As of 3:28 pm on Wednesday: we’ve received $17,186 from 322 of you.
The Boston Globe wrote about our fundraising adventure today.
A number of you have asked what our goal is. As Chris said in the article, it’s to get through the summer and solidify our foundation. Two months’ worth of our lost UMASS support — about $72,000 — would help enormously.
You’ve already helped enormously by contributing and spreading the word and we’ve got some promising funding leads as a result.
Keep those cards and letters coming in, or make your tax-deductible contribution here:
That’s Nubar Alexanian’s photo of Chris! That worried reluctant smile foretold the financial battle. Again, the article has the show’s beginning in 2006. It was more like spring 2005.
Thanks for posting what seems like a do-able goal.
Screw the mortgage company. I just dropped $25 in the kitty.
Still another $75 if you can queue up Hitchens and Ferguson. I’ll give you $50 for Rove vs Gingrich.
BTW, what’s the deal with the podcasts? I subscribe through iTunes and haven’t gotten anything since “Passion: Libraries” (ugh).
Mary, I’m wondering, do you take funding from any and all sources, for example companies such as IKEA, Wal-mart, Home Depot, etc.? Or is this strictly against public radio policy?
Sidewalker, the market for national underwriting in public radio has always been kinda sketchy. It’s hard to get a company to commit big, national-level bucks unless you’re broadcasting at prime times in all ten of the top markets, and even then it’s not easy. Getting underwriters is really just good salesmanship and good salesmanship is all about making a personal connection…that’s best achieved at the local level.
Unfortunately, of course, ROS is in stiff competition for local underwriting dollars between WGBH, WBUR and WUMB. Not to say it can’t be done, but it’s hard to do “part time” and I imagine ROS can’t afford to hire a fulltime underwriting person. I imagine the primary focus now is on grant writing, which is a little easier to do “part time” and has greater potential payoff at the moment. Especially since ROS is on the cutting edge of public radio; grant givers always like cutting edge stuff. As long as it’s guaranteed to work! (yes, that’s irony)
I have a suggestion for raising funds, although it may or may not be viable: charge for the podcast. There are services out there that let you sell subscriptions to a podcast…granted they aren’t perfect, but with luck you’ll get enough subscribers to start generating a steady source of revenue.
BTW, I’m not just talking about , which has – IMHO – the worst customer service on the planet. I’ve also stumbled across ClickCaster.com which takes a hefty 50% cut of sales but is fantastically easy to set up and easy for end-users to use.
Oops…I must’ve screwed up my HTML above. I meant to say that Audible’s Wordcast has terrible customer service.
Paul Massari: I’m working on the iTunes glitch right now!
I would pay .99 for a program say on itunes but many would not bother and that may be counterproductive. Maybe I should count up the programs that I have downloaded and send you the money directly ongoing. That might appeal- sort of like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC . They say “suggested donation” so you can walk through w/o paying and some do to test it. (In the meantime the suggestion amount keeps rising). That would keep it informal and private so those that cannot afford are okay.
Though I would not like to see advertising on this site, I wonder if that would help. I know it junks up the page but I wonder if you could consider non-blaring tasteful ads.
We have strong connections to a locally based international company ( as you know Mary, Chris) but they are very hard to soften about sponsoring or underwriting something like this. I notice that they do give some miserly ( relatively speaking) sum to the local PBS station ( could it be…..?). My understanding is that it’s all about sales. Goodwill is not in the equation-very sorry to say- even though the product itself is a totally great match for this show. Rush Limbaugh sold and perhaps still sells the product to my everlasting disgust. (I once had the assignment of listening to Limbaugh for two weeks to get a feel for it. Wretch.)
Anything beyond bottom line is worse than pulling teeth at least for one here.
For as long as I’ve been listening, I’ve never made a comment. I’m happy to make my first comment to let y’all know I just made a donation. I’d do just about anything to keep Open Source on the air, and I epxect there’s other like me, so keep us posted!!!
I’m a long time listener of the podcast, although a relatively infrequent commentor. Is there any way to set up some sort of monthly sponsors program? I made a donation already, but I would be happy to contribute some small amount every month in addition, if that would help. I bet others would as well.
Thanks! for answering my question Webcastboy.