequests made through its platform from June 2020 through May 20213.
Among the highlights from the analysis were that 19% of wills and trusts made on FreeWill during the 12-month period included a gift to charity. This is an increase from 13% over the prior period. In addition, the average value of a charitable bequest given by a will-maker on FreeWill is more than $41,000.
This year-over-year increase is important as it suggests that Americans are becoming more comfortable with the idea of legacy giving. Something we don’t often think about as we go about our daily work is that legacy gifts are almost always the biggest gift a donor will make and provide nonprofits with the funding that helps secure their future. Look at the examples in Boise and Little Rock if you need further proof.
We also will often think that estate gifts only come from the wealthiest individuals. However, the FreeWill research suggests that charitable giving will occur regardless of the estate size, with 18% of people with estates valued under $100,000 still choosing to make a charitable bequest.
And the public radio audience is right in the sweet spot of people likely to make a will or trust.
Plus, while only 15% of adults between 65 to 84 included a charitable bequest, they made up more than a third of the total value of all bequests committed to charity on the FreeWill platform. The largest percentage share of all bequest dollars committed was from adults 45-64. This shouldn’t be a surprise since most Americans accumulate more wealth as they age and their estate size increases.
A few other quick hits from the study:
Gifts from single, non-parent will-makers were worth twice as much as gifts from will-makers with children. And despite only making up 17% of all estate plans completed on the FreeWill platform, this group gave nearly 50% of all bequest dollars committed to charity. The Childers gift to BSPR reflects this information.
58% of the wills and trusts written on the FreeWill platform were from women.
Women without children are the best prospects for legacy giving programs. While all will-makers without children are more likely to include charitable bequests in their estate plans (28%) than parents (15%), 31% of female will-makers who are not parents choose to make legacy gifts.
The top states for estate plans were Florida4, Georgia, Colorado, Washington, and South Carolina.
And, finally, the most generous location was not a state but rather the nation’s capital, Washington, DC. More than 30% of estate plans made by individuals living in DC included a gift to charity. The rest of the top five are New Mexico, Hawaii, Vermont, and Montana.
This week (October 18 - 24) is also National Estate Planning Awareness Week so it’s a good time for public media leaders to discuss the strategies to increase outreach and engagement with donors and financial planners about the opportunities for an estate gift to your station.
Here’s the full presentation if you’re interested in learning more about the FreeWill research.
THING THREE: Nielsen’s Consumer Sentiment Survey and Public Radio Listening Trends
Since the onset of the pandemic, Nielsen Audio has been conducting ongoing consumer sentiment research studying the impact of COVID on the daily lives of Americans. The latest research, its seventh such study, was revealed last week and offered some positive news for radio.
Among the findings from the research conducted in September 2021 was an increase in average quarter-hour listening to radio of 4% year over year, with radio reaching 121.5 million people in PPM markets during an average week last month. Also, the report says that 70% of working Americans now work outside the home. This is key for radio since so much listening takes place on the commute to and from work.
This chart from the Radio Research Consortium confirms the trend with a continued increase in out-of-home listening to radio. We haven’t yet returned to pre-COVID levels (Winter 2020), but the trend is heading in the right direction. However, overall listening during the Summer 2021, as measured in market total average quarter-hour listening, is still lagging well behind the Winter 2020 by nearly 20-percent.
The general trend for public radio listening during 2021 is a mixed bag.
Most public radio news stations’ market share peaked in January of this year, driven by the news cycle (January 6, Biden Inaugeruation, etc.). However, as radio listening returned to closer to pre-COVID levels as the year progressed, we see some leveling off in market share for stations.
This sampling of PPM market news stations over the course of three monthly surveys from this year (January, May, and September) is a sampling for the overall trendline that we’re seeing for news stations in PPM markets. The decline in share for several stations is pretty significant. For example, WAMU dropped from a remarkable 13.4 share in January to a 7.4 share in September, and KOPB, while still holding on to the top ranking in Portland, declined from 12 share in January to an 8.1 in September.
A couple of stations in our sample (KPBS, WUSF, KCUR, and WOSU) have maintained a relatively consistent share throughout the year. These stations may be worth looking at the reasons why they are outperforming most other stations.
Meanwhile, a sampling of PPM market classical music stations shows a much more consistent trend across these three months of 2021. WQXR in New York and KDFC in San Francisco stands out with a larger share in September than January.
I’ll break out the trends for some selected AAA and Jazz stations next week, as well as look at the RRC analysis of weekday audience flow comparing the Summer 2020 with the Summer 2021.
One last but very important “thing.”
Today marks the birthday of Kathi, my wife of 33 years. She is a remarkable woman who brings light and love in whatever she does and wherever she goes.
Thanks for reading.
Little Rock is the 90th ranked Nielsen Audio market, and Boise is the 92nd.
Since the gift to KUAR was anonymous, we don’t know if it was an estate gift.
Between June 2020 and May 2021, FreeWill users completed more than 157,000 free legal wills and trusts or documented their wishes to be taken to an attorney.
This is no surprise given the age demographics of the state.