When the Sirens Fade
Saving the infrastructure behind public media—before the alarms stop working
The cries for help from public media stations over the weekend were rapid and loud. That’s no surprise, given the suddenness of the cutoff.
But even within the audible distress signals, the messages were mixed.
Some zeroed in on the math, framing the impact of losing CPB support in precise terms:
WXPN, a public music station in Philadelphia, told its audience:
“WXPN will need to raise an additional $1 Million per year to offset the loss of funds and services previously covered by the CPB.”
WITF, a radio, television, and digital news organization in central Pennsylvania, said:
“With this immediate federal funding loss, WITF now faces a $1.3 million revenue gap, representing 8% of our overall budget.”
Others were grateful for the status quo. As The Seattle Times reported, one station sent an emergency appeal to supporters Friday morning, then raised “nearly $1.5 million by Friday afternoon, thanks to a matching gift.”
Good job, public radio.
But what’s next, when the story passes? And what exactly are we trying to save?
This isn’t just a budget gap. This is the infrastructure that serves our communities.
Much of what the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s grants fund is baseline, non-discretionary. That is to say, these aren’t cuts that can be made or easily re-fundraised. Think music licensing fees—something like 6.5 percent of a station’s budget on average, by my math, and a literal operating requirement for a music station like WXPN. Or EAS maintenance—the Emergency Alert System public safety network that is often locally staffed by small stations, especially in rural communities.
The immediate outpouring of support is welcome and important, but it only solves the symptom.
The crisis fundraising trap
Crisis fundraising is a mixed bag. The adrenaline is electrifying, and the cause unifying. But it’s also volatile, unsustainable, and emotionally exhausting for everyone involved.
A fundraising blog called The Modern Nonprofit, published by fundraising software company Flipcause, puts it this way:
“…the real challenge begins when the initial urgency subsides, and public attention shifts away. The key to long-term sustainability lies not just in acquiring these emergency donors but in retaining them as ongoing supporters of our mission.”
Bingo.
This is not a unique challenge to public media, either.
Chris Maddocks, now senior vice president at consulting firm Blue State, wrote about this phenomenon for The Chronicle of Philanthropy back in 2023, drawing on his consulting work with global humanitarian organizations.
Citing data from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, Maddocks laid out the hard truth of short-term disaster donor acquisition:
“In subsequent years only about 8 percent of those donors continue to give to that organization.”
Maddocks did not counsel his clients to end rapid-response fundraising. But he provided context and a warning:
“Rapid-response appeals aren’t good philanthropy. Yes, the outpouring of support and empathy is noteworthy… And yes, fundraising appeals can meet immediate needs.”
But what next?
Public media is now asking the same question.
Disaster giving is not a strategy—and that’s the real challenge now. The more we double down on a “save us” fundraising hailstorm, the more we condition audiences to only hear and respond to alarm bells.
It can work once. Maybe twice. But eventually the bell stops working.
The inverse of the short-term bump is a problem, too. The business of crisis fundraising is raising a lot of money from a lot of people really, really quickly. Those numbers can create bloated expectations for future budgets that dig even deeper holes next time the follow-up campaign doesn’t trigger another news cycle spike.
The work starts when the sirens fade
If the alarm gets people in the door, the task is to give them a reason to stay.
The window for a reset is narrow, and public media leaders should take it. As we come out of this first stage of high anxiety and low control, the effort has to move past simply feeling thankful and into new, tangible visioning.
Instead of only plugging holes, stations can:
🔹 Name it: a “Sustainability Fund.”
Plugging a budget hole is not the point. The point is building a new, more independent future. Reframe the donor from a well-intentioned rescuer into a founder—and invite them into a long-term vision.
🔹 Build a branded monthly giving program
Don’t just ask for recurring gifts—make a community.
Detroit Justice Center’s Freedom Dream Sustainers program is a great example. Their roughly 400 sustaining supporters make regular commitments to keep DJC’s work moving—not just in crisis moments, but every month of the year. In return, they receive clear value and connection: live podcast recordings and trainings to attend, bi-monthly impact updates and action alerts, early access to volunteer opportunities, and the sense of belonging in a community mission.
That kind of branded giving moves donors from participants to founders—and funders into partners.
Public media stations could adopt a version of the model—something like “Behind-the-Scenes Crew” or “Sustaining Soundwaves”—to deepen engagement, build trust, and lay the groundwork for longer-term support.
🔹 Report back—and report back specifically
Send a thank you within 48 hours. Then a few weeks later, send a follow-up that explicitly says:
“Your gift kept the emergency alert system online.”
“Thanks to you, we secured the music rights for the next six months.”
A non-discretionary ask is a lousy membership driver. But you’ve now built trust in your new donor base that it is possible to show concrete results from their support—and this is the first step in re-building the trust needed for the next, non-disaster ask.
A lot of folks in public media were telling me on Friday, when this all went down, that if emergency alert systems actually shut down, the crisis would feel like it had ended—not because it was fixed, but because the system was gone.
No siren, no signal. Just silence.
Treated like a lifeboat, this spike will disappear as quickly as the crisis that created it. But if it’s treated as a reset button, then just maybe we can start building something more permanent than the sirens.
Have you seen creative approaches to public media sustainability or crisis fundraising? I’d love to hear them. Drop a comment.