An effort was made to eliminate fed funding during Trump years. It failed.
Most of the NPR stations’ budget comes from individual donations and corporate giving. For the latter, there was once (2008) a list of companies who somehow donated to NPR—movie studios, cereal makers, car companies—even “Fox Broadcasting”. Tax writeoff. (One company, GE, had sponsored the Marketplace show and the theme song at one point wove in the “we bring good things to life” section. Non commercial, my butt.)
Radio stations take advantage of being NCE: Non Commercial Educational. “Listeners Like You” (not me) donate, though lately that has been lagging as people are expecting to get all that for free. Religious networks/stations like “K-Love” do the same thing. A bunch of people may donate, say, $35/month. No advertising needed to keep it alive being NCE.
Boston.com: “WBUR facing ‘tough choices,’ possible staffing cuts amid ‘dramatic’ loss of money
Business for the radio station has “never been harder,” the Boston-based news station’s CEO wrote in an email to members Wednesday.”
The station has lost close to half of its on-air sponsorship income in the last five years and is asking for help to avoid joining the legion of news organizations that have been bought out or faced layoffs in recent months.
Article also says:
>> Philanthropists contributed $500 million to support local news in 2023, according to the Northwestern report
Joan Kroc of McDonalds gave a bunch of money to NPR/PBS, I believe. I’m NOT lovin’ it.