KPR fall membership drive falls short of $250,000 goal
LAWRENCE – More than 2,000 people helped Kansas Public Radio raise $226,000 during their fall membership drive. However, KPR fell short of its $250,000 goal.
After eight days of on-air fund raising, KPR ended its fall membership drive with $226,207 in pledges. At 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, KPR wrapped up Fall Fanfare 2015 with pledges from 2,001 listener-members.
The membership drive began Oct.13 with more than $89,000 raised through a direct-mail campaign. Eight fundraising days later, more than $137,000 was raised on-air by pledges from new and renewing members.
“We faced many obstacles in this drive,” said Feloniz Lovato-Winston, KPR development director. “There was beautiful weather, the Royals played several day games while we were fundraising, and there was a lot more competition for listeners’ attention. We’ll look for alternative ways to make up the shortfall.”
All tax-deductible donations during spring and fall membership drives directly support KPR’s local and national programming.
The overall total does not include challenge grants, in which a company, foundation or individual will donate money if KPR can raise a certain level of funding during a specific time period. More than $42,000 was raised through challenge grants.
In each hour, KPR interrupts programming for about 10-15 minutes to ask for donations. Regular programming resumes for the rest of the hour. The membership drive featured a “Power Breakfast” on Oct. 13 when an entire day’s fundraising was compressed into 90 minutes. That raised more than $26,000.
Even though the on-air portion of the drive is over, listeners can donate anytime at the KPR website.
More than 100 volunteers answered phones from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. during the drive. Area restaurants donated meals and beverages for volunteers’ breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks.
KPR, a 15-time Kansas Association of Broadcasters Station of the Year, licensed to KU, broadcasts on 91.5 FM in Lawrence, 89.7 FM in Emporia, 91.3 FM in Olsburg-Junction City, 89.9 FM in Atchison, 90.3 FM in Chanute, and 99.5 FM and 97.9 FM in Manhattan. KPR can be heard online at http://kpr.ku.edu. KPR also operates KPR2, a news-talk programming stream, which can be heard on an HD receiver or on KPR’s website.