Sample Messaging Around Federal Funding

This sample messaging is designed to provide your organization with a versatile framework for communicating the significance and impact of federal funding on local public media. It highlights the essential role that community-based storytelling and fact-driven journalism play in fostering understanding and connection. Feel free to adapt these messages to best suit your unique voice and the specific needs of your audience.

A Local Promise

At a time when there seems to be so much uncertainty in the world and right here at home, I’m writing today with a simple pledge:

[station] is here to help you make sense of it all.

While you may know us best for your favorite public [television/radio] programs, our mission goes well beyond what you [see/hear] when you [watch/listen] or binge that must-[see/listen] [series/podcast]

We connect you, and every neighbor across the region, with ideas, events and each other. With our local storytelling and fact-based journalism, we help make our community more understanding, and our world more understandable.

How can we do it?

Because we’re local. We live right here, in the same neighborhoods. We shop at the same stores, visit the same museums and eat at the same restaurants. We share your sense of place as well as your hopes and concerns for our region.

We’re committed to telling your stories, bringing families and neighbors together at our community events, providing resources to local schools and delivering fiercely

independent, unflinching journalism that respects your intelligence, treats you like a curious neighbor and shines a light on the issues of the day.

And if the unimaginable happens, we’ll be there for you then too, delivering vital information and connection to local resources during emergencies that help keep you safe and informed.

It’s not just us: hundreds of local public media outlets around the nation serve their communities in much the same way: bringing the unique perspective that only comes from being part of a community and allowing them to become the region’s storyteller, documenter and champion.

How do we pay for it?

And in an age of paid subscriptions, restricted access and paywalls, public media remains free and accessible to all.

How?

In part, it’s the $1.60 per American taxpayer we receive in federal funding. You read that right: $1.60. That funding works alongside other revenues raised by local stations, including gifts from foundations, sponsors and donations from generous donors like you.

Quite simply, this model is one of the most successful public/private partnerships in the nation.

And while $1.60 may not seem like much, the impact that $1.60 has in communities across the country, especially in rural areas, is truly remarkable.

A very real threat to federal funding

Chances are you’ve seen the recent headlines: the new administration in Washington has put the future of federal funding for public media in question.

In interviews, social media posts and bills introduced in Congress, it’s clear some in Washington want to see federal funding, and perhaps even public media itself, eliminated.

I know you feel differently.

And make no mistake, federal funding is crucial to the health of local public media stations and public media as we know it. In fact, rural stations can rely on federal funding for up to

30% of their budget and its elimination would have a devastating impact on the communities that rely on public media most.

How can you help?

First, make sure to keep your annual support active and up to date – we’ll need the support of every donor as we navigate these waters. Second, [scan the QR code/use this link] to add your name to the list of neighbors telling our legislators “local public media is important to me and my community!” It’ll take just 15 seconds of your time and make a world of difference.

Thank you for reading this far and for your ongoing support – we’ll be sure to keep you updated on the federal funding issue and of course, keep the programs and services coming your way through it all!